http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-gop-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/03/rush-limbaugh-democrats-220519Limbaugh: Democrats ruined the presidency long before Trump
By Nick Gass
03/09/16 05:39 PM EST
Donald Trump may have stood before the media on Tuesday night touting his expansive list of business products, from Trump Wine to Trump Water to Trump Steaks (which were not actually Trump Steaks), but he would not be the first to sully the reverence for the office of the presidency, Rush Limbaugh said on his show Wednesday. That work was done long ago by Democrats and the media, he argued.
Noting establishment media and political figures like Charles Krauthammer and Mitt Romney, who say they cannot understand Trump's appeal, Limbaugh sought to explain why so many Americans are seemingly not bothered by Trump's style and level of discourse.
His answer: Democrats sullied the White House.
"Who was the last president you can think of who treated the office and everything about it with utmost reverence and respect?" Limbaugh asked, according to a transcript of the show.
He answered his own question, saying that president is George W. Bush and "maybe if you want to go back, his dad, George H.W. Bush. And then you go back to Ronaldus Magnus." Limbaugh then said he would not put neither President Barack Obama nor Bill Clinton in that category.
"I wouldn't put any single Democrat in that discussion," he went on to say. "My point is this: The only one of those presidents, when you answer that question that's relevant right now, is George W. Bush, demographically, generationally."
Limbaugh then asked rhetorically what Bush's reverence got him as president. "And remember, now, I'm asking the question in the context of everybody wringing their hands over what Trump is doing to damage the sacred trust," he said, remarking upon those who say, "Trump is making a mockery of it, how Trump is lowering it and it now is no different and no better than a reality show on TV, and this is not what presidential campaigns are supposed to be. It's in that context that I ask the question."
"The media, the Democrat Party was able to convince a majority of Americans that Bush was rotten, that Bush was a liar, that Bush was incompetent, that Bush was stupid, and all of the reverence that he showed for the office didn't matter," Limbaugh said.
In attempting to explain why people are not "disgusted" by Trump's behavior, Limbaugh pointed to a "different generational era, particularly in our pop culture."
"And there are people, and probably an increasing number of people, who don't find anything wrong — in fact, not only do they not find anything wrong about it, they think it's refreshing," he said. They think it's refreshing that a real guy who talks like real people — i.e., like they do — is not acting all heady and lofty and uppity over them and is just behaving like anybody else would, like they would if they were in the same shoes."
