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Rush Limbaugh

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RUSH: We have diplomats all over the world, right? And safe to say that most diplomats are liberal. I think it would serve us well to remind them and ourselves that one of the main purposes of diplomats overseas is to produce visas and legal documentation for non-American citizens to enter the country, is it not? Why bother having embassies? Why don’t we just scrap the whole passport system? If no one’s concerned with legal versus illegal, why not just scrap it? Why require a passport to get into this country? Why require a visa? If this regime is gonna make the case that what’s going on in Arizona is racist and bigoted and Nazi-like, then why don’t we just eliminate all forms of identification? That way they can get away with their voter fraud without any problems. If no one’s concerned with legal versus illegal coming into the country, well, why we doing all this?

Democrats say that they’re in favor of everything being fair. Let me ask this. How is it fair to legal immigrants that have taken all the necessary steps to become legal citizens for years to grant everybody legal benefits even if they aren’t legal and have cheated the system? What is fair? If we’re going to use fairness let’s throw it right back in their face. What about any of this is fair? Isn’t it funny, ladies and gentlemen? Isn’t it funny how much we heard about the need to cut our health care spending? But neither Obama nor any of the Democrats ever suggested that providing health care services for millions of noncitizens was ever once mentioned as part of the problem. In fact, wouldn’t part of our new era of fiscal responsibility notice how many billions of taxpayer dollars are being spent on illegal aliens who are getting costly services that they are not paying for? We’ve got this big blue ribbon commission with Irksome Bowles and Alan Simpson. They’re going to recommend all these Draconian steps, we’ve gotta get the deficit under control.

We never, ever hear anybody say, in this era of fiscal responsibility, about all the billions of taxpayer dollars that are being spent on illegals. And, of course, ladies and gentlemen, wouldn’t anybody who is turning his laser-like focus on providing jobs for Americans, wouldn’t that person notice that there would be a lot more jobs available for our citizens if there were not so many noncitizens here illegally? Obama loves to talk about the need for people to have skin in the game, doesn’t he? How do illegal aliens have skin in the game? They don’t. That’s social injustice. Somehow it won’t be Nazi-like to demand, ‘Show us your insurance papers.’ We’re going to have to prove we have insurance or we’re going to get fined, and guess who gets to enforce this? The IRS. We are going to have to prove insurance, we are going to have to provide insurance papers. Why isn’t that Nazi-like? For the first time in the history of our nation we’re all going to have to prove we have insurance because we’re all going to have to buy it because we’re all going to be mandated to buy it, we’re all going to be told we have to buy it by the federal government, which is unconstitutional. And we will have to have the papers to prove it.

Guess who won’t be required to have papers to prove that they have health insurance? Illegals. Illegals will continue to have access to our emergency rooms. They won’t have to prove anything. They won’t have to buy insurance because they’re not citizens. There’s no way of finding them. And if they show up needing services they’re going to get it, we’re gonna pay for it. We have to show our papers, we have to buy insurance; we’re mandated by federal law in violation of constitution. They’re not. And yet Arizona’s law is Nazi-like? Where’s the outrage about all of this? And, by the way, you don’t have to be doing anything suspicious to get carded for your insurance papers. All you have to do is file your income tax. It doesn’t even require suspicious activity. You just get carded. You are required to prove your insurance, that you have it, every year. Russia, the land idolized and admired by the American left, still requires an internal passport, did you know that? An identity document, your papers, in Russia they’re still used to control the internal movement and residents of people, same thing in Ukraine.

Now, the Democrats think that they have found somebody that is hated more than Congress, and that’s Wall Street, and that’s what they’re trying to do. You know how apoplectic John Kerry used to get when anybody questioned his patriotism? Remember all the Democrats, ‘You can’t question my patriotism!’ Hillary Clinton going absolutely bonkers redefining patriotism as dissent? As I said, ladies and gentlemen, in the closing moments of the previous hour, the real radical here is the president. The real radical is the regime. Oh, by the way, the interior secretary, Ken Salazar, has just given the green light to go ahead and build that Massachusetts wind farm that Ted Kennedy didn’t want. One member of the regime, after nine years of debate back and forth, one member of the regime has the authority to give the green light to go ahead with the wind farm. Where is the outrage over that? Jeb Bush and even Marco Rubio criticized the Arizona immigration law. I had people say, ‘Well, Rubio has to do that, Rush, I mean his ethnicity requires that he –‘ why does his ethnicity require it? This is what gets us all in trouble. We gotta say things that we may not actually mean in order to get votes from a certain group of people? ‘That’s right, Rush, we can’t get anywhere if you don’t win the elections.’

Jeb Bush said he didn’t like the Arizona immigration law. Both guys kind of disappointed me when they did this. They’re unwittingly embracing the straw man argument being pushed by the radical left in this regime, which suggests that if you do not accept illegal immigration or if you do not legalize that which is illegal through some form of amnesty, then you will be perceived as anti-immigrant, anti-Hispanic and so forth. Sorry. I’m not going to be categorized that way. The law is the law here. Just doesn’t seem right for people who wish to abide by the law to be accused of bigotry, racism, sexism, or what have you. Let me explain something, ladies and gentlemen. We expect no more or less from immigrants than we expect from citizens, and that’s compliance with the law. You cannot legalize anarchy and chaos and expect a society to sustain itself. It’s just that logical and just that simple. Try to make all the rhetorical points you want but a fact of life is if you legalize anarchy and chaos, you are going to have a society that is going to crumble, and that may not be all that bad a thing to happen in the eyes of this regime.

You cannot grant other countries the power over your country’s immigration system, which we’re doing with Mexico. You either have law and order or you have injustice and chaos, and that’s what you have on the border with Mexico in too many places. To ignore what’s happening there, in Mexico, the violence that threatens to topple that government, to fail to address the border effectively, to ignore what is happening to the infrastructure in Arizona and other places and to pretend that legalizing anarchy will fix it is to show a complete lack of — it’s like defining deviancy down. Okay, we can’t stop certain forms of crime, so we’re going to stop calling them crimes. We can’t stop illegal immigration, let’s just annex Central America. Okay, those are some new states, or new territories. As was pointed out, the Romans tried that, and it didn’t work for them. It won’t work for us. You pretend to legalize anarchy in order to fix it, you define deviancy down, is a complete lack of serious thought and leadership.

We’ve learned a lot over the last couple decades, three or four, even, from failed policies, including amnesty granted by one of my heroes, Ronald Reagan. It didn’t work. We’re talking two or three million people then. Reagan, by the way, insisted the border be secured. Congress never did it, still refuses to do so, ergo we are where we are. What we’ve learned is the way we’re doing it is not working. The answer is not more amnesty. The answer is more security. A nation has not only a right, but an obligation, to secure its sovereignty and its citizens. A nation exists for all its citizens, not the citizens of other countries. But a large body of thought in this country is of the opinion that we exist for other countries. They just want a better life. A nation exists for its citizens. We don’t keep people from other countries out of our country. We have a legal mechanism for them to come, and if they assimilate, become Americans, we love it.

Let me underscore something. We’re a very, very diverse nation, if not the most diverse nation on the face of the earth now. We are also the most tolerant nation on the face of the earth, and we are these things because of law and order. That is, our immigration laws are very liberal and compassionate to foreigners who seek to come here legally, our society is based on ordered liberty, which means that our systems of government exist to secure the well-being of our citizens. That’s why we’re diverse and tolerant at the same time. It is Obama and misguided Republicans in some instances who undermine this order and who threaten the tolerance that has existed for so long. It is their failure to be leaders rather than malcontents or panderers that threaten this society. This is a total absence of leadership at the federal level on this. All there is is a transparent, cheap attempt to get these people registered as either Republicans or Democrats.

The sole reason that any federal official is interested in these people is not for their humanity; is not based on compassion; is not based on getting them a better life; it’s based on getting their vote. It’s based on their career and political selfishness. It is not based on leadership. If somebody in the Republican Party wants to win the presidency of this country, they will simply lead the people of this country, defend and protect the Constitution, make it plain that’s what they’re going to do and make it plain that virtually everything they do is first and foremost for the good of the nation and not the good of themselves, that they are not out crafting policies and agendas designed to get votes, legal or illegal. That’s why there’s no leadership on immigration at the federal level, from McCain to Jeb Bush to Marco Rubio, I don’t care who you name, to Barack Obama, to John Kerry, to John Edwards, whoever it is that has sought high office, they want their votes. And they are pandering to those people to get their votes at the expense of defending and protecting the citizens of this country.

That is what’s going on. And the first person who wants to be president, who stops pandering to any group for their votes and understands the crossroads we face as a people, what kind of country are we going to be, are we going to be in a decline that certain people want us to be in, and they’re gonna manage this decline, or are we going to be a country that rebounds to once again becoming the greatest nation on the history of the earth for every human being on this earth, by virtue of our existence? Anybody who wants to lead this country under that prescription will win in a landslide. And the people who pander to group after group after group after group to get their votes by changing what they believe to accommodate every group, I don’t care if it’s ethnic, gender, agenda policy, whatever it is, will lose big if there is somebody seeking to lead this country, as in leading all of the people in this country, all of the citizens for the betterment of the citizenry and therefore the country, not a group here or a group there.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: ‘Charlie Crist says oil spill proves drilling isn’t safe, withdraws his support…’ Charlie Crist, you’ve got linguine for a spine. Charlie Crist is gonna announce he’s not running for the Senate as a Republican tomorrow; he’s going to go as an independent. He’s admitting he’s lost the Republican primary. I predicted that this exact thing would happen, that this oil spill out there would be the death knell for people who want to drill — and right there we got a Republican leading the charge. It’s just pandering to a constituency that he thinks he needs to win a Senate seat. You see, folks, we have some Republicans who confuse compassion with lawlessness. ‘But, Rush! But, Rush! They’re just seeking a better life.’

Once the law, properly enacted, is routinely ignored — and ignored with the blessing and the promotion of the political class — then you have a breakdown of organized society, and there is nothing compassionate about what’s happening to the people of Arizona. There is nothing compassionate about the violation of private property rights. There is nothing compassionate about the abuse of the taxpayer. There is nothing compassionate about the closing of schools and hospitals. There’s nothing at all compassionate about increased drug trafficking and crime. Nothing compassionate about that at all. In fact, not only is that not compassion, we are at the forefront of a dissolution of a nation by looking the other way — or, in fact, sanctioning this kind of behavior under the guise that it is compassionate to not criticize it.

To say that immigration’s always been important to this nation is to misstate what’s taking place. Illegality, whether committed by citizens or noncitizens, has never been a principled objective of the society. How could it be? To conflate immigration and illegal immigration is to be intellectually and factually dishonest, and the purpose of this conflating is an attempt to justify that which is illegal by suggesting it is otherwise — that it is compassionate, that it is people seeking a better life — and it is very troublesome to me when certain Republicans play this game because it’s a guaranteed loser, not just for the Republican Party but for the country. The Democrats have become demagogues on this issue. It takes courage and principle, thoughtfulness to stand up to demagogues — and we’ll find out who our future leaders are based on their ability to demonstrate crucial characteristics of leadership during this course of this debate.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Fox News right now is citing a poll, I don’t know which one it is: 60% of the American people support immigration laws like Arizona’s. Hello, Republicans! If you want to end up like Senator McCain, act like Senator McCain: Lose. Sixty percent support immigration laws like Arizona’s. Elected leaders have one responsibility, the defense, protection, and safety of its citizens. This regime has cast that to the wind. All right, to the phones. We’re going to start here in Norco, California. This is Sue. Nice to have you on the program. Hello.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. I have agreed with everything you’ve said this morning, but this… Being a Californian and a native Californian, this racism that is being pushed by the Democrats and the demagoguery that is being rammed down our throats is very disturbing, because to me they are the new slave masters. They are using this issue under the same arguments the South used for slavery: ‘We’ve gotta have cheap labor,’ and then they’re using it to get a vote. They are the new slave masters, and that’s what needs to be shown. When Jackson and Sharpton get up there and they start talking about the ‘rights’ of illegal immigrants, it needs to be turned right around on them to show what racism they are spewing, because it’s just wrong. That’s not what California is about and that’s not what the US is about.

RUSH: You know, that’s brilliantly stated, timely. Let’s go ahead and illustrate Sue’s point. We have a couple things here. First off, the Reverend Sharpton, on the streets of Arizona.

(playing of Sharpton spoof: Freedom Marchers)

RUSH: And so they shall. Freedom marchers, freedom walkers in Arizona led by the Reverend Sharpton.

(playing of Sharpton spoof: Takin’ it to the Streets)

RUSH: That’s ‘white comedian’ Paul Shanklin, the vocal portrayal there as the Reverend Sharpton and Takin’ it to the Streets. We’re talking about things legal today and about all this. You know, Americans never quit, never give up. There are testaments to this each and every day in this country, Americans never giving up. The people of Arizona are acting as they are, they’re doing what they’re doing because they believe the best is yet to come if we strive for it. Yogi Berra: ‘It ain’t over ’til it’s over.’

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Johnson City, Tennessee, Steven, thank you for waiting. You’re up next on the Rush Limbaugh program. Hello, sir.

CALLER: Hello, hello. Thanks for taking my call.

RUSH: You bet.

CALLER: I just wanted to comment on this Arizona immigration law thing. I really don’t understand what the big deal is because I’m currently a green card holder, and I went to all the legal steps to become a green card holder, which involved three years of paperwork. And when I arrived in the country about a year ago, I received from USCIS a packet including a bunch of different notifications, one of which was that I have to keep my green card on me 24 hours a day.

RUSH: Your papers?

CALLER: Yeah. I have to show ID and be prepared to show that at all times. So it’s very simple: I keep it in my wallet and if anything were to happen I expect to be questioned. Because I have an accent, I would assume that the police might say —

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: — ‘Where are you from?’ And I really… I just don’t understand why this is even news to people that in Arizona they might question people’s status. I assume that will be a question asked me by a police officer if I was ever pulled over.

RUSH: Well, the easiest way to explain this to you is that the Democrat Party is so out of favor with the citizens of this country, their only hope for continued electoral victory is voter fraud — and producing an ID to vote is the death knell for Democrat electoral victory. So any effort to force anybody illegal to prove their legality — with an ID, with their papers — is going to be fought. That’s what’s on the line in Arizona. That’s why this regime is doing nothing except moving toward amnesty: Legalizing all the illegals in one fell swoop. And that’s why it is suicide for any Republican to join them in the effort under the guise of compassion. Because as I said: The real compassion is for the legal citizens of this country whose lives are being upended by the chaos and the tumult caused by the society and the culture being uprooted as a result of all this.

Yet this regime (and sadly way too many misguided Republicans) think the compassion that we ought to have is for the people who don’t live here, who are not legally present here but who ‘want a better life,’ and the reason is ’cause they want their votes. That is going to have to end. People are going to have to stop voting for politicians who simply exist to get their votes either by pandering or coming up with a fake agenda they don’t believe in or adopting some tenet of liberalism like, ‘I have a big heart! Compassionate conservatism. Yes I, as a Republican, will admit that conservatism is mean-spirited, but I’m not! I am a compassionate conservative ’cause I believe in helping the downtrodden.’ That’s a guaranteed loser, plus it takes the country down the sewer. Let’s do a little thought experiment here and try to illustrate the point another way.

If it was a dead cinch certainty that the illegal alien and Hispanic vote would go for the Republicans, would the Democrats still be concerned about this social injustice? Be honest, now. If it was assumed that the Hispanic vote was solidly 80, 90% Republican — if it was assumed that 70, 80, 90% of the illegal alien vote would go Republican — would the Democrats and the left be so concerned about the social injustice of what’s happening to the illegals? No. If, ladies and gentlemen, the illegal alien vote and the Hispanic vote were majority Republican, the Democrats would be building high speed railway trains to Mexico City, to Tijuana, Puerto Vallarta, and wherever else they could send them, for deportation. If 70 to 80% of the illegal vote was going to theoretically go Republican — if the Hispanic vote was 70 to 80% Republican — the Democrat Party in this regime would be marching and advancing legislation demanding deportation, yesterday.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Speak of the devil, Steve in Tucson, great to have you on the EIB Network, sir, hello.

CALLER: Hey, bueno. Hey, Rush, I’m so mad at these libs that I hope that they boycott Arizona completely so we don’t get them out here, and then I hope maybe we can pass a law to make ’em so mad at us that live in Arizona that they’ll pack up and leave. Say we pass a law that says it’s illegal to be a liberal in Arizona, you know. And then, one of the big problems we have, like down by Douglas, is that we have wildlife preserves —

RUSH: Yeah?

CALLER: — and the federal government, idiots in Washington with a capital ‘I,’ will not allow the Border Patrol to patrol it, so these uneducated immigrants can figure out that they can go right through that area. And that’s the same area where that rancher was murdered.

RUSH: Yeah, yeah.

CALLER: You never see an environmentalist down there petitioning or picketing the line and telling them to pick up their litter, and they’re just destroying the wildlife habitat. So anyway I hope they all leave here and I hope we can pass another law —

RUSH: Like I say, I think what your brave and courageous governor, Ms. Brewer, ought to do is have a press conference and start singing the praises of the welfare state in San Francisco. She ought to get charts and graphs showing where to go in San Francisco for this meal, for that house, for this protest, where to go in San Francisco to vote, and then she ought to get them one-way travel vouchers on either Greyhound Buses or Amtrak, and after this press conference where she shows the illegals where all the goodies are in San Francisco, then give them each a voucher, one way to San Francisco. And let Gavin Newsom, that smug little mayor, deal with it.

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