On his radio program Thursday, conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh got to the heart of why he says the current Democratic candidates fail to “light up” the stage and how Donald Trump is able to consistently do something none of them can bring themselves to do.
“There wasn’t one candidate on that stage that lit it up,” said Limbaugh in response to the first night of the first Democratic presidential primary debates hosted by NBC and MSNBC Wednesday (transcript via RushLimbaugh.com). “You know who, according to the Drudge poll, was the big winner last night? Tulsi Gabbard. As far as Drive-Bys are concerned, as they analyze it, it was little Julian Castro. And Julian Castro did probably have and exhibit more presence, and he had that ‘it’ factor of looking good and confident on TV.”
While there were no big winners, Rush argued, one person definitely walked away “the biggest loser”: “the presumed frontrunner of this group, and that would be Fauxcahontas, who, by the way, didn’t get one question about that,” he said, referencing her DNA analysis showing she may have anywhere from 1/512 to 1/1024 Native blood.
Trump then boiled down the Democratic candidates’ collective problem: “It’s the overall pessimism, negativism that emanates from any gathering of Democrats and how you’ve heard it, if you’ve lived long enough, you’ve heard it your whole life.”
The problem, he suggested, is highlighted by Trump, who not only presents a positive view of the country but does so while being “actually real” in front of his audience rather than some pre-programmed automaton.
“Donald Trump doesn’t do what we saw last night,” said Limbaugh. “Do you realize we have been spared, on our side, this kind of political chat, this kind of politicized cliche conversation for two and a half years. We got somebody that’s actually real, who goes to the microphones and just speaks, as opposed to being programmed and planned and structured and throw out this bromide here or this cliche over there.”
Though the American Left and the Democratic Party are trapped in the “utter futility” of their self-defeating message, said Limbaugh, that doesn’t mean they don’t pose a “threat.”
“Far from that,” he said. “It’s just that if there were nobody paying attention, if there were nobody voting under 50, they wouldn’t have a prayer, because anybody that old who’s been listening to this stuff for most of their lives, it’s gonna be old hat. Republicans are gonna take away Social Security. Republicans are gonna take away your house. Republicans are gonna make sure you can’t have an abortion. It just never changes. And it hasn’t changed in all of these years.”
“Overall, folks, it is the never-ending portrayal of this country as a land of destitution, hopelessness, discrimination, racism, hatred, bigotry, that I, frankly, have had my fill of,” Rush remarked later. “But I can’t act like that to you. I can be honest and tell you, but we have to keep fighting back against it and don’t sweat it, this will be the leading place where it’s fought back against.”
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