GOP Aims at Being Reasonable(The Liberals, The Media Define What's "Reasonable")

RUSH: ...What I'm really focusing on here is that we have to understand we face a crossroads in the country. There are a lot of people who think we are on our last legs as a representative republic and that there has never been a greater opportunity than right now to contrast conservatism and what really works and what's gonna roll back this government and make it smaller and less intrusive. And we don't need to play around with RINOs and just get the Republicans in power, 'cause look where that got us in 2006.

You need conservatives, people genuinely interested in saving the future of the country and reversing some of this outrageous Obamaism that has been implemented. I fear that the RINO Republicans aren't cut out for it; they're not interested in it; they don't want to do that kind of heavy lifting, and they, frankly, don't agree that we're in that big a problem or face that big a challenge. They're more oriented toward getting their power back for the sake of having their power. So that's where the dividing line here really is.

A lot of people are saying, "Okay, if you have 51 seats in the Senate, but a vast majority of the people that get us to 51 are like Mike Castle, we really do not have a conservative majority, and why have a bunch of Susan Collinses and Olympia Snowes?" It's no different than that. What good are they nine times out of ten for conservatism, and especially at this juncture where it's nut-cracking time, as they say.

If we conservatives had been as successful in a year and a half in advancing our agenda as this guy has been, we'd be having parties. Look at what this guy's done in a year and a half, folks. Nationalizing all these industries and companies, destroying the health care system in a year and a half! Imagine what's going to happen if there's not any break, somebody's not able to stop this, imagine what four years of this is gonna look like. That's why there are people thinking on a scale of one to ten, ten being country finished, we're at eight. So politics as usual, Republican Party politics out the door.

The traditional standard RINO Republicanism is not going to stop the direction we're headed. We need people who are gonna stop this who will be consistently voting and supporting efforts to stop this. It has to be stopped, not compromised with, plain and simple. It's not just the usual days where, okay, it's a Democrat in the White House now for four, eight years, but we'll get it back, let's just trade power here and get along as best we can.

We've never faced this radical a president. I don't even think Woodrow Wilson or FDR, may be close but certainly not in my lifetime have we ever faced anything this radical. And there's no indication it's gonna improve. There's no indication this administration thinks anything they're doing is wrong. I mean look at the numbers out today. We're going to have record poverty reported in this country, a record poverty rate. And the AP, oh, just a shame that this is happening during Obama's second year.

I mean Plouffe and Axelrod on the Sunday shows, saying we're headed in the right direction, that my God, we'd be in even worse shape if it hadn't been for them, that if Republican policies hadn't changed, my gosh. It's the exact opposite.

So what you're faced with out there, what we're faced with is millions and millions of Americans who are not looking at the Republican Party first. They're looking at policy first, conservatism, stopping this, people that are interested once again in their children and grandchildren having a future that does not include rampant high taxation, indebtedness, and an ongoing, increasing erosion of freedom and liberty. It's serious. And some of them think the Republicans don't see it that bad.

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, if I may, let me cut through all the noise and make the complex understandable. It's very simple. Republican chairmanships are not going to roll back Obamaism. Conservatism is. The only thing that's going to roll this back, the only thing that's going to ever have a prayer of repealing health care is not Republican chairmanships. It's not Republican majorities. It is conservatives.

There is a conservative ascendancy. It is outrageous that it is being fought within the Republican Party. I can understand the Democrats not wanting it to happen, but inside the Republican Party it's outrageous for this to be going on. But it is. We need wild-eyed conservatives to roll this back! The same old Republican Party just won't do it. There are too many of them too eager to put a Republican stamp on Obama's agenda.

It's the power! They think that there is something to be gained by getting along, something to be gained by showing cooperation. Those days are long gone.

According to the Gallup poll, there is only one thing Obama has passed that people approve of, and that's financial reform and that's only because they don't know what's in it yet. Congress hasn't done one thing that a majority of Americans approve of. Not one thing. And not even the Republican Party is listening to this.

The Republican Party is still more concerned with making sure that the old elders are rewarded and the old war horses are rewarded, regardless of their ideology or policy points of view. I mean, that's party politics. It is what it is. There's really nothing new about that. These are just different times.

The American public is fed up. They want to draw a line in the sand. This Ground Zero mosque shows that. The rejection of Republican-designated candidates shows that. It's patently obvious, and of course the Republican powerbroker structure is fighting it. And that's what people don't understand. Why would they?

Because for the longest time people have thought that Republican equaled conservative, and it's not the case.

At this dinner party I was telling you about on Saturday night, somebody brought up the fact that Wall Street people, everybody thinks of them as rock-ribbed, big business Republicans. They're the evil rich and so forth. How come they all supported Obama? And one of the guests said, "That's very simple. Their wives have them henpecked. Their wives are making 'em do it."

And I said, "You know, you have a point. That's why they're anti-pro-lifers, because of their wives. All these Northeastern liberal Republicans, they don't want to hear their wives complaining about the Southerners and the pro-lifers and so forth and they don't want to go to the conventions with these people." So a lot of forces are being marshaled here.

But standard, run-of-the-mill, everyday Republicans are not gonna roll this stuff back. They don't have the desire to. They want to roll the sleeves up and do it. It's just the latest evolution of where the country is going. "Let's manage it the best we can." That's their point of view. "We'll fight it on the margins." It's a tipping point and it's also illustrative of "ruling class" versus, as Mr. Codevilla calls us, "the country class." And there's less and less tolerance now.

The days where the ruling class was thought to be best and brightest and smarter than everybody else, those days are over. The average American doesn't think that anymore. It used to be, but they don't.

RUSH: Eric in Charlotte, North Carolina. It's great to have you, sir, on the EIB Network. Hi.

CALLER: Thanks, Rush. Hey, I'll drop the name of Tara Servatius to you. She's a great talk show host down here in Charlotte. I suggested Jason Lewis years ago; you put him on. You need a lady on, and we got a wonderful lady down here in Charlotte who I think you'd love you if you ever got a chance to listen to her. But I wanted to drop a word here on my frustration as I'm sure many other conservatives have with the current crop of Republican leaderships here and their thrust.

Newt Gingrich was a visionary. He gave us the Contract with America. He's just an ideologue. I hope he runs for president. I just love his ideas. He may have some problems there with, of course, his marriage issues. But I think he can overcome that if he's really put forward. But the problem is these guys aren't visionaries. I wonder if there's someone other than Boehner that you like. I like Eric Cantor, I like Mike Pence, Thad McCotter and so on, but... You know, Boehner is great -- he knows a lot, he's good -- but there's some inspiration that he just doesn't bring. He needs to at least put forth some sort of thing to inspire this election.

This is a golden opportunity that we're missing. Even though it looks like we may get the majority the problem is that, you know, it could be even bigger if there's some sort of vision, just like the Contract with America. Something with the title of "retaking" or "taking back" America or maybe even "get rid of Obamacare," something to that effect, if you know what I'm trying to say.

RUSH: Well, there are a lot of people who think that the Republicans ought to be offering more of policy-oriented agenda to have a mandate, that it's not enough just to say, "I'm not a Democrat." Although it is. (chuckles) See, that's the scenario. You don't have to do any more than that to win, and if they don't have to, they won't. They're not going to take a risk at offending anybody.

This is the thing that bothers a lot of us, and that is they still walk into a room thinking they have to prove they're not racist, sexist, bigot, homophobe. Everybody thinks this, they believe it, and so they think they have to first prove that they're reasonable. And I'll tell you, that is one of the big bugaboos that I face. It's one of the things that just really irritates me to no end is this desire to show that I'm reasonable and you aren't.

And you know how it's typified? One of the best examples of this, peace be upon him, is Jack Kemp. In the vice presidential debate with Algore back in 1996, Algore is up there praising Kemp for not being a racist and a bigot like so many in his party are. And Jack Kemp said, "Thank you," rather than excoriate Gore for having that view of Republicans in general. It's 'cause it's easy. It's easy to take the praise, easy to take the compliments, easy to stand out.

So we have people who want to be the most reasonable man in the room while the Democrats are out there trying to portray themselves as the smartest people in the room. And all too often Republicans want to be seen by the media as the most reasonable man in the room. This is another quasi-explanation for why we have so many so-called conservatives in the media who are not conservatives.

They want to be seen as reasonable. They don't want to be seen as wild-eyed and crazy and extreme and radical like some of these conservatives are. They want to be seen as reasonable, and so they write things and they say things. "Oh, I can see that. I can also see it this way. I think if I were doing that..." and of course they're just a bunch of mush. They don't take a stand on anything. They hope they'll be perceived as reasonable, and that's not gonna cut it.

Is it better to appear to be reasonable or determined to produce the best result for the greatest number of people? Obviously it's better to be determined to produce the best result for the greatest number of people. John Boehner said on Face the Nation: "If the only option I have is to vote for those at 250 and below of course I'm going to do that, but I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that we expand the current tax rates for all Americans."

Now, Boehner is doing two things. He's trying to appear reasonable there, but he also knew that he was being set up because if he had come out against tax cuts for the middle class that's what they were setting him up for. They were setting him up. They already had ads ready to run. They just knew that Boehner would say, "If you don't give tax cuts for the rich, I'm not going to be voting for anything," and they couldn't wait to run that ad. But he knew it was coming, and so he went the reasonable route on them. So I give him a pass on it in this instance.

But that is one of the things that they do. And, by the way, "reasonable" according to whose standards? Is it not "reasonable" according to theirs? We let the liberals, the media define what's "reasonable," and then we have people who want to fit into their definition of it...

I edited off the the intro and end so it gets to Rush's points.

Rush could enlighten a whole lot of candidates with this;

"They want to be seen as reasonable, and so they write things and they say things. "Oh, I can see that. I can also see it this way. I think if I were doing that..." and of course they're just a bunch of mush. They don't take a stand on anything. They hope they'll be perceived as reasonable, and that's not gonna cut it. Is it better to appear to be reasonable or determined to produce the best result for the greatest number of people?"

It's a dangling carrot. They say well we just don't have the votes, we need more ~~Conservatives~~ Republicans.

Even here at FR the cry was "we need a majority in the house, the Senate and a Republican President". Well we had it and it got even worse...NEVER AGAIN!

I hope your attitude influences the challenger in my district, because I have yet to see a strong, intellectual argument being used. Sometimes you gotta wonder if they aren’t delving into politics for the prestige

All of the real conservatives just need to embrace “extreme.” LSM uses it over and over to describe anyone who holds to basic American values.

JFK would be “extreme right winger” by today’s standards. Obama will soon be apologizing to Cuba for us not allowing them to obtain nuclear missiles during the Cold War.

“Homophobic” = anyone against gay education of school children and gay marriage.

“Islamophobic” = anyone against Sharia law in the U.S.

“Racist” = anyone against illegal immigrants costing us billions in free benefits, healthcare, and taking millions of jobs from American citizens. Anyone suggesting handouts create a disincentive to work.

“Extreme right winger” = anyone who isn’t a socialist leftist Marxist.

Rush is right! No point in electing RINOs. If we lose, we lose with conservatives. Elect people who have the right guiding principles and re-found the democracy before it collapses into the United Soviet States.

AS usual, Rush is dead on!

We all talk about how the Democrat party has kept blacks “on the plantation” but we need to look in the mirror. The Republican party has taken advantage of conservatives for decades, only to slide slowly to the LEFT.

Damn them! Bipartisanship sucks and establishment rinos suck!

“Moderation in war is imbecility”- Sir John Fisher

“War is politics carried on by other means.”- Clauswitz

Compromise and moderation have brought us to the point where we have nothing left to give away, and the other side has gotten what it wants in every case. Reasonable is overrated.

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