RUSH: Lower Lake, California. This is Brian. Glad you called, sir. How are you?
CALLER: Hello. Good morning, Rush. I wanted to ask you a question. As of now, the Republican Congress has failed to pass Trump’s legislation in the repeal and redo of Obamacare, and later in the year they’re gonna try taxes, which will probably also fail. How do you see the possibility of them losing the House and then Trump being impeached based on anything that Mueller may find, regardless how small it is?
RUSH: I am going to surprise you. I’m glad you asked me this question, because I don’t know if I would have naturally transitioned to this without some sort of stimuli such as that which you have provided with your excellent question. Many people, I think, are making a mistake in the Trump era by continuing to look at things in the traditional Republican-versus-Democrat way.
I think there’s a second mistake being made by many analysts and commentators who are wrong in their analysis of who Trump voters are. And that analysis would have you believe that every Trump voter is a populist and nationalist who doesn’t want America to be anywhere in the world, wants a wall built around the whole country, doesn’t want anybody coming in. Wants every bit of legislation to benefit only domestic Americans. To hell with foreign aid, the hell with foreign policy, they don’t want anything to do with it. This is the Never Trumper view of the Trump voter. And they are immersed in this belief that every one of you Trump voters is a populist, not a conservative. That every one of you is a nationalist, not a conservative.
And in their minds that’s a big, big difference. Populists are despised by Never Trumpers and by even Democrats because a populist is defined as somebody who doesn’t have an ideological core per se in the left-right paradigm, but instead is just a blind America firster no matter what constantly and to hell with what’s happening elsewhere in the world. And I don’t think that any of the traditional political science analysis of the Trump voter has yet understood what one of the primary motivations of Trump voters is.
I’ll tell you what I think it is. I think one of the primary motivating factors in Trump voters is anti-Democrat Party sentiment and anti-leftist sentiment. I think that a lot of the people that voted for Trump voted for Trump because they sensed in him the only guy in the Republican primary who would actually do battle with the left.
I think the people that we’re talking about, that Salena Zito finds in Ohio and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, I think they despise liberalism. I think they hate the left. I think they’re scared of it. I think they’re angry with it. I think they believe that liberalism is destroying the fabric and the culture in this country and that that’s why they voted for Trump. Not because Trump was gonna close the borders.
These people, there may be some of that. As such, the answer to your question, if the Republicans do not repeal Obamacare, and if there is no tax reform, I do not think it is a guarantee that voters elect Democrats as a result. Because I can’t see the people who voted for Donald Trump ever voting for the Democrat no matter how angry they are at Republicans.
Now, I realize what I’m saying here. I think these people would not vote rather than vote for Democrats. Their anger at Republicans is profound and is going to get even deeper if they fail to advance the Trump agenda. But these people that voted for Trump are not going to vote for Democrats in response. Trump represents the only chance in their lifetimes to stop the left. They didn’t think that about any other Republican in the primaries. And everybody’s missing this. Everybody thinks it’s populism and nationalism, and they’re missing what has really irritated all of us for 25 years!
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Let me expand on this a bit. Speaking personally for many of the past — I’ll go back to 2001, the inauguration of George W. Bush, but even back during the Clintons, one thing that has been really frustrating to me about the Republican Party and many in the conservative movement, is there seems to be much less detectable energy toward stopping the left. It always frustrated me. It seems to me that’s the whole point here.
Naturally the right wants to win elections, Republicans want to win elections, but I got the impression that many of them just wanted to win the election just to win it. Just to get the committee chairmanships. Just be in charge of the money that holding the committee chairmanship gives you if you’re in the Senate. But an agenda that actually stopped the corruption and the destruction of liberalism, I didn’t see much of it.
I didn’t see much push-back against it, and yet that’s what’s of paramount importance to me and always has been. I thought conservatism is the best answer to it. But conservatism is never gonna have a prayer if you don’t also at the same time have some commitment to stopping the destruction and the overall transformation the left is attempting on this country. And I think Trump voters are exactly that. This is why, from the moment Trump got into this, I always thought he could win. And not long after he got into it I thought he was gonna win.
And I’ve understood the bond that his supporters have for him, and I have never, never bought into this idea that Trump supporters are this newly discovered, previously hidden group of nationalists and populists and this so-called alt-right stuff, which has a very narrow view of the United States’ role in the world. I’ve always thought that what Trump represented to a majority of his voters was a vehicle to stop Obamaism, to reverse it.
The Republicans were saying that’s what they wanted to do, but now look at the moment of truth; it isn’t what they want to do, is it? Trump does. Seriously attack the judiciary, roll that back, appoint as many conservatives to it as you can, not populists, but conservatives. I think a whole lot of people in the Midwest where a lot of commentators do not go and do not live and do not understand, I think a lot of Trump’s voters have, as one of their primary objectives, just stopping the cultural corruption that’s taking place. The corruption in education. The corruption that’s taking place in our foreign policy. The corruption at every level of government.
In essence, they want to stop the transformation of this country away from the way it was founded into something it was never intended to be. And if truth be known, they haven’t seen much of that fight from the Republican Party! They voted for the Republican Party because that’s the only vessel there was if you were gonna stop the Democrats.
My point is, caller’s question: Do you think if the Republicans don’t do health care, if they don’t repeal it and taxes, do you think they will lose the House and Trump will get impeached?
Maybe. But it isn’t gonna be because Trump voters vote Democrat. That’s not how it’s gonna happen. If it happens, it’s gonna be because Trump voters stay home. And I don’t know what they’re gonna do. It’s too soon to predict right now. The midterms are still a year and a half away, and anything can happen. Just look at the last 24 hours; as Mr. Snerdley described, all hell broke loose.
Do you see Trump voters, people that elected Donald Trump, do you see them voting for Chuck Schumer to run the Senate? Even if they hate McConnell, even if they don’t like Ryan, I don’t see them turning around and voting, unless, unless they are so mad that all they now want to do is punish Republicans and to hell with it. If they give up and assume that there’s no way of stopping the left, that Trump’s not enough to do it, then I can see them maybe voting, but it’s not because they’re ever gonna agree with the Democrats. It’s not gonna be because they agree with the Democrats, liberalism, socialism, it’s not gonna be because of that.
If the Republicans lose the House, it’s not gonna be because of Donald Trump. If the Republicans lose the House, it’s gonna be because Trump voters have decided they want to punish them. Do not doubt me here. If Democrats win the House, it isn’t going to be the result of Trump voters disgusted with him. Now, the media is gonna try to paint that exact story. Reuters already doing it now. One out of every eight Trump voters are dissatisfied, wish they could vote again.
It’s a bogus poll! They didn’t talk to people in places where Trump has a lot of voters. They did LA, San Francisco, New York. I’m surprised it was only one out of eight voters they found that regret voting for Trump. If there’s anger at Trump, it’s not policy related. If there’s anger at Trump, it’s because he hasn’t been able to work the magic they thought he’d be able to work or tweeting, the scandals or whatever.
But I’m telling you — do not doubt me on this — Trump was elected because a majority of his voters thinks the left needs to be stopped and he was the only vehicle for it. I’m not saying there was not an emotional connection to Trump. There was. I was the first to categorize it, explain it, and detail it for people. And it’s deep.