For anyone who listens regularly to Rush Limbaugh, they are familiar with his thoughts on the far-left (the "deranged left" as he puts it) redefining America as a racist country founded in racism and also his thoughts on the increasing problems with a college education.
And like clockwork, within the space of a week, examples of both pop up in the hard news.
On the “America was founded as a racist country” front we have the lefty Slate to thank for publishing the transcript of a secretly recorded internal “townhall” at the New York Times. The meeting was called after the paper accurately headlined a story about President Trump’s post-El Paso and Dayton shootings speech to the nation as “TRUMP URGES UNITY VS. RACISM.” The headline caused an internal and (among lefties) external uproar, which brought about a dropped and changed headline which brought about the town hall.
Here is an example of Rush, way back in February, discussing how the left is trying to rewrite the history of America.
“Their animus and the thing that’s propelling the deranged left right now is their belief that this nation is unjust and immoral from the first day because it was founded by a bunch of rich white guys who enshrined slavery into the founding and creation of the United States. They also further believe that these white guys set up a country and government for themselves and their families and their descendants and so that only white males would actually ever benefit, have power, have wealth.”
And here is this question from an unidentified Times staffer to Times Executive Editor Dean
Baquet from the verbatim transcript of the Times town hall:
“Hello, I have another question about racism. I’m wondering to what extent you think that the fact of racism and white supremacy being sort of the foundation of this country should play into our reporting. Just because it feels to me like it should be a starting point, you know? Like these conversations about what is racist, what isn’t racist. I just feel like racism is in everything. It should be considered in our science reporting, in our culture reporting, in our national reporting.
And so, to me, it’s less about the individual instances of racism, and sort of how we’re thinking about racism and white supremacy as the foundation of all of the systems in the country. And I think particularly as we are launching a 1619 Project, I feel like that’s going to open us up to even more criticism from people who are like, ‘OK, well you’re saying this, and you’re producing this big project about this. But are you guys actually considering this in your daily reporting?’”
And there it is. In a secretly recorded conversation at the New York Times, the so-called “paper of record”, there is a staffer saying exactly what Rush says today’s “deranged left” now believes.
Again, here’s the shortened comparison:
RUSH LIMBAUGH: “The left has a central “belief that this nation is unjust and immoral from the first day because it was founded by a bunch of rich white guys who enshrined slavery into the founding and creation of the United States.”
NYT STAFFER: There is “…the fact of racism and white supremacy being sort of the foundation of this country.”
Which is to say, Rush has long ago hit the nail on the head when it comes to understanding just what is driving the thinking of the modern American Left.
Then there’s the business of getting a college education. Famously, Rush is a college dropout. His lifelong dream was to be in radio, and he believed the sooner he got started with a radio job - for which he did not need a college education - the better. Not to mention that he has frequently discussed the idea that today’s elite colleges are a breeding ground for leftism and the Deep State. Here, to cite but one example, is Rush back in February talking about the then-current scandal of celebrities bribing colleges to get their kids in the door. He cites a column by The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro.
“Well, Shapiro went to Harvard. He got into Harvard Law. The story he tells in this piece is incredible, and it confirms much of what I have shared with you in terms of the purpose of the Ivy League. The Ivy League is the feeder network for government people. It’s the feeder network for people who end up in the Washington bureaucracy, the deep state, the administrative state. The Ivy League and elite universities — not just the ivies, ’cause Stanford’s a part of this; USC is a part of this.
But these elite universities are the feeder networks — the training grounds, if you will — the educational camps for training and producing people to fill spots in the administrative state. Now, the administrative state comprises not just bureaucrats. The administrative state is made up of media people. The administrative state is made up of lobbyists. The administrative state, the deep state is made up of lawyers. It’s not just bureaucrats who are making G-14 or G-13 salary. It’s a tremendous number of people who make up the administrative state.
And the people doing this have to be trained somewhere, and they have to be fed into the system from somewhere. They have to be properly educated. They have to be properly indoctrinated into the role of the administrative state. They think they’re great patriots, in many cases. Others of them know exactly what they are. But it is the effective transfer of power from the elected representatives of the people to a bunch of people we’ve never met, we’ve never seen, we don’t know who they are. We can’t petition them. We can’t get rid of them. We can’t fax ’em. We can’t call ’em.”
Then, just this week, there is Fox’s Martha McCallum asking former Obama strategist Robin Biro this question:
MARTHA: “In the past few years there’s been a big increase in the number of Republicans who say colleges and universities have a negative impact on the country, but among Democrats that’s not the case. What is going on here?”
ROBIN BIRO: “What was interesting to me actually was that 20% of Democrats thought that way. I think if we were to look at that it probably has to do with the rising costs of education. You know, when textbooks cost you $200 a piece and you come out with his huge student debt and college is basically a checkbox now, and it just doesn’t have the value it once did. But also I think that it comes to people like Rush Limbaugh who’s been talking since the 80s about colleges indoctrinating liberals. I think that it causes some distrust.”
Robin Biro was correct. Rush has indeed been talking about this for years. And today, more and more Americans are coming to believe that colleges are not there to educate but to indoctrinate. So what is the point of signing up for massive student debt unless there is some specific professional need - studying to become a doctor or lawyer etc. — to be achieved. (And recall that the well-educated Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln — like a lot of his fellow lawyers in the day — “read” for the law without ever going to college for a law degree.)
Colleges have indeed become the breeding ground for the American Left, and as this has become increasingly clear more and more Americans, precisely as Rush has been saying for years, are starting to question the value of a “higher education”, seeing them as, in reality, indoctrination camps.
So what do we have here?
What we have here is someone - Rush - who has spent a lifetime thinking about and studying the American Left in all its many manifestations. Which in turn has led to his uncanny ability to understand and predict ahead of time exactly what their unspoken beliefs really are and what the reactions might be - and that somewhere along the line they will inevitably out their innermost thoughts.
He has said for ages what the Left really believes about the founding of America - and sure enough, there is a New York Times leftist activist — er, “journalist” — in what was thought to be a “just among us Times lefties” town hall saying exactly, word-for-word, what Rush has long said the Left really believes. And there is Fox’s Martha McCallum reporting that more Americans — Republicans in this instance — have come to Rush’s belief and “say colleges and universities have a negative impact on the country.”
In other words, understanding produces prediction which eventually makes news as fact.
