RUSH: Let’s keep going, Ted Cruz on The Tonight Show Friday night, Jay Leno. Now, Leno’s been ripping Obama, but Leno’s a Democrat. You gotta just accept that. He’s a Democrat, has a feminist wife and all that. He’s a nice guy, don’t misunderstand, big chin, but he’s a Democrat. He’s on the lib side of things, but, you know, he’s an equal opportunity jokester. I like him; don’t misunderstand. He’s got Ted Cruz on there, and he said, “Look, I know you’re a man of principle. You have your principles. Does that prevent compromise, when you’re so set on what you do?”
CRUZ: My view on compromise is actually exactly the same thing as what Ronald Reagan’s was. Reagan said, “What do you do if they offer you half a loaf?” Answer: “You take it, and then you come back for more.”
LENO: I don’t think Ronald Reagan could get in the Tea Party today.
CRUZ: You know, I don’t think that’s right at all. Look at what Reagan did.
LENO: Mmm-hmm?
CRUZ: Reagan led a grassroots revolution. I think where we are today is an awful lot like the late 1970s —
LENO: Okay.
CRUZ: — where we had economic stagnation. We had people hurting because the government policies under Jimmy Carter, they weren’t working. Remember, Reagan challenged an combatant Republican president 1976 in a primary —
LENO: Right.
CRUZ: — and there was a grassroots revolution where he said: Listen, this isn’t working; let’s get back to free market principles —
LENO: Mmm-hmm.
CRUZ: — back to the Constitution.
RUSH: Now, see, here’s Leno. He doesn’t know anything, either. Chris Matthews has this stupid… (interruption) What? (interruption) Well, he doesn’t! He doesn’t know except what he’s been told. So Matthews has this book out there that Tip O’Neill and Reagan, “Ah, Reagan really believe what they thought he did. They compromised every day then they went and had a beer.” It did not happen!
This whole notion that Reagan compromised his conservatism all the time and was a big buffoon, Tip O’Neill led way and at the end of the day Reagan went out and had a beer with him? It’s a crock. So it is a crock that Reagan wouldn’t be suitable for the Tea Party today. If Reagan could come back to life he’d be the nominee tomorrow! Ronald Reagan was the Tea Party in the 1970s. That’s exactly what Cruz is saying.
Reagan led a revolt against the Republican Party establishment! He led a revolt against Republican donors of the day. He was despised in his day by the Republican establishment. They did not like him. When he won two landslides, of course, success has many fathers and failure is an orphan. So there were a lot of suck-ups and a lot of groupies that glommed on to Reagan, ’cause everybody likes a winner and wants to be close to that light.
But they didn’t like him. Behind closed doors, they’re calling him a dunce and an idiot and a wacko right-wing conservative, and they’re planning on what life will be like when he’s gone — you know, out of office and so forth. Cruz is exactly right. Reagan was the Tea Party of his day! Leno couldn’t possibly know that. I… (big sigh) I find myself here having to climb down again. You know, I’m getting too wound up, ’cause we’re surrounded by stupidity.
We’re surrounded by two things: Stupidity and ignorance combined with arrogance. Now, I’m convinced that the explanation for a lot of where we are is just stupidity. There’s just a lot of stupid, and not just voters, but I’m talking about journalists. You know, we assume that they’re curious and know things because it’s their job and they’re close to the facts. They’re stupid! They’re not curious. They are ignorant of things. And they’re ideologues so they’re ignorant.
They don’t take the time to learn conservatism or meet conservatives or Republicans because they’ve got this preconceived notion that here racist, sexist, bigot homophobes and all that. So they’re actually the closed-minded ones among us. They are the bigots. They are the ignoramuses, the arrogant ignoramuses. I mean, Ted Cruz is there. As far as Leno’s concerned, Cruz is there just to be mocked and made fun of, and maybe acquire an audience, but as far as Leno actually listening to what Cruz has to say?
Cruz is answering and Leno’s thinking, “Yeah, you idiot, talk about what you think. You extremist, you racist bigot. Yeah, go ahead.” They don’t know. They have no clue. I don’t want to indict Leno. He may not be saying that. I take that back. See, I like Leno. (sigh) I mean, compared to the Letterman and the rest of that crew at night, it’s no contest. But the one thing I don’t know how to deal with is stupidity. I mean, how do you deal with stupidity? How do you inform stupidity? Ignorance is a different thing. You can open the mind of the ignorant. You can open their eyes and have lights go on, but the stupid are another. The closed-minded, stupid are another thing.
All right, so let’s see, is there one more here?
Yes, there is. After that bite, Leno said, “Well, if all this effort is in jobs, why so much in social issues that have nothing to do with jobs?”
CRUZ: Look, my focus has been jobs, economic growth, and in particular Obamacare. Obamacare, it’s the biggest job killer in this country. You know, it’s interesting — (applause)
RUSH: The reason we played that bite was to show you the applause. Obamacare is the biggest job killer in this country, and the audience on the Leno show erupted. Now, let’s go back to March 13th, 1975, on The Tonight Show, 1975, Johnny Carson had Ronaldus Magnus, and they had this exchange.
CARSON: Everybody is confused. How are we gonna get out of this?
REAGAN: I think one of the things is that people keep looking to government for the answer, and government’s the problem. (applause) A moment ago you asked, you know, about people and feeling not only confused, but low and down on America. First of all, the American people, if they would just take a little inventory and look around, you triple our troubles and we’re better off than any other people on earth. And we’ve asked so much of government, and we’ve gotten in the habit over the last 40 years of thinking that government has the answers. There’s very little that government can do as efficiently and as economically as the people can do themselves. And if the government would shut the doors and sneak away for about three weeks, we’d never miss ’em.
RUSH: Ronald Reagan was the Tea Party. But there’s Leno, “Well, Reagan, he couldn’t even get in the Tea Party.” You know, a lot of leftists say that. “You know, the Republicans, they would reject Reagan in a primary election.” Bull shhh. Bull. It’s a crock. All right. I swear I gotta come down.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: No matter how frustrated I sound, folks, I still love it. Don’t ever misunderstand. Some of this stuff, you look at all the money we’ve spent on education and look how stupid we have made people, by design.