By JEFF POOR10 Feb 2016
Wednesday on his radio show, conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh argued that New Hampshire Republican primary winner Donald Trump won by building a coalition of voters that went beyond just conservatives, which is something the GOP has claimed was necessary to win elections in this era of American politics.
Limbaugh referred to exit polling as proof, noting that he had voters from every demographic and that conservatives were just a small part of this “coalition.”
“Here’s Trump running against everything going on in Washington and declaring that what’s going on in Washington is incompetent and being performed by a bunch of hacks that are only in it for themselves, and he’s put together a coalition that covers every group, demographic and otherwise, that you can think of. And among the smallest in his group is conservatives. That’s why he can win big in New Hampshire with taking not very big percentage of the conservative vote because his coalition is so big and made up of so many other different groups of people. He won only a third of the ‘very conservative’ vote. ‘Among evangelical voters, Trump and Cruz were basically tied.’ Who in the world would predict that? Who in the…? After Cruz comes and dominates Iowa and does so on the basis of evangelical voters. And Trump, you know, ‘Two Corinthians walk into a bar…’ Donald Trump, ‘Two Corinthians this,’ and, ‘The Bible? The Bible kills it, except my book.’ And yet evangelicals’ support for Trump tied withSen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in New Hampshire. This was the scale of Trump’s win.”
Limbaugh went through each group and pointed out Trump had won each of those groups by overwhelming margins.
“Trump won, the exit polls were right,” Limbaugh continued. “Trump won men. He won women. He won every age group. He won every ideology. Liberal, conservative, moderate, Libertarian. Every group Trump won a majority of voters. He won among people who had gone to college and people who hadn’t. He won among people who only had a high school education; he won among people who did not have a high school education. He won every single age bracket. He won those groups by huge margins. He won men 3-to-1 over second place finisher. Women he won 2-to-1. Voters under 30 he won 2-to-1. Nearly 40 percent of those who had not attended college voted Trump. A third of those who had attended college voted Trump. This is what the Republican Party’s been telling us they need to win. I’ve had ’em come to my office. I’ve told you. I’ve had Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) here, Mitt Romney’s here. One thing they’ve all said in common is that Republican Party can’t win with Republican votes alone anymore. We have to branch out, we have to reach out. This is what they were telling me to prepare me for some of the campaign tactics that I was gonna see. That they were gonna have to reach out and immigration was one of the ways of reaching out, supporting amnesty.”
But instead of praising Trump for this accomplishment, Limbaugh argues the GOP is criticizing Trump instead.
“Well, all along Trump has built that coalition the Republican Party claims to want and they’re out there badgering it and bashing it,” he added. “It’s exactly what they claim to want. They could have had it. The Republican Party could have had the Trump coalition. They could have had it at health care. A majority of Americans opposed Obamacare from the get-go. The Republican Party could have seriously attempted to form an alliance with the Tea Party and the anti-Obamacare people and been a dominant majority party on that issue alone. And then on subsequent issues to come down the pike the Republican Party could have formed an alliance with majorities in other areas of opposition, and they didn’t. The Trump coalition could have been the Republican Party. They couldn’t do it because they thought it was all conservative. They couldn’t do it because they thought the Tea Party was a bunch of hayseed hicks who believe in pro-life politics and they just couldn’t do it, they just couldn’t build a bridge. Whatever it is, fear of social issues, dislike of conservatism, not wanting to get in bed with people who want the government to be smaller and less intrusive in people’s lives, whatever it was, they couldn’t do it. And now, because they didn’t do it, there’s Donald Trump.”
“Donald Trump has the exact coalition the Republican Party, to a man, has told me they need to win, that they need to thrive,” Limbaugh said. “And now they’re reduced to bashing it by virtue of bashing Trump. And now they’re reduced to bashing it by virtue of bashing Cruz. The two people who are showing the Republican Party all they had to do all these past seven years, but they didn’t. They purposely, strategically, tactically refused to push back, refused to make a spectacle of stopping Obama, and they have themselves to blame for this predicament.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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