{"id":13917,"date":"2012-11-19T17:16:26","date_gmt":"2012-11-19T17:16:26","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2012-11-19T17:16:26","modified_gmt":"2012-11-19T17:16:26","slug":"thomas_b_edsall_of_the_new_york_times_asks_is_rush_limbaugh_s_country_gone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2012\/11\/19\/thomas_b_edsall_of_the_new_york_times_asks_is_rush_limbaugh_s_country_gone\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas B. Edsall of the New York Times Asks, “Is Rush Limbaugh\u2019s Country Gone?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Okay, folks, there\u2019s a headline that is attached to a column that ran yesterday in the New York Times, I guess in the Week in Review section. And here\u2019s the headline: “Is Rush Limbaugh\u2019s Country Gone?” New York Times. “Is Rush Limbaugh\u2019s Country Gone?” It\u2019s by Thomas B. Edsall. Let me give you the quick answer. Apparently it is. Apparently the country\u2019s gone, but guess what? I\u2019m the reason why. I am to blame for the country being lost.<\/a> I am to blame for the Republican Party losing election after election after election. I am responsible for whoever hates Republicans hating them. <\/p>\n

<\/a>It was all over television yesterday. It\u2019s been all over television since the election. It\u2019s my fault, folks. I haven\u2019t run a single election. I haven\u2019t picked a single candidate. I have not written one word of Republican policy. I have not had one conversation with any highfalutin Republican about policy or campaign strategy or anything of the sort, and yet I, El Rushbo, your host, your radio guy, I have lost the country. And not only have I lost the country, I have destroyed the Republican Party. And the people saying this are the Republican consultants. <\/p>\n

Look, I don\u2019t like this program being about me. I really don\u2019t. Contrary to what some of you people think, that I\u2019m an egomaniac. Yes, I have a healthy ego, but I\u2019m not maniacal about it. I know I\u2019m gonna come up anyway. I don\u2019t have to bring me up. I don\u2019t like being the focus of things here, but sadly it\u2019s the case. <\/p>\n

And what is this all about? Well, obviously, it\u2019s about losing the election to Barack Obama, and it\u2019s also about Santa Claus<\/a>. There\u2019s a real division that has been created now, sprung up. There are people who hate this characterization of Democrat voters as people voting for Santa Claus, and they include Newt Gingrich and Bobby Jindal and George Will, a number of people. And then there are people on the other side who say that it is, the Democrat Party is Santa Claus, and that\u2019s why people are voting. I have been doing a lot of thinking about this, independent of all these allegations and accusations of me, I\u2019ve been doing a lot of thinking about it. <\/p>\n

By the way, I have been to a lot of places since the election, and nobody\u2019s blamed me to my face, yet. They\u2019re all asking me, “What do we do now?” Nobody\u2019s pointing at me, “You blew it! You blew it! Get out of my face. What are you doing here? Get outta here.” Nobody\u2019s saying that. They\u2019re saying, “What do we do now?” I was at a big dinner Saturday night in Pittsburgh. “What do we do now?” They want me fix it. They want me to explain it and then they want me to fix it.<\/p>\n

(interruption)<\/p>\n

Snerdley wants to know, “Why has the Santa Claus thing caused so much angst?” I\u2019ve been thinking about this. I\u2019m gonna attempt to explain it during the whole course of the program today, and do so in chronological order here. Let\u2019s review a couple things that I observed last week. One of them was that I was really moved by Ron Paul\u2019s farewell speech to Congress<\/a>. He said something that you and I instinctively feel. We may not have voiced it to ourselves or friends, but it\u2019s really the nut of it. It\u2019s really what has been bothering me. Why is freedom such a hard sell?<\/a> Why is freedom and liberty such a hard sell? And then, prior to that, when I heard that we failed because we didn\u2019t do enough demographic outreach to Hispanics and women under 30, single women and the rest of the groups, African-Americans, I said rhetorically, “Well, look at our convention.” <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

We had a parade of some of the most achieved, accomplished Hispanics, women, African-Americans, and I pointed out — and this is salient — they all had a common theme. Every speech had a common theme. And what was it? It was conservatism. It was that they all came from nothing. They came from nothing. Their parents in many cases emigrated to this country, and Marco Rubio was one of them, from Cuba, and Rubio, by the way, is one of the people on the warpath against this Santa Claus business. They all had this up-from-nothing story which featured hard work. And I asked, why didn\u2019t that — I\u2019ll use the word “sell,” from Ron Paul. Why doesn\u2019t freedom and the opportunity for unlimited great prosperity, why doesn\u2019t that sell? And then I asked, “Maybe we\u2019ve lost the definition of how prosperity happens.” I know we have. <\/p>\n

A majority of Americans think prosperity comes from the government now, not themselves, not hard work. But what I\u2019ve concluded is that the Republican convention probably scared the heck out of people. The very people that we thought — well, I\u2019m not gonna say “we” because I had nothing to do with that convention, either. I didn\u2019t even go. I had literally nothing to do with any aspect of the convention. So maybe I shouldn\u2019t say “we.” I know what the Republicans were trying to do. And what they did probably scared the very people that we hoped to persuade with that convention. Probably scared the devil out of \u2019em. And not because there was any racism or sexism or bigotry or homophobia, none of that. What was it about that convention <\/a>that wouldn\u2019t sell? What is it about freedom and liberty that don\u2019t sell? <\/p>\n

Well, let\u2019s review. What is freedom to you and me? Freedom to you and me is the absence of government in our lives. Freedom to you and me, to small-business people, getting the regulations out of the way, lower tax rates. We want to benefit from our hard work. We want to share that wealth. We want to hire additional people. We want to pay the people that work for us increasing wages. We want to grow our businesses. We want to grow our private sector. We want to grow the economy. We want freedom in the sense that this nation was founded. Limited government. <\/p>\n