{"id":4422,"date":"2016-01-20T17:34:28","date_gmt":"2016-01-20T17:34:28","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2017-06-13T11:20:15","modified_gmt":"2017-06-13T15:20:15","slug":"what_palin_s_trump_speech_says_about_the_state_of_the_conservative_movement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2016\/01\/20\/what_palin_s_trump_speech_says_about_the_state_of_the_conservative_movement\/","title":{"rendered":"What Palin\u2019s Trump Speech Says About the State of the Conservative Movement"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

RUSH: Man, are we loaded today. I\u2019ll tell you right now, it\u2019s going to take all three hours and then some. I\u2019m gonna try to get it all in here in three hours. Much of today is gonna build on points that I have been making the past two days, evolving, growing, adding evidence to it, all rooted around the question, who is and what is the conservative movement, and why is it apparently behaving so oddly? I think I can explain this and much else to all of you as the program unfolds today before your very eyes and ears. It will explain the massive support for Donald Trump that people can\u2019t figure out. It will explain why there\u2019s abject hatred and panic over Trump in the Washington Republican and even conservative media establishment.<\/p>\n


\nTrump picking Sarah Palin, or Palin deciding to endorse Trump just exacerbates it. And, by the way, Sarah Palin is gonna help me make my points today, because I read the transcript for her speech that she made, and it\u2019s actually — the speech that Palin made yesterday for Trump, I saw people pan it, say she looked like she lost her place, she was reading cue cards, she didn\u2019t seem to be all there. I didn\u2019t see it, but I read the transcript of her speech, and I\u2019m telling you it is — well, I don\u2019t want to overdo it and say brilliant, but I\u2019ll tell you, she\u2019s got substantive, logical reasons for doing what she\u2019s doing. And she explained it yesterday for anybody who really wanted to pay attention to listen to it. So I\u2019m gonna explain that.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: These are just thoughts that I had that I\u2019m sharing with you. Don\u2019t attach any more to it. I want to warn you, this may not be good for me to say, and I\u2019m gonna try to make it so it\u2019s not necessary, but you may need a lot of nuance listening to me today. Avoid knee jerks today if you can and hang in as I go through some of this stuff, because it\u2019s not complicated, but it is detailed. And of course I, ladies and gentlemen, excel at making the complex understandable.<\/p>\n

This actually isn\u2019t that complex. It\u2019s just so strange. I\u2019m not trying to be cryptic. I tell you, the last couple of days, remember the piece in National Review, David French<\/a>, where he speculated that one of the problems going on with the Republican Party is they don\u2019t even know who their base is, that they have overestimated who their conservative base is. They do not understands it and overestimate it. In other words, the conservative base is not nearly as conservative as they think it is, nor is it conservative as they define it.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s key. The way the Republican establishment defines conservatism is not what it is. To them it\u2019s hayseed hicks, pro-lifers running around in pickup trucks with shotguns in the back, bitter clingers. You know, Obama\u2019s not just speaking for himself on that. There are a lot of people in Washington in both parties who have that opinion of conservatives, and the Republicans might even look at their own base in that regard. But the truth is that they\u2019ve overestimated the conservative base and furthermore they are clueless in understanding what it is that motivates their own base, and, as such, they\u2019re incapable of understanding why Trump has any support.<\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019m gonna explain all that to you today, and more. ‘Cause I have been researching it, delving deeply into it. My own instincts in this from a year ago are being confirmed on a couple of things. Snerdley tells me… I didn\u2019t… I haven\u2019t seen this, but why would I doubt Snerdley? I mean, why would I think Snerdley would be wrong about this? Why would I think Snerdley would come to me with something wrong?<\/p>\n

He\u2019s telling me that George Will… Is it a column today? (interruption) Well, you read it today. I don\u2019t know when it was published, but apparently George Will is saying that if Trump wins, he\u2019s advocating third party. (interruption) That he will go third party? (interruption) Oh, it was an interview? (interruption) It\u2019s not a column? (interruption) All right. All right. (interruption) Oh. If it\u2019s in your stack, I\u2019ll find it. I\u2019ve been swamped in here.<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t had a chance to go through it. Anyway, George Will is talking third party. I can explain why that\u2019s happening, too, folks.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: I think, folks, the thing that\u2019s happening here, the awakening that\u2019s taking place, and I think it\u2019s a serious awakening that is taking place within the Republican Party and the so-called conservative movement. When I talk about the conservative movement, to me I\u2019m talking about Washington. I\u2019m not talking about you in the grassroots. I\u2019m talking about the establishment, conservative media, the brainiacs, the think tanks, the professors. And it\u2019s not bad, don\u2019t misunderstand. I\u2019m just saying that there is a new understanding of who out in the country is actually conservative and who isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

I think what\u2019s actually being revealed here is that the Republican Party itself and even some of the conservative intelligentsia has misjudged and overestimated the conservatism of the base, negatively. They have a negative connotation of conservatism. They don\u2019t like it, obviously. They think it\u2019s the pro-lifers, the social issues, that\u2019s what they think conservatives are, and that that\u2019s all they are.<\/p>\n

And they\u2019re embarrassed of \u2019em, don\u2019t like going to the convention with \u2019em, and their wives nag \u2019em about it. And what\u2019s being discovered here by virtue of the Trump candidacy is that this misunderstanding is being exposed. And it\u2019s now out in the open that the Republican conservative base is not monolithically conservative. It has lots of components that have been lumped together as conservative maybe for the past 30 years. And there are some people who think that this masquerade\u2019s over, is good that it\u2019s over, that the idea that conservatism is one type of thinking and one person and a monolithic thing, some people think it\u2019s a great idea to have this blown up.<\/p>\n