×

Rush Limbaugh

For a better experience,
download and use our app!

The Rush Limbaugh Show Main Menu

Listen to it Button

RUSH: Let’s go to the phones. Let’s go to Lissa in St. Louis. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. Thanks so much. You’ve said it before: Obama is our first true pop culture president. He is nourished, supported, fed by the pop culture of this country. It really is gonna have to be the pop culture that takes him down. So the question —

RUSH: I agree with that, by the way. I agree with that and have tried to make that point. It isn’t gonna be a massive political event like this that does it.

CALLER: Right. You’re absolutely right about that. The question then becomes, “When will pop culture finally get its intelligence insulted?” You know, my intelligence on this guy has been insulted since day one. But when will the likes of Jon Stewart and the writers at SNL — who are also nourished and fed and supported by the pop culture and, I guess, helped create the pop culture — finally not be able to take it? Because when that happens and Obama loses that nourishment, that’s gonna be like kryptonite to him.

RUSH: Let me tell you what’s effervescing right now below the surface.

CALLER: Yes?

RUSH: All of these pop culture entertainment icons — actors and actresses, primarily — are seething over the potential use of force in Syria. You know, they were being told to shut up for the good of Obama “Shut up! Shut up!” But they can’t. Some of them just couldn’t stop it and they were threatening to break out. Now, because of what’s happened, there isn’t gonna be any US military action in Syria, and so there’s gonna be no reason for them to come out and oppose Obama for doing that. So that is something that you might have had hopes that would happen — i.e., the left anti-war Hollywood crowd finally rising up against Obama. It isn’t gonna happen because there isn’t gonna be a military strike.

CALLER: Yeah, well, this is so badly bungled. You talked about SNL at the beginning of this show. The script is written for the skit. You don’t even have to write it.

RUSH: Lissa, hang on. I want to get a break here. I know you’re not through so I want to continue this when we get back.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Okay. We are back with Lissa in St. Louis. I interrupted a point that you were makings, and I knew you were on a roll or making a point about the pop culture and Saturday Night Live and all that. I just wanted to ask you: What pop culture meltdown? See, I don’t think there’s anything that’s ever gonna change the writers of The Daily Show’s opinion on Obama or David Letterman or Saturday Night Live, you name it. They are gonna band together no matter how bad a mistake, gaffe, whatever, this guy might make. They’re gonna band together, prop him up and protect him and support him because of race, Lissa.

CALLER: I hear that, but, I mean, it’s so obviously ripe for picking. It’s like, are you kidding me? How do they maintain their credibility as drivers of the pop culture if they don’t do something with that red line, if they don’t do something with, you know, the gaffe that Kerry did that now has become the administration’s policy? He’s the chief diplomat of the country! I just feel like it’s getting to the point, this is bungled so badly — and the other thing is, other stuff has been bungled, and more stuff to come will be bungled.

I just think you get to a tipping point where, if they want to stay relevant… Everybody wants to be relevant. The key is, we have to get the low-information voters to clean their ears out, get the wax out or get their ear buds out, and be primed and ready to hear this. I think the more bungling and the more experience they have with all these bad Obamacare policies that are gonna cost ’em a fortune, and the more negative experiences they have, I think they’re gonna be primed to listen, and they’re gonna hear it.

RUSH: Well, I don’t know, and the reason that I’m doubtful is the reason that I concocted the Limbaugh Theorem to explain it: Because using the belief system that you just touted, that shoulda happened by now.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: We’ve got horrible economy, rotten jobs. The bottom line is that — I’ll call it low-information voters because that’s who you’re talking about when you say pop culture audience. They don’t associate Obama with any of this. They blame the Republicans for it. They really do! Even now, the Republicans are to blame. The New York Times today is blaming the Republicans for Syria. Obama blames the Republicans for the red line on Syria just last week, and the media just runs with it.

The media doesn’t question anything. He can say whatever he wants to say. The people you’re talking about are not going to get the information that he has a bungling anything. Even if their lives are bungled royally, the great thing… Well, “great.” The very sad thing that’s happening here is that what you say is happening. People are losing faith, but not in Obama. They’re losing faith in America. They think America’s great days are gone, and they’re feeling left out.

Young people think that they’re not gonna do as well or better than their parents, but it’s not Obama’s fault. It’s just their loss. They’ve lost faith in the country. They’ve lost faith in the ability of the country to provide for ’em, and that’s the way they look at it. They’ve lost faith in the country to provide opportunity for them. They’re living at home with their parents, but they don’t blame the Republican Party for any of it, they don’t blame Obama for it. That’s the first time in my life that a president has remained insulated from the very results of his own policies.


CALLER: It is remarkable.

RUSH: It has never happened.

CALLER: It is amazing. Exactly. I totally get what you’re saying, and it is completely amazing to me that the reality of what’s going on is never attributed to him. It is an absolutely remarkable way of thinking. It’s like the whole —

RUSH: Right. Now, but let’s go back to what you said when I first took your call. Do you disagree? Do you think that something is gonna happen that’s gonna wake these people up?

CALLER: I think if popular culture, the drivers of popular culture want to stay relevant and they start using some of this stuff in Saturday Night Live skits, on the Jon Stewart show, I think that’s the beginning of people… You know, we don’t have to get people to say, “Oh, Obama is terrible, and a reason that everything’s bad. I now get it. He’s the reason my life is bad.” We just need to get them to say, “Maybe he’s not all that great. Maybe he is kind of weak.” We just have to plant the seed in there is, and I think the rest of it will just by natural course of action —

RUSH: Okay, but then what? —

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: I mean, he can’t run for reelection. So even if that were to happen, so what? He’s still gonna be president for the next three years, and he’s not gonna have any opposition. I mean, even if the Republicans hold the House, they’re not opposing him now; why are they gonna oppose him then? The Republicans are afraid to oppose him, again because of race. So even if this happens, the earliest opportunity for anything to be done to correct this is 2016 — and then, as Norman Podhoretz wrote yesterday, his opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal was that our only hope is that Obama’s successor is somebody with the same worldview that we’re discussing here who can begin to implement change that reverse this headlong descent into destruction.

CALLER: It’s definitely step by step. It’s not a wholesale turn on a dime and turn around, which is what we need, but it is gonna be a slow U-turn over the next three years. I think. But I swear —

RUSH: Well, again… Look, I’m not trying to be negative. I’m not. I’m trying to be realistic. Even if what you say happens — and, by the way, all for it. I don’t want anybody misunderstand. There has to be an alternative for people. Where is that successor Norman Podhoretz talks about going to come from? The Republican Party? The Republican Party is not opposing now. The Republican Party is not drawing distinctions between it itself and the Democrats or Obama.

So you can have this dream of yours come true that The Daily Show starts making fun of Obama and Letterman starts making fun of Obama and Saturday Night Live starts making fun of Obama. And, by the way, I don’t think that those three are actually the key, but you do, so we’ll stick with them. Even if that happens, if there isn’t somebody who then stands up and agrees with what all of these people that you hope happens? If there’s nobody who starts distancing themselves from this?

If there’s no alternative, if there’s no push-back, if there’s nobody that stands up or no political party of opposition that gives an alternative to vote for to get this turned around, then it’s moot anyway. This is why I’m totally puzzled where the Republican Party just is within the realm of politics. Okay, maybe they don’t want to be conservative. Fine. Leave that for another day. But at least they’re not Democrat! Why aren’t they opposing the party? They can oppose the Democrats without saying bad things about Obama ’cause they’re afraid to do that.

They’re not even doing that, and there’s been never any greater opportunity for a political party ever to oppose the Democrats. Twenty years ago, 10 years ago, we could campaign on the basis of, “If these guys win, let me tell you what’s gonna happen because of who they are.” No longer. We don’t have to predict anymore; we’re living it. We’re in the middle of the predictions made 15 years ago and 30 years ago and 15 years ago. Things that I warned people about that would happen in America if liberals got control, they’re happening now.

It’s no longer what “might” happen; it’s happening. So the opportunity to stand up and draw a distinction between us and it has never been better, because we don’t have to convince people of what will happen; it has happened. The problem is very simple. The problem is tying what has happened to the Democrat Party, which nobody seems to be trying to do. That boggles my mind. I gotta take a break. Lissa, thanks very much. I’m glad you called, and I hope — I hope — that what you think is going to happen, does.

Don’t misunderstand.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: By the way, just so you know, Jay Leno — who’s got the highest late-night ratings of any of the 11:30 p.m. shows — has been making fun of Obama for months. He makes Obama jokes left and right. They’ve been good, and they’re occurring in an echo chamber. Of course Leno, “He’s gotta go! We gotta replace Leno. We can’t have Leno,” but that’s one show that it’s now off the reservation.

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This