Posted on February 17, 2016

Trumpster: Ideology Doesn’t Matter to Us

Rush Limbaugh, February 16, 2016

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here’s Robert in Southampton, New York.  Great to have you on the program, sir.  Hi.CALLER:  Thank you, Rush.  Thank you for taking my call.RUSH:  You bet.CALLER:  Longtime listener since I was a little kid.  And what I think you see playing out right now with Trump and the GOP, all that, is there’s two competing versions of what conservatism is gonna be going forward, and I don’t know that the anti-Trump guys even know what they’re selling anymore.  And by that I mean, if not being a perfect conservative was enough to sink Trump, he would already be sunk.  It’s not that we don’t know that he’s not a conservative; it’s that we don’t care that he’s not a conservative.

And the things that he’s conservative on are important enough and they’re of such an overriding nature, that they can’t–I mean, no one going to a Trump rally, I don’t think, cares about his position on tax cuts, you know, I don’t think they really believe in their heart of hearts that he’s pro-life, for example.  But what he is conservative on are two issues that, going forward probably for the next 50 years that are gonna be really hot-button issues, are identity and immigration.  And the rise of the alternative right and the more nationalistic right and the rise of Trump seem to have been hand-in-glove.  I don’t know whether he’s leading them; I don’t know if we’re leading him–

RUSH:  (laughing)  I love this.

CALLER:  — the relationship is definitely there, it’s growing.  And I would just say this–and I think you touched on it last week.

RUSH:  Yes.

CALLER:  Nationalism has a little bit more curb appeal right now than standard issue Republican conservatism, and that is because–and I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes, and I don’t want to be the skunk —

RUSH:  Wait a minute.  Don’t misunderstand.  When I asked the question, I was again doing what I always do.  I ask people to think here.  You know, I love thinking myself.  I think it’s been very productive for me.  I love causing people to think.  I asked, has nationalism and populism overtaken conservatism, in the eyes of people supporting Trump or in the general population?  I asked people to think about it.

Now, I was misquoted as having proclaimed it in a lot of places to irritate rank-and-file, straight-down-the-middle conservatives who did get mad at me because they were misquoted.  I did not claim it.  I merely asked if it’s the case.  And I was using a column that was written back in 1996 about Buchanan, how it foretold what’s going on with Trump, in which nationalism and populism were advocated back then by a guy supporting Buchanan. I simply asked the question.

Now, did you just say that you think the alt right might in fact have predated Trump and might be propping up Trump rather than Trump bringing the alt right along with him?

Did I just hear a click? (interruption) Did he just hang up out there?  (interruption) We just lost the call?  (interruption) Was he on a cellular . . . ? (interruption)  Yeah, okay.  Well, darn it.  I wanted to ask . . . Anyway, folks, he said something key there.  He said the two issues that define the future are immigration and what is an American, or something like that. Identity.  And I am gonna tell you, that is so right on the money.  That is something that all of these people . . .

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