If the Democrats would just listen to themselves, they would be able to figure out why they lost the 2016 presidential election, says talk radio icon Rush Limbaugh.
He cited Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's remark in his brief address at the inauguration ceremony Friday that everyone in America is exceptional, "whatever our race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity – whether we are immigrant or native born, whether we live with disabilities or do not, in wealth or in poverty."
Here are the remarks:
"You did not hear Donald Trump sum-divide the people of this country as he was talking to them," Limbaugh said. "But listen to Schumer. 'Whatever your race, religious, sexual orientation, gender identity? Whether we're immigrant or native born'? They look at the country; they subdivide it according to skin color, ethnicity and gender identity? They still haven't figured out what went wrong for 'em."
He said Schumer's comments "demonstrate totally the difference in vision that we have and the Democrats have."
Schumer said: "We live in a challenging and tumultuous time, a quickly evolving, ever more interconnected world, a rapidly changing economy that benefits too few while leaving too many behind. A fractured media, a politics frequently consumed by rancor."
Limbaugh asked: "Who are they talking about, 'fractured media'? Who do you mean there, Chuck? Fractured media? Yeah, they don't all have the same set of 'facts,' you see. I wonder what he's talking about 'fractured media.' 'Challenging tumultuous times, rapidly changing economy, benefits too few.' So here we go. Now, wait 'til you hear this next bite."
Schumer said: "We Americans have always been a forward looking, problem solving, optimistic, patriotic and decent people. … Whatever our race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity – whether we are immigrant or native born, whether we live with disabilities or do not, in wealth or in poverty – we are all exceptional in our commonly held yet fierce devotion to our country."
"No, we're not!" Limbaugh said.
The talk-radio star said people need to realize "there are a whole slew of people who are devoted to stopping him [Trump], and they are in government, and they're in Washington, and they're not elected."
"There is a whole cadre of people who are just waiting for the right times to undermine Trump and his agenda. They're not elected, and you can't get rid of them. Reagan also referred to them, and it is the bureaucracy."
But he noted the Democrats have sustained huge losses in recent elections in the House, Senate, state legislatures and governors' offices.
"The big names, the claims to fame, the people they're looking at to be president next are all 70 years of age and they're names everybody knows. So the second list of potential presidents is Hollywood actors like George Clooney and Meryl Streep, or Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook or Sheryl Sandberg. They got nobody!"
He the Democrats aren't facing up to why they have been losing.
"They're telling themselves to this day the Russians did it! Even though – even though – Obama pardons, commutes the sentence of a traitor, Chelsea Manning, who turned over hundreds of thousands of military and national security documents to WikiLeaks. And Obama said, 'Not a big enough deal. I'm commuting the sentence.'
"And yet on the other side of his mouth Obama comes out and rips WikiLeaks for helping to undermine Hillary's presidential election. It's one of the great ironies and hypocrisies," he said.
He said Democrats don't talk, though, about their ideas being rejected.
He cited an analysis of the election: "It did not refer to the fact that this country doesn't want anymore liberalism as they have learned what it is after eight years of Obama. And because the piece didn't mention that, it tells me that the Democrats still don't know why it is they lost. And further from that, it is just more evidence that the last thing the Republican Party needs to do is to help 'em out by crossing the aisle and working with them and helping them resuscitate themselves."
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