RUSH: Here is Robert in Southampton in New York.  Great to have you, sir.  Glad you waited.  I appreciate your patience.

CALLER: (muffled cell throughout) Hello.  Thanks for taking my call again.  I appreciate it.

RUSH:  Yes, sir.

CALLER:  My question is having to do with Kasich.  Kasich just wrote in John McCain’s name —

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: — completely, you know, throwing away his vote. But don’t stunts like this illustrate the way nothing else can that the way the GOP — and perhaps maybe much of the conservative movement — is really just controlled opposition whose real concern is to “virtue signal” (sic) to the left while the country burns?  I mean, is it any surprise that with people like Paul Ryan and Kasich — and you got Egg McMuffin (sic) out there in Utah basically running a shadow campaign for Hillary.

I mean, is this a good indicator of why nothing of any consequence has been conserved over the last 50 years? Not our borders, not our demographics, not marriage, not even women’s bathrooms! I mean, they can’t even hold… They can’t even hold the line on that. (chuckle) It’s just… I mean, is there any…? Is there any hope for these people?  I mean, I don’t think so, but, I mean, when they do things like this… I mean, if it isn’t controlled opposition, Rush, then why are there no corresponding figures like Paul Ryan or Kasich or —

RUSH:  Wait a second.  Are you saying “hold the position” or “controlled opposition”?  What are you saying?

CALLER:  I’m saying that much of the conservative movement isn’t meant to actually win because here we are at the bottom of the ninth with two strikes and we have people like Ryan, Egg McMuffin and now —

RUSH:  No, I just… (sigh)

CALLER:  They’re putting —

RUSH:  No, it’s my hearing. If you’re saying conservatism “holds its position,” you’re right about something there, which I wanted to expand on.  If you’re saying, “controlled opposition,” I don’t know what that means, so that’s why I was trying to clarify.  Look, I’m gonna answer this after the break.  I think I know what you’re asking me.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now, as to the previous caller from Southampton’s question about Kasich admitting that he voted for McCain, folks, this isn’t complicated.  He had a phrase called “controlled opposition.”  I had not heard the phrase, and rather than assume I know what it meant I looked it up, to the extent that I could.  The theory behind “controlled opposition” is this: That Republican elected elites work with the Democrats by controlling just how much actual opposition to the Democrats there is.

And in this way, by maintaining controlled opposition, Republicans are able to stay in close association with Democrats.  Controlled opposition is a way of limiting how strident and successful conservatives are in opposing Democrats.  Here’s the bottom line.  It’s no more complicated than this.  John Kasich does not think that it’s important to defeat Hillary Clinton.  Who cares why! All you need to know is that.  If John Kasich, the governor of Ohio, who has… Since he’s the governor, he has the mechanisms to get ground game activity going to facilitate the Republican nominee.

If he wanted to, he could do a lot to help Trump in Ohio.  Instead, he is choosing not to.  So John Kasich — and he’s not alone. John Kasich has made it clear that defeating Hillary Clinton and Democrats is not his primary objective.  I don’t… What more do you need to know?  The Never Trumpers have done the same thing.  The Never Trumpers have made it clear that, in their worldview, defeating Hillary is not the most important challenge in this election.  Defeating Trump is.  Keeping Trump out of power is viewed by many Republicans as the primary objective. 

Now, I happen to get the sense — I’m pretty confident that I know this — that the vast majority of you firmly believe that the country’s on the wrong path and has been for a long time largely because of Democrats and establishment types, and you want them stopped.  You don’t want Hillary elected because you don’t want a continuation of the last eight years.  You want the Democrats out of power.  You think the Democrats’ priorities are not the best to maintain this country as founded, so you don’t want Hillary elected. 

You don’t like the leadership of the country as it’s currently constituted. 

You think there needs to be a change in leadership. 

John Kasich obviously doesn’t.  John McCain’s not gonna win anything, so he writes McCain’s name in.  McCain’s not gonna win, so it’s not really a vote for McCain.  John Kasich doesn’t want to do anything that might actually lead to Hillary Clinton losing.  That’s what he’s saying.  How else can you analyze this?  Help me out.  Am I missing something?  I mean, you can say, “He’s making a statement of principle, Mr. Limbaugh.  He is diametrically opposed to Mr. Trump because Trump doesn’t deserve to be in the Oval Office! He’s reprobate. Trump’s this; Trump’s that.”

Fine.  That’s fine.  But the end result of that is that we continue with the kind of dangerous leadership that we’ve had for the last eight years, which we don’t want.  I don’t think it’s complicated.  You can talk about controlled opposition all you want.  I mean, it’s clear that the Republican elites, this guy, he’s making a joke, they couldn’t even make a stand for bathrooms, for crying out loud.  They don’t make a stand for the border.  They don’t take a stand on cultural issues. 

But in the specific case of Kasich, folks, it isn’t complicated.  It’s obvious that John Kasich is not interested in Hillary Clinton losing.  Will people forget it?  No, Republicans won’t forget it.  But what Kasich and others will rely on is all politics are local, you know, depending on what Kasich — can he run for reelection or is he term limited governor?  I don’t have any idea.  Anyway, I’m not even thinking about what people forget. 

To me, the world is the next eight days.  I don’t care about 15 days from now.  The world is the next eight days, and we got people in the next eight days who apparently are okay with Hillary Clinton winning, people on our side who are apparently okay with Hillary Clinton winning.  I don’t care the reasoning.  I don’t understand it. 

They can tell me they think Trump’s a reprobate, that Trump’s this, Trump’s horrible.  Isn’t it interesting, I’m supporting the party nominee and I’m the bad guy. And they are subordinating, sabotaging the party nominee, and they’re the good guys?  

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH:  That’s what I thought.  Kasich took the pledge to support the nominee.  He took the pledge to support the nominee.  The Drive-Bys are praising Kasich left and right for refusing to vote for Trump.  But they forget that he promised to support the nominee.  He’s also term limited to two terms, so he cannot run after 2018.  I’m pretty sure. I check this stuff on the fly.  I need to put an asterisk by it to make sure.