Rush Limbaugh: Tea Party 'Way of Life' Under Assault

On Monday, Rush Limbaugh said that the Tea Party is a “way of life” and the Republican establishment and Washington’s permanent political class have as much of a chance of destroying it as the left has of eliminating Christmas from American life. 

Limbaugh said on his radio show that the “left cannot get you to stop believing in Christ. They can’t get you to stop believing in Christmas, no matter how they attack it. All they can do is shield themselves from whatever it is about it that makes them uncomfortable and feel unwanted and abnormal.”

He said “by the same token,” the permanent political class will “never ever” be “able to make you stop believing in freedom, in liberty, in the concepts of entrepreneurism and the rugged individualism, limited government, all of that.” 

“They are not gonna give up trying, however. There will be continued assaults primarily on leaders that identify and arise, witness Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin and others,” Limbaugh said. 

He referenced a recent Rasmussen poll that found that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), a staunch Tea Party favorite, was considered the third most influential person in the world even after the establishment tried to wipe him out. Limbaugh said this was the case because the Tea Party is expanding as the federal government grows and becomes more unaccountable. 

“The Tea Party is not a political party. It is a way of life, it’s a body of thought. It is large, and it is real,” Limbaugh said. “And you can have all of the donors muscling the Republican Party to oppose the Tea Party all you want, you can attack the Tea Party the way left attacks Christmas, but you are not going to get rid of the body of thought that’s represented by the Tea Party.”

Limbaugh said liberals want to get rid of Christmas because they “are threatened by a timeless, eternal devotion and faith. They are threatened by a timeless eternal set of values and morality.”

He said just like Christmas will never be “erased from our hearts,” the “Tea Party is not going to be summarily dismissed,” despite what the people “inside Washington and the Beltway try to convince themselves that they are doing and succeeding in doing.”

“It is misunderstood by everybody inside the Beltway,” Limbaugh said. “They know enough to fear it, and they fear it greatly, which is why they, the DC establishment, are trying to do to the Tea Party what the radical left tries to do to Christmas: wipe it out, get rid of it, pretend it doesn’t exist, erase it.”

Limbaugh said that while the establishment may be able to “defeat certain Tea Party candidates” or “embarrass certain Tea Party representatives inside the Beltway,” they are “not going to get rid of the Tea Party.”

Limbaugh said Obamacare and things like the Ryan-Murray budget deal are attracting more Americans to the Tea Party. He also said “the number of Americans who are literally, in an informed way, totally opposed to what’s happening in Washington almost every day is a growing.”

After predicting the political establishment will be “shell-shocked” at election time, Limbaugh said his belief in the Tea Party is not based on “blind faith.” Limbaugh said he was a “true believer” because that “kind of decency and goodness will eventually triumph.”