{"id":10370,"date":"2014-01-21T19:12:48","date_gmt":"2014-01-21T19:12:48","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2014-01-21T19:12:48","modified_gmt":"2014-01-21T19:12:48","slug":"who_are_the_precious_independents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2014\/01\/21\/who_are_the_precious_independents\/","title":{"rendered":"Who are the Precious Independents?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: Geri in Tomball, Texas, you\u2019re next. Great to have you here, sir. Hello.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hi. It\u2019s a woman. I\u2019m G-e-r-i.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Oh, I\u2019m sorry, you\u2019re right.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Oh, that\u2019s okay. Hi, Rush. It\u2019s so nice to talk to you. I would like to know what an independent is, what your explanation of an independent is. I think it\u2019s someone who doesn\u2019t know what they believe and will go whichever way the wind blows.<\/p>\n

<\/a>RUSH: I don\u2019t think that\u2019s what an independent is. I think that\u2019s what they want you to think an independent is. And I think that\u2019s what the media wants you to think an independent is. An independent, in the modern era, is a better person than a partisan conservative. An independent is open-minded. An independent is not rigid and is not an ideologue and is not a bigot and not a racist. An independent decides things issue by issue, person by person, is studied, is intelligent, is focused, is sensitive, and what an independent really is, is either a Republican or Democrat afraid to say so.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Which means they don\u2019t know what they believe.<\/p>\n

RUSH: No, they know what they believe. No, no. They know what they believe. They\u2019re just afraid to say so. They don\u2019t want controversy. They don\u2019t want any bellyaching or complaining once they tell people what they think. Plus, they\u2019re very sophisticated. They know —<\/p>\n

CALLER: Oh, yes. Oh, yes.<\/p>\n

RUSH: They know that the media has elevated them. Look at what the media\u2019s been telling us for 30 years, Geri. The independents are going to determine the outcome of every election.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Right. <\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, those independents know that. I mean, they run around and they\u2019re proud to call themselves independents \u2019cause they want people to think that the election turns on them. They\u2019ll show up at town halls and act like they don\u2019t have any opinion on anything, and that\u2019s open minded, and, sorry, if you don\u2019t have an opinion on anything, you are worthless in the political arena.<\/p>\n

CALLER: That\u2019s how I feel anyway.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Exactly. They go to these town hall meetings and they act like they\u2019re open to whatever, and that they\u2019re studying things diligently, and after all of this study and immersion in the issues and 30,000 hours of C-SPAN and whatever, they come to their conclusion and they are right because they are the precious independents. They\u2019re alternately called moderates or independents. But I think in our highly charged political atmosphere of the day, the actual number of people who do not have a guiding ideological principle behind them is not anywhere near a majority of people. Now, that\u2019s not to say that everybody that has an opinion about something is right or wrong, but the idea that there are that many people running around who don\u2019t care or who have not formed an opinion, I just refuse to accept that it\u2019s that large a number.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Right. I could never, ever vote Democrat, ever, no matter what. Thank you, Rush.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, you obviously couldn\u2019t be an independent, right, because they\u2019ll vote —<\/p>\n

CALLER: Oh, no.<\/p>\n

RUSH: — both ways either way on whatever basis they think is best after all of their study. Now, you asked this question. I could have gone about this is an entirely different way. I could have pretended that I\u2019m a Republican. And I could have said to myself, okay, I\u2019ve got this question, what do I think of it? I could have sat here and I could have lauded and I could have praised to the hilt, and I could have said they are the future of the country. Getting to the independents, persuading them, convincing them that I\u2019m right, and I could have played to \u2019em, I could have sucked up to \u2019em and people would say, “Boy, this Rush guy, you know, he\u2019s really smart. I mean, this Rush guy, he\u2019s got an opportunity here, he\u2019s expanding his audience.” <\/p>\n

And I didn\u2019t do that, did I? I just fired what I think about independents. I don\u2019t mean it to be insulting, although I\u2019m sure those of you who think you are independents are going to take it as being insulted, but that\u2019s not the intention. I\u2019m just suspicious of people who are reluctant to proclaim themselves issue by issue by issue. I don\u2019t care what it is. Obamacare, somebody says, “Oh, I don\u2019t know, I\u2019m still studying.” Studying what? How can anybody still be open-minded about that? Remember, now, independents are really informed. I mean, they\u2019re more informed than the rest of us. They really care. They study. That\u2019s all they do, by the way. They don\u2019t have jobs. They\u2019re just independents. I mean, they\u2019re the wheel. They\u2019re the spoke for everything that makes our political system go. <\/line><\/p>\n

What they really are is closet partisans. As I\u2019ve said before, I think one of the biggest, most successful political tricks in the world that the Democrats have succeeded in running against the Republicans is convincing them that you do not win any election, particularly a presidential election, unless you win a majority of independents. What does that do? The independents, by definition, are 20% of the voting population, because — this is the theory — 40% are partisan Democrat; 40% are partisan Republican; and nothing you do is gonna change it. They\u2019re gonna vote. <\/p>\n

So Republican consultants tell their candidates, “I\u2019m the guy that can get you a majority of that 20%,” because the independents are always the undecided bout. And the undecided, they\u2019re a cut above, too. Oh, yeah, the undecided, they\u2019re much more open-minded. They\u2019re much less partisan. They\u2019re much more open to expansive ideas, rather than these closed-minded partisans of both sides. And so the end result is, folks, that Republican consultants end up crafting campaigns aimed at 20% of the voting population. Because there\u2019s a big assumption that they\u2019re gonna get their base. They\u2019re gonna get all 40% of their base. <\/p>\n

Well, you go back and look at 2012. Romney versus Obama. And you go look and find what Romney\u2019s margin of victory was with independents. It was profound. It was huge. Off the top of my head, I think Romney won independents by 13 points, and he lost big, right? Now, how did that happen? ‘Cause the Republican consultants tell their candidates “You gotta win the independents,” and how do you win the independents? You talk just like Governor Christie did in his speech today<\/a>. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Now, one thing. There is a relatively new phenomenon going on regarding independents, and I was remiss in not pointing it out. (interruption) What happened to the secondhand smoke guy? (interruption) Ah, jeez. Oh, that was gonna be fun. The secondhand smoke guy hung up. Well, there was some guy on the phone that was gonna complain to me. I guess he wanted to argue with me about I supposedly said secondhand smoke doesn\u2019t kill, and he was of the belief that it does. I was so looking forward to that, and the guy vamanos\u2019d.<\/p>\n

Anyway, there are a lot of independents today… I don\u2019t know how many, but there are a lot of them. This is the best way to put this: There are a lot of ticked-off Republicans who\u2019ve left the party and are now registering as independents. They\u2019re Republicans who are just ticked off at the establishment, so they\u2019re not registering. This is their way of registering a disagreement protest. They have no desire to be identified with current Republican establishment, so they\u2019re reregistering as independents. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Geri in Tomball, Texas, you\u2019re next. Great to have you here, sir. Hello. CALLER: Hi. It\u2019s a woman. I\u2019m G-e-r-i. RUSH: Oh, I\u2019m sorry, you\u2019re right. CALLER: Oh, that\u2019s okay. Hi, Rush. It\u2019s so nice to talk to you. I would like to know what an independent is, what your explanation of an independent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nWho are the Precious Independents? - The Rush Limbaugh Show<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2014\/01\/21\/who_are_the_precious_independents\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Who are the Precious Independents? - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: Geri in Tomball, Texas, you\u2019re next. Great to have you here, sir. Hello. 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