{"id":213822,"date":"2016-06-22T17:44:00","date_gmt":"2016-06-22T21:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/172.24.32.11\/daily\/2016\/06\/22\/if_name_calling_is_what_it_takes_to_win_the_election_and_save_america_so_be_it\/"},"modified":"2016-06-22T17:44:00","modified_gmt":"2016-06-22T21:44:00","slug":"if_name_calling_is_what_it_takes_to_win_the_election_and_save_america_so_be_it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2016\/06\/22\/if_name_calling_is_what_it_takes_to_win_the_election_and_save_america_so_be_it\/","title":{"rendered":"If Name-Calling Is What It Takes to Win the Election and Save America, So Be It"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\n

RUSH:  Okay.  We\u2019re gonna start on the phones with Robert in Tampa.  Robert, I\u2019m glad you called.  Great to have you with us the EIB Network.  Hello.<\/p>\n

CALLER:  Great to speak to you Rush.  Good afternoon.  How are you doing?<\/p>\n

RUSH:  Very well, sir.  Thank you.  I appreciate that.<\/p>\n

CALLER:  I had a question about Donald Trump\u2019s speech this morning, and I was wondering: Is this the beginning of a new tactic, to come out swinging and trade insults back and forth with the Democrats in a “race to the bottom,” which is what I\u2019ve heard time and time again?  Are we gonna get specific in this race?  I know it\u2019s early, but it was refreshing to hear Donald Trump come out as plainspoken as he was instead of this kind of —<\/p>\n

RUSH:  Wait a minute, now.  I\u2019m confused. I thought your… Your first question, “Are we going to continue to think low? Are we gonna get specific?” as though you were unhappy with this speech.<\/line><\/p>\n

CALLER:  I am unhappy, because the American people are suffering, and are suffering greatly, and what this comes down to is the electorate, is what it comes down to.  Forget all the speechmaking and all the insults because they\u2019re gonna be there.  But 270 is the number.<\/p>\n

RUSH:  Why do I never get calls like this when it\u2019s only Republicans being insulted?  When Democrats are insulted, I get calls like yours saying, “When\u2019s this gonna stop?  When are we gonna raise the level of discourse?” But when Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton and Obama are out there destroying Mitt Romney at this time four years ago, I didn\u2019t hear a single person worried about “the tone of the campaign.”  In fact, when Harry Reid was lying about Romney…<\/p>\n

Some “friend” told Harry Reid that Romney hadn\u2019t paid his taxes in ten years.  This is after Romney killed the family dog by making it ride on the roof of the station wagon on family vacation, after Romney didn\u2019t care about some employee\u2019s wife dying of cancer.  And I didn\u2019t hear anybody complaining about the lowball nature of the campaign.  Now, all of a sudden, Hillary becomes the target, and it\u2019s, “When are we gonna get back to specifics, Rush? The electorate…”<\/p>\n

You know, we\u2019ve got serious issues out there.  You said it yourself out there, Robert.  It\u2019s early, and the official campaign hasn\u2019t even really begun.  But I think what\u2019s going on here is push-back, perfectly timed.  Let me tell you something: The Democrats… It is obvious. If you listen to the media, you have heard Obama praised to the hilt for how he defined Romney in June four years ago, when Romney didn\u2019t have any money to spend.  Romney had a lot of money, but not money he could spend before the convention. <\/p>\n

So you\u2019ve had all these commentators praising Obama and his campaign for being brilliant for defining Romney in June.  You\u2019ve probably read stories where that\u2019s when the election was won.  Okay, fine.  Democrats are doing it again.  They sent Hillary out there yesterday, and every other aspect of the Democrat campaign is aimed at marginalizing Trump or destroying Trump or defining Trump in a negative way.  And I look at this today as push-back, which we don\u2019t normally get on our side.  We got some push-back today.  And we got not just push-back. We got, “Oh, this is what you say about me?  Well, here it\u2019s double for you.”<\/p>\n

It may sound schoolyard, but that\u2019s exactly what is happening today.  It\u2019s long overdue.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH:  You know, Hillary\u2019s speech yesterday was practically nothing but personal attacks on Trump<\/a>.  When are we gonna get specifics about issues?  Mrs. Clinton\u2019s speech yesterday was fraudulent from the get-go.  Hillary Clinton began her speech yesterday under the assumption… It was odd.  You know, it tried to do two things.  It tried to portray a really solid, growing economy while being critical of it at the same time. <\/p>\n

I was listening to it and reading it on two separate occasions, and I\u2019ve always — during this whole campaign — been fascinated how the Democrats talk about how this country is in such bad shape.  They\u2019ve been running it for 7-1\/2 years!  They\u2019ve been in charge of it, everything.  There hasn\u2019t been any serious push-back.  They\u2019ve gotten everything they\u2019ve wanted, and they\u2019re continuing to whine and moan.  That\u2019s why I talk about selling pessimism. <\/line><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never seen apocalyptic pessimism sold so well.  But they\u2019ve mastered that.  And then at the same time she\u2019s portraying herself as a great fixer, as a great improvement.  But was that it?  There was nothing specific.  All we got was the same rigmarole about roads and bridges needing to be repaired.  Well, I thought we fixed that with the first stimulus bill in 2009.  I know. I\u2019m being facetious.  There wasn\u2019t any money that went to roads and bridges.  That\u2019s the point.  We\u2019ve already been bled dry for that. <\/p>\n

Obama already said, “We need to rebuild roads, bridges, crumbling schools!” That\u2019s why we needed almost $1 trillion in his second month in office.  He got the money.  He\u2019s gotten pretty much everything. In the last budget, he got more than he asked for, so the Republicans could be seen as cooperative, so the Republicans could hope people would see them as making government work and making Washington work.  So Obama got even more than he asked for. <\/p>\n

Tax revenue is coming in at a record clip, and the economy still has 94.7 million people not in the workforce.  And Mrs. Clinton comes along and starts mouthing the same complaints about the economy that Obama mouthed during his campaign and even after he had been inaugurated in office.  So I\u2019m sitting here and I marvel after this. “How did they get away with this?”  And I say to myself, “It all comes down to one thing: Good intentions.  They always get the benefit of the doubt on good intentions.” <\/p>\n

Their branding has been such that we are not supposed to examine the results.  We\u2019re not supposed to look at the outcome of their governance, their policies.  Doesn\u2019t matter.  We\u2019re only supposed to look at their intentions, which is the same thing as looking at their big hearts.  They love people. They want the best in people!” Never mind that they never deliver it.  All that happens is the overall situation worsens for the greatest number of people.  So you listen to Hillary make her speech, and you just scratch your head. <\/p>\n

But were there any real specifics? It was all platitudinal things about how she was gonna improve this and make that better.  And I\u2019m saying, “What needs to be better?  You guys have had a 7-1\/2 year run here at utopia.  Why isn\u2019t it utopia yet?  You\u2019ve had 7-1\/2 years!  How many more years do you need to perfect the human condition?  Which is what progressivism claims to be all about.  How many more years do you need to get the economy right?  How many more years do you need to accomplish what you want to accomplish? <\/p>\n

You\u2019ve had 7-1\/2 uninterrupted years! But she didn\u2019t get specific.  All she did was impugn and malign Trump over and over again, and I didn\u2019t hear anybody after that speech whining and moaning about how Mrs. Clinton didn\u2019t get to the issues.  I didn\u2019t hear anybody whining and moaning about how Mrs. Clinton didn\u2019t get to the specifics.  I didn\u2019t hear anybody whining and moaning about how Mrs. Clinton took the campaign to the gutter.  No. <\/p>\n

\"original\"All we got, predictably so, from the usual Drive-By suspects was what a great speech it was and how Hillary finally took it to that reprobate Trump.  So Trump answers in kind today, and did get specific on some issues as well.  And all of a sudden now, as I say, here we are worried about “the tone.” Here we are worried that “the campaign has descended into the gutter.”  Let me just tell you something: Half of this country\u2019s in the gutter.  Have you ever spent any time on Twitter?  It\u2019s a sewer.  Sad to say, a lot of people react to it. <\/line><\/p>\n

Sad to say, a lot of people think that\u2019s what daily conversation is, is combat.  I mean, you gotta deal with what is.  You can sit there and do one of two things.  You can sit there and lament that our culture has gone to total rot and criticize the people who are rotten and have taken it there, or you can try to relate to them however you think you can. Try to convert them away from the Democrat Party, or to at least expose the people they support the Democrat Party is a bunch of frauds.<\/p>\n

But, look, everybody has Millennials on their minds, do they?  Everybody has the young vote on their mind.  Seems axiomatic in every campaign.  Well, I have to tell you: The Millennials are a pretty pessimistic bunch.  They\u2019re pretty apocalyptic bunch.  But the problem is they don\u2019t blame current officeholders for it.  They just think the country\u2019s run its course.  They need to be told something different.  Thomas Sowell.  I interviewed Dr. Sowell for the Limbaugh Letter within the past year, and he said something to me that totally surprised me, which doesn\u2019t happen much. <\/p>\n

So much so that I gave it away before the issue was published and told you what he said.  He said… You remember this? He said that he believed… He was really scared that if Iran attacked us with a nuclear weapon, that Barack Obama would not retaliate, that he would surrender.  And I remember reacting in a shocked and surprised way.  “Dr. Sowell, surrender?  I can understand maybe not retaliating, but surrender?”  “I really think he would, Rush.  I think he would surrender.  I think there is no way Obama would ever reciprocate in kind. <\/p>\n

“There\u2019s no way Barack Obama would ever hit Iran in a similar way.  And since Iran had shown that they\u2019re willing to nuclear hit us, to stop the next one, he would surrender.”  I said, “You mean we would become a Sharia law satellite?”  He said, “I\u2019m scared to death that that\u2019s what would happen. Exactly.”  Well, where do you think today\u2019s Millennials are?  Let\u2019s take the universe of Millennials, the 18-to-34 demographic, and let\u2019s compare it to World War II, just for the fun of it. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m not saying one\u2019s better than the other one.  When the Japanese attacked us Pearl Harbor, and when, of course, FDR decided we needed to enter the European Theater, what happened?  We had people, the whole country mobilized behind the effort.  Women started working in the factories.  That\u2019s where Rosie the Riveters comes into being.  Our manufacturing engine just went into maximum high gear.  We started producing airplanes and weapons and tanks and armaments.  It was incredible the way this country ratcheted things up for the war effort.<\/p>\n

Even after 9\/11. What happened after 9\/11?  How many young men immediately joined the military?  Well, do you think…? What do you think would happen now? Here we are in Barack Obama\u2019s America in 2016. We\u2019ve had how many terrorist attacks here?  We\u2019ve had at least one a year since Obama\u2019s been in office.  Now, we\u2019ve not had mass like 9\/11.  We haven\u2019t had anything like Pearl Harbor.  But do you detect, after any one of them, any scintilla of emotion that says, “Retaliate”? It\u2019s the exact opposite, is it not? <\/p>\n

Do we not start looking at reasons why we are to blame for it?  Do we not start looking for reasons to justify, for example, why Mateen did it, or the San Bernardino Two?  Do we not start asking, “Why do they hate us so much?”  The question: Is Sowell right? Not just on Obama, but if something like that did happen, do you think the military-aged segment of our population… Look, you can\u2019t… (interruption) Okay.  Do you think that there would be a majority of uploaded mind-set for retaliating? <\/p>\n

<\/a>You look at World War II.  I went to the American Cemetery at Normandy.<\/a>  You go to the Vietnam memorial, and the one thing that\u2019s gonna strike you is the number 19. That\u2019s the average age of soldiers who were killed.  By definition, they\u2019re the most fit. They\u2019re the most capable.  That\u2019s who gets deployed in a conventional war.  Now, having said that, I must also… You know, one of my great areas of appreciation is what happened at Pointe du Hoc on D-Day where the Rangers rappelled straight up the cliffs. <\/p>\n

We don\u2019t fight wars that way anymore.  That kind of fighting is not necessary anymore.  Now we got laser guide missiles. We could take… If we were trying to take France, take Normandy today, there wouldn\u2019t be a massive landing of troops on the beach.  We would have laser-guided bombs taking out those German guns, if the German gun installations were the same.  If they were, that\u2019s how we\u2019d deal \u2019em.  We wouldn\u2019t have to put people on the beach rappelling up the cliffs to take \u2019em out.  We could take \u2019em out in other ways.<\/p>\n