RUSH: Now, I’ve mentioned it to you before on the program, but it was the first time I’ve made the point on television, and I had made a point. I decided I was gonna lead with this no matter what Chris Wallace’s first question was, and it’s this. I don’t know for how many years, but it’s a number of them — four years, five years — the Republican Party has been telling its voters that it cannot win — we cannot win — with Republican votes alone. And I’ve had candidates tell me this.
Mitt Romney has been to my office here. So has Rand Paul. They both said the same thing. This is not recently. Well, Rand Paul was maybe a year ago and Romney two or three or four years now. But, anyway, it’s a popularly held axiom in Republican Party, they can’t win with just Republican votes alone, and the second part of it is there’s a whole bunch of Republican votes that embarrass them: Evangelicals, conservatives.
Remember Jeb Bush?
He was gonna win the general without winning the primary, meaning he was gonna find a way to get the nomination bypassing the Republican base. We see how that worked out for him. And this is why we’re told, “The Republican Party must show that it can get along with minorities, that it does not dislike minorities, that it’s not racist, bigoted, sexist, homophobic, or what have you. And, therefore, this is why the Republican Party must join with the Democrats and promote amnesty for illegal immigrants for the procurement, shall we say, of the Hispanic vote.”
And they have openly said to us conservatives who are unhappy about the way they’re governing, they are ignoring their own campaign promises. They are ignoring the will of Republican voters in the last two midterms — 2010, 2014 — by telling us, “No, no, no, no! We have to branch out. We have to become a bigger, more inclusive party,” right? Well, as I said on Fox News Sunday, “Who is it that’s actually done that? It’s Donald Trump.” Donald Trump has actually put together the exact kind of coalition the Republican Party has been telling us that it needs in order to win, that it will not win if it doesn’t succeed in branching out and expanding the party.
And the expansion includes people that were normally qualified as Reagan Democrats, Hispanics, African-Americans, women. Trump is doing it. And there’s, oh, mounds of evidence for it. Let’s look at some of the open primaries that have taken place. A number of Democrats, as we predicted… Trump’s going out, he’s actually playing to them, and they are crossing the aisle and voting for Trump in these primaries. In closed primaries where they can’t cross over and vote for Trump, Republicans are winning those.
Cruz primarily is winning Republican primaries that are closed, like Oklahoma was closed. Now, Trump is specifically making a play for this group, and in this group of people is white middle class voters who the Democrat Party has written off. And Dan Balz… I think it was Dan Balz. A former Washington Post columnist wrote in November of 2011, I think it was, that the Democrats plan to write off white working class votes. And if you look at Obama’s economic policy, look at Obama’s Obamacare policy, he is.
White working-class voters are persona non grata, and Trump’s getting them. He’s getting them in droves. And the Republican Party doesn’t want them. It’s the most amazing thing. Trump is actually putting together what the Republican Party has told us is the coalition they cannot win without. Now, apparently they really don’t want to expand the party to include white middle class Democrats, Hispanics, and others from the Democrat Party if Trump is responsible for bringing them.
Look at it this way. Trump has assembled a package the GOP says it desperately needs and wants in order to win in the future. But now they’re not interested ’cause they don’t like the delivery company. I made this point, and I made it big. And the second point — and I think that’s crucial, because it’s an indictment of the current Republican Party. It’s an indictment of the Republican establishment. It means one of two things. Either they are just telling us this as an excuse for not implementing policies we have voted for them to implement and they really don’t mean it, or else they really don’t want Trump getting any credit for this.
But here’s the thing about this. If you’re gonna go out… Now, follow me on this folks. Do not knee-jerk me on this. Listen to me. If you are Candidate A, B — if you’re Trump, if you’re Cruz, I don’t care who you are — and if part of your strategy is to go out and attract Democrat voters to join your Republican base, you can’t get them by sounding like a Republican. If you sound like a Republican, they’re not gonna move and join you, right? This is what we have always objected to the Republican establishment.
We’ve always viewed the Republican establishment as watering itself down, the Republican Party as diluting itself and abandoning its principles in its quest for amnesty and other policy misadventures designed to attract Democrat voters. If you’re gonna go get Democrat voters you have to speak their language and you have to do it in a credible way. You have to make them think that you get them. And Trump’s doing that. I have no doubt that’s why Trump is harping on Planned Parenthood. I have no doubt that’s why Trump is harping on…
Folks, if the Republican Party were to do, this is what they would have to do to get these voters. The Republican Party’s not gonna get a bunch of Hispanics by standing for amnesty alone. We already have seen that proven. The Republican Party, if they want to expand their base — if they’re being honest with us and they want liberal Democrats to abandon the Democrat Party and vote Republican — they’re not gonna do that by us espousing conservatism. Not right now. Conservatism is not what’s gonna appeal to these people. These people are disaffected Democrats. They’re mad at the establishment for their own reasons, a la the Bernie Sanders phenomenon.
Plus on the Democrat side, there’s just a bunch of people that don’t like Hillary to boot. But my point is that these Republicans are upset the way Trump is attacking George W. Bush and defending Planned Parenthood. I’m asking myself, “Well, how else are you gonna get ’em?” You know, Republicans, you gotta make up your mind. You want to be a Republican-conservative party, you want to expand the party on the basis of conservative principles? Then get somebody in there that knows how to do it.
If you don’t have anybody — if you’re not conservative, if you don’t believe conservatism, if you can’t sell it because you don’t believe it, if you can’t articulate it, if you’re not happy about it — you’re never going to expand the party the right way. You’re gonna have to do it the way Trump is. So why get mad at what Trump’s doing when he’s doing exactly what you’ve always claimed you need to win? “Well, I don’t like that he’s attacking Bush, and I don’t like he’s defend Planned Parenthood.” Well, I’m sorry. If you want people to cross over and vote for you now and in the general in November…
I thought this is what “crossing the aisle” meant. I think Trump’s defining it, isn’t he? Crossing the aisle, showing he can work with the other side, showing he can engage in compromise. This is what it looks like, folks. This is what it looks like. You know, all of you linguini-spined moderate Republicans who buy into this “We gotta cross the aisle, we gotta show the other side we can work with ’em and make Washington work,” and you don’t like Trump? Well, Trump is doing exactly what you say you support doing, and you don’t like it? No wonder you’re confused.
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RUSH: So, to sum up: Trump is assembling a coalition beyond Republicans, a coalition the Republican Party has been saying for years it needs. They’ve been telling us we’ve gotta back off, be patient, understand, gotta branch out. That’s why they gotta go for amnesty and all that. Trump’s doing it. I saw somewhere where maybe as much as 20% of Trump’s support is coming from white working class Democrats, independents, moderates and so forth — exactly what the Republican Party says they need. But they’re not happy. They don’t want Trump’s delivery.
But for those of you who think that the Republican Party’s right and you talk about crossing the aisle and think that it’s a great thing to compromise and “get things done”? Well, this is what it looks like! Crossing the aisle does not mean trying to persuade white working class Democrats about conservatism, which is what Reagan did. This is not reaching across the aisle and converting. Reaching across the aisle and pandering is what the Republican Party is talking about. That’s why so many of its supporters are fit to be tied.