Archive [November 1999]

We are all watching history unfold right before our very eyes — the most effective propaganda machine since the 1940s. As potent as that one was, this Administration’s propaganda machine rivals it, and may even surpass it. You can watch the latest Big Lie hatch and build and become a so-called truth right in plain sight. Here are the hottest poll-tested and focus-grouped buzz words: “Isolationism” “the New Isolationists” “the Isolationist Party.” We have already heard this from every member of the Democrat leadership and the usual Clinton deployed sycophants.

The question here, my friends, is not, “Will Clinton and the media make this stick?” The question is, “How long will it take them to make it stick?” If history is our guide, we will soon see on TV randomly selected, average American citizens at the bowling alley, or perhaps just walking the dog. CNN will track these people down. They will ask, “What do you think of the New Isolationist policies of the Republican Party?” And the people will say, “I don’t believe in isolationism; I’ve always thought this about the Republicans, and I think it’s very dangerous.”

You doubt this? Go back to when Hillary Clinton was on the “Today Show” with Matt Lauer, and she happened to mention that a vast, right-wing conspiracy was out to get her husband. Now, ordinarily, whenever “conspiracy” is mentioned, liberals pooh-pooh it. “No, there’s no conspiracy,” when it comes to the JFK murder, the New World Order, whatever. They always blow it off. But with this one, they instantly began doing investigations and exposés.

“Is there a right-wing conspiracy?” they asked each other, darkly. And, lo and behold, they found one. It consisted of Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Richard Mellon Scaife. He was the head honcho. And I, of course, was the Meeester Beeeg of the vast, right-wing conspiracy. You remember; “Nightline,” the Sunday shows, the “Today Show” all did exposés. They brought in experts to say yes, there is a vast, right-wing conspiracy. (Of course, they asked mostly Democrats.) The whole notion was silly, but all it took was one Clintonista to mention it, and voilà! It was true.

And the latest charge, too, will stick. I hear you saying, “Rush, you’re getting pessimistic on us.” No, not pessimistic. I’m getting you prepared, so that when it happens, you don’t blow a gasket, as we all have done practically every day since 1995. I’m preparing you, and I’m giving you ammunition.

Because the fact is, the truth is exactly, precisely, the opposite of the latest Clinton Big Lie. The isolationists are the Democrats. The media will never point that out, because they don’t want to disrupt the latest Clinton propaganda campaign. They are a pack. One thought enters the pack and it spreads. And it becomes the focus of polls, it becomes the focus of news coverage.

So let me officially debunk this “New Isolationist” garbage that the Administration is spewing.

This New Isolationist Party — the Republican Party — is the party that is solely responsible for Bill Clinton succeeding in getting his NAFTA treaty ratified. Few Democrats voted for it. Democrats’ opposition was isolationist; they opposed it because their labor union contributors demanded it. But the Republicans saw to it that NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, happened. Its entire focus is branching out beyond our borders. That’s not isolationist action.

Then there was the party that started and executed Desert Storm. Yes, it was fought over oil. It was fought over the free flow of oil at market prices. And if you think that that’s not worth going to war for, then try to imagine life with gasoline at seven to ten bucks a gallon. Imagine what would have happened had Saddam Hussein gained control of the Saudi oil fields. The “New Isolationists” went over there and were victorious. Guess which party voted against that action? Predicted gloom and doom and death and defeat? The Democrats.

Remember during the 1992 campaign, Bill Clinton said, “I’m going focus like a laser beam on the economy. It’s obvious that Mr. Bush has been so interested in the world that he has ignored the American people who are suffering in the worst economy in the last 50 years. I promise you, when I’m elected, we’re not going to do that. We’re going to put aside what’s going on in the world; we’re going to fix America.” The American people just sucked it up. And I said then, “You watch! This guy’s legacy, this guy’s whole Administration is going to turn on foreign policy issues.” I must have said it hundreds of times. And lookie here — if indeed the Schlickmeister is despondent, right at the center of it is the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty being rejected. But my point is, what party has been obsessed with domestic politics, and utterly uninterested in foreign policy (unless a distraction was needed for scandal-deflection purposes) for the last seven years? The Democrats.

Then there’s the party that the alleged isolationist Pat Buchanan is leaving — because they’re not isolationist enough for him. They’re not enough America only, or America first, so he’s fleeing. This is a bunch of “New Isolationists”?

My friends and amigos and compadres and comrades (a little diversity lingo, there). In normal times, no politician would dare even suggest this folly — that the Republican party is “isolationist.” Since there is no evidence for it, no professional journalist would let it stand. No TV station would allow James Carville unlimited air time to get it all rolling. And no pundit would sit by and not refute it.

But these are not normal times. The Republicans lead the Congress; and to correct that aberration, anything goes. They’ll throw everything out the window — including reality — in order to get their Congress back.

New Isolationists? Get this. With the United States ceding of the Panama Canal, barely a month away, the White House recently rejected Republican warnings of a looming Chinese takeover as “silly stuff.” White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart: “That’s the kind of silly stuff that gets out from time to time in this town.” Conservatives are concerned that a company closely tied to the Beijing government has been granted a key contract for operating ports at both ends of the Panama Canal. A Hong Kong based shipping company, Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., won the contract from Panama in ‘97 for rights to operate the ports of Balboa near the Pacific entry to the Panama Canal, and Cristobal on the Atlantic side. And now the supposed Internationalist Party, the Clinton-led Democrat Party, wants to give away control of a vital asset to, of all people, the Communist Chinese! Nobody will ever convince me there’s not some sort of tie that revolves around this money, campaign contributions, in exchange for policy favors.

But who would want to give the Panama Canal away? It would be isolationists. Get America out of the world! The world stops at our borders! Let the canal be run by those who want to run it! It’s not our responsibility! But no, the “New Isolationists” — the Republicans — are opposing the turnover of the Panama Canal. Actually, the real isolationists are Bill Clinton and the crowd who are willingly turning it over.

The Republican Party, the supposed “New Isolationists,” is the only party standing up to the world’s dictators in China, North Korea, and Cuba. Since when is unilateral disarmament, which is what this test ban treaty was really all about, considered engaging in the world? This peace crowd is hoping that everybody will get rid of their nukes if we do it first and take the lead. That’s isolationism. Carville, you’ve got it all wrong, and you know you’ve got it all wrong, and you’re only doing this because it’s worked in the past. But now my friends, you are fully armed to counter any nimrod you run into who wants to call you an isolationist.