RUSH: Folks, people keep not hounding me, ’cause I don’t consider it to be hounding, but people keep asking me, “Rush, what do you think? What are you gonna do? What do you make of all this?” In fact, let me find a sound bite. I wasn’t gonna play this at the top, but it fits if I can just find it here. It’s CNN trying to figure out what I think.

CNN, they’re utterly confused. This ran last night on Anderson Cooper 360, and they always say, folks — this is important — left-wing America, the Drive-By Media, the Democrat Party, when talking about you or me or conservatives, they always say that we’re just, among other things, simpletons. That we’re too dense to understand intellectual nuance. We’re too dumb to understand any nuance. That you are mind-numbed robots incapable of forming your own opinions and making up your own minds. So you tune here to find out what you should think, and you tune in here to find out what it is you don’t know. And if you didn’t do that, you would be blindly traversing the tundra and the countryside thinking the blizzard was gonna kill you today.

So, given that, given how we know the left looks at us in terms of being simpleton and mind-numbed robots, listen to this report from Tom Foreman on CNN last night.

FOREMAN: Trump has enjoyed oceans of praise on conservative radio.

RUSH ARCHIVE: The last 10 minutes of what Trump did last night sealed the deal. The sincerity, the appreciation for the audience.

FOREMAN: But now that he’s taking on his closest challenger, Tea Party favorite Ted Cruz, the tide is turning.

RUSH ARCHIVE: A genuine conservative, even in the Republican field, would not go after Cruz this way.

FOREMAN: As the months passed and the battle with Cruz became inevitable, the conservative talkers sharpened their words, and the dean of conservative talk, Rush Limbaugh?

RUSH ARCHIVE: I think Trump is making a strategic error in the way he criticizes Cruz. But, folks, it’s unrealistic to expect that they’re not gonna go after each other.

FOREMAN: The conservative talkers will almost certainly hurt Trump if they keep hitting him this way. But if he looks like he can win the nomination and the White House, they could change their tune again. After all, they’ve been mad at the Democrats a whole lot longer.

RUSH: What does all of this mean to you? They do not know what I think. They really curious, they are confused. The dean of talk radio, is he for Trump or is he against him? They can’t figure it out. Ladies and gentlemen, let me remind you of a phone call we got yesterday toward end of the program, 28-year-old young man. And, yeah, we’re gonna get to the National Review stuff ’cause I got Rich Lowry and these guys all on TV. We’ll react to it after hearing their words. But I don’t think what’s happening here in that regard is complicated.

I think this is easily explainable because we are literally going through things here that in many ways are unprecedented, and there are choices, challenges that people haven’t had to make, and it’s causing much consternation and confusion. Lifetimes, careers are being questioned, the relevance, the importance, by virtue of this Republican campaign. I think what’s happening is so big, is so momentous, it’s impossible to predict exactly where it’s going or what the end result is gonna be. But it is exciting. This is thrill-packed.

And what is happening here has the potential to be huge no matter the result. It has the potential to accomplish what so many of you for the last 25 years have called here and said you thought the Republican Party was going to do. There are genuine opportunities for massive upheaval and change here, with more than just one outcome. I, myself, am still analyzing it. I’m still trying to figure out what everything that happens means.

I’m analyzing why certain people are supporting certain candidates, why certain people are not, what it is about certain candidates that’s attracting all of this support, and what is the appeal. I’m still analyzing it, trying to figure it out — and I’m having a ball doing it, by the way. It is a fun challenge to have, and I don’t want to kill off any of it yet. May I be honest with you? I don’t want to kill off anything that’s happening right here. It’s too big. It’s too momentous. It’s larger than any one of us. It’s larger than any one organization, ideology, publication, whatever.

What’s happening here is so huge, I don’t want to kill off any of it. I want to let things take place and let the natural ebb and flow of the process be the determining factor of what happens here. “Mr. Limbaugh, are you saying are you so stuck on yourself, you…?” This is Mr. New Castrati out there asking me question. “Do you think you’re so big you can destroy something?” Well, let’s just say that I don’t want to chance it. Now, let me go back to this guy that called yesterday toward the end of the program, 28 years old, a Millennial. He said…

At the time, there was a discussion (as it is every day here) of people calling about why they like Trump, why they don’t; why they like Cruz, why they don’t. Rubio, you name it. People were trying to explain to me, even going so far as trying to tell me why I like Trump. I mean, everybody’s playing this analysis game, and this guy calls and says something that I hadn’t heard said in this fashion. He said, “Rush, I’m 28 years old, and what you need to understand is the way people my age and in my circle are looking at all of this.”

The first thing he said was, “Let’s look at the two parties. The Democrat Party…” I’m gonna use his words here. He said, “The Democrat Party has become the party of the fringe, the fringes in America,” and without my prompting, he defined what he meant, and he spelled out verbatim the Democrat Party coalition. To him, a 28-year-old Millennial, they are the fringe. The LGBT crowd, the gay-marriage crowd, the civil rights coalitions, the militant feminism, the rape culture-on-campus crowd, everybody trying to make everybody politically correct, the denial of First Amendment, limits on free speech, putting photographers and pizza owners in jail…

If they don’t do a cake or take pictures or bake a pizza for a gay wedding, put ’em in jail. That’s the Democrat Party, and that’s the party of the fringe. He said the Republican Party is the party of “white people.” But what he meant was, the party of Middle America. He’s talking about the party. They’re not fringe. They’re standard. They are, in his words — well, my words, actually, defining what he meant. He was not speaking racistly or racially in this. He was defining who the various constituent groups are for the political parties.

Democrats are the fringe, and he said the Republican Party represents the white people of America. White men. He said, basically, white men. But here’s the key to it. He said the Democrat Party is free to openly promote and advocate for all of their fringe groups, and the Republican Party is not. The Republican Party cannot say or do one thing to benefit their constituents because they’re gonna get called out as racists and bigots and whatever. So they have to stand mute. The Republican Party can’t say anything positive.

It can’t come up with any policies, it can’t introduce any legislation that advances its primary constituency group because right now, at this point in time in American history, they are considered the problem. White men are the majority, and dominant majority. They’re ones that got the country in trouble. They’re the ones that have been racists, bigots, sexists, homophobes. The Democrat Party thinks it’s perfectly legitimate to go after them. The Republican Party is their political representative, but they can’t defend them.

“So,” he said, “the two parties don’t do a thing for us. The two parties have a paralyzing fight. One party that we might want to join can’t do anything for us. The other party that we don’t want to join is engaging in all this fringe stuff that’s resulting in the rot and the destruction of our culture — and in the middle of the all this, here comes Donald Trump.” And he said, “What you need to understand, Mr. Limbaugh, is that it isn’t about Donald Trump. It’s what Trump is and what Trump represents, and that is a totally new way that cannot be tied to either of the two political parties — which, frankly, Mr. Limbaugh, we don’t like. There’s nothing for us there.”

Now, he was not assuming that he’s speaking for every Millennial or every 28-year-old.

He was talking about I don’t know how many people, but I think it’s a sizable number. And his point about Trump was, “You keep talking about how Trump survives all these crazy things he says, Mr. Limbaugh. It isn’t about any of that. Trump can say or do anything; it isn’t gonna hurt him because it isn’t about him. It’s about the fact that he represents to us a new way, a different direction, an ability to be honest about what you believe the problems are, an ability to be honest about your opponents, an ability to be honest about the people you think are responsible for making the mess.”

His point was, we can’t even do that the way the politics of the country is structured today. You can’t truthfully, honestly criticize. You’re shut down by one side or the other — and for the most part the left never gets shut down. They get amplified and promoted. And opposition… If you want to join the Republican Party, to what end? Why would you? You’re gonna have a party that can’t represent you, you’re gonna have a party that can’t promote things for you, because they’re gonna be tarred and feathered if they try. So Trump is the new way.

This guy was saying that his group hates this current structure, the way American politics is working right now, and he thinks it’s doomed to consign the country to the triumph of the fringes. And, by definition, fringes do not triumph. “By definition, fringes are not the majority. And so we want our shot at success. We want our shot at the American dream, and neither of the two political parties seems the slightest bit interested in any of that.

“They both got theirs in terms of things that give them power today, and they don’t want to take any risks whatsoever.” I was utterly fascinated by it. I’ve been thinking about it, putting it in the mix with everything else that’s happening out there as I try — and I really am. Without prejudice, without name-calling, I’m trying to figure out exactly what’s happening. ‘Cause it is momentous.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Hugh Hewitt, who is a radio talk show host out in LA, was part of the Reagan administration, and has appeared on CNN as a moderator for some of the debates that they have had. He was on Anderson Cooper last night. They’re talking about all of this confusion out there, National Review doing the issue and the Trump-Cruz phenomena, what it all means. And he was on with John Berman filling in for Anderson Cooper, and this was the little exchange that they had.

BERMAN: It’s not universal. I mean, Rush Limbaugh, for instance, some people would consider the dean of conservative talk radio. He’s kind of gone back and forth — and, in some cases, given Donald Trump a lot of cover.

HEWITT: Rush is Donald’s friend — and Rush is, in fact, the big kahuna. He is “the maker of the feast,” as Scrooge was referred to after his conversion on Christmas. He always makes the market for talk radio, and so everyone knows that Rush matters a lot more than pretty much anybody else, and he does like Ted Cruz a lot. I was listening to his show today, and so maybe there’s a tilt there; maybe there isn’t. I don’t think he’s declared, obviously.

RUSH: You know what? Hugh Hewitt is a smart guy. But what strikes me here (I just realized this) is look at all these CNN people who know what I’m doing on this program. You know how odd that is? Most of these people, they never listen here. They found out what happened on this program by going to a “watchdog” website like Media Matters or what have you. But there was… Here’s John Berman, who had two or three other hosts, with this Foreman guy. And for a couple or three weeks now, these CNN people, at least… We still have the ban on MSNBC, so I don’t know what they’re saying.

But the CNN people, I mean, they must be following this. I wonder why. They’re following this and they have concluded, “You know what? We haven’t heard Rush come down one way or the other on it. What’s up with that?” How do they even know? I thought that this program is so beneath their standards and so unimportant, it’s just… Do you remember who was first to call me “the big kahuna”? I’m trying to take anything away from Hugh Hewitt. I admire Hugh Hewitt tremendous amount. Well, let’s go back to the floor of the House of Representatives. November 13th, 1995…

SCHROEDER: And they had the big kahuna of GOPAC come speak, none other than Rush Limbaugh himself … [H]e was hailing the GOP budget! … [I]t was wonderful because it would starve the poor and it would drive Medicare recipients, including his mother, to eat dog food. But not to worry, Mom, he says, I’m sending you a new can opener! (whispers) Wow. (dramatic pause) That tells you what today’s about.

RUSH: Patsy Schroeder. Exactly right. She was one of the early feminazis. She was a Democrat. She ran for president and cried when she realized she couldn’t win. That wasn’t so bad, but she cried on the shoulder of her husband, and at that point nobody knew she had one. It was a total betrayal of the feminists, A cry, and to, B, admit she had a husband who had a shoulder on which she would cry. Oh, it was a bad day for ’em. She actually… I had made a speech at GOPAC.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Okay. It was a Sunday. I was asked to make a speech at GOPAC. I did. But I demanded a TV because the Cowboys and 49ers were on. I demanded a TV back in the greenroom and a delay in the start of my speech so I could see the first half before I had to go out there. So they accommodated me on that. What was going on at the time was a big budget debate (as always) and there were Medicare “cuts.” The Democrats were threatening all these Medicare cuts the Republicans are gonna make, and the Democrats are running around saying that seniors were gonna have to choose between dog food or medicine because of all the budget cuts.

So I went out there and, mocking the Democrats, I told these GOPAC guys, “I’m proud to be a member,” and I said, “Don’t sweat the budget. Look, I understand it’s a choice here between dog food and medicine. Do what I do. I sent my mom a new can opener making it easier to open the dog food,” mocking the whole thing. They laughed uproariously at GOPAC. The thing is, Patsy Schroeder thought that I was serious! Here is a woman that literally thought that I was serious, that I was fine with my mom eating dog food, and I was gonna send her a new can opener and that would fix it. She went to the floor of the House — and, by the way, somebody got to her because she didn’t say a thing about it ever again. Somebody… They grabbed her and said, “Patsy, it was a joke.” Just amazing.