Liberal Elites and the War on America                  

Democratic candidates for President have been consistently bashing the Bush administration and U.S. military efforts in Iraq. All the while, these politicians claim to be patriotic. But nationally syndicated columnist and radio talk show host Laura Ingraham says liberal elites are actually working to undermine America's foundations. CBN News Anchor Lee Webb spoke with Ingraham about new book called Shut Up and Sing, where she takes a closer look at just who these elites are, and what their agenda really is.

LEE WEBB: Laura, it’s always great to have you with us.

LAURA INGRAHAM: Great to be here Lee.

WEBB: The title of your book, I’ve got to tell you, this is a tremendous title, Shut Up and Sing. Where did you get the idea for the title?

INGRAHAM: I was at an Eagles concert, the group The Eagles, some years back, and Don Henley was wailing and moaning about the evils of Disneyland and there was some thought that Disneyland might come to northern Virginia. He decided to make it an issue during his concert, and a lot of people in my section at the RFK stadium were screaming, "Shut up and sing!" And it always stuck in the back on my mind, so when Barbara Streisand starting sending out her truth alerts on her website about the war in Iraq and the war on terrorism and how evil President Bush is, it just came back to me. And I thought, "That really captures America’s frustration, not just with the entertainment elites, but the UN elites, the university elites, and the political elites today.

WEBB: Well, that’s pretty clever because there might be some leftist or liberal leaning Eagles fans who might hear your conversation here and go out and buy your book anyway.

INGRAHAM: [laughter] Exactly. You know, I love music and I love film, but Susan Sarandon, Martin Sheen, and Danny Glover, these people are beginning to ruin it for us with their absolutely inane comments about foreign policy and military policy. I mean, Lee, you and I would not lecture them about their craft. We wouldn’t lecture them about music, or acting, none of it. It wouldn’t make any sense. It wouldn’t mean that we didn’t have the right to speak out, but it would mean that we would be silly. We would sound ridiculous and presumptuous. And that’s what I think a lot of people in the heartland and the southern part of United States have really believed about the entertainment crowd the more they speak out about some of these complicated issues.

WEBB: Well, let’s get that definition of "elites" down here. You’ve mentioned some of the entertainment elites, but it encompasses more than the entertainment industry, right?

INGRAHAM: Yeah, elite today is not about how much money you have or where you went to school. That’s our old definition of the "elites" that we sort of inherited from our European ancestors. Today, you can be an elite and be a kid at Brown University living on a hundred bucks a month, who basically believes that our country has bad intentions, that everything that’s going wrong in the world is our fault, that we just need to listen to France and listen to more enlightened folks from, let’s say, university faculties or unelected judges who are trying to legislate from the bench and lead us out of our ignorance as regular, ordinary Americans. So it’s really a sense of arrogance towards the average American voter out there in the heartland if you will.

WEBB: Ok. Well, I’d like to read just a portion from page 172. You write: "While liberal elites still harp about the vast right-wing conspiracy that is allegedly controlled by the NRA, the Federalist Society, Operation Rescue, the Christian Coalition, and fill in the blank with the conservative group of your choice, the really insidious collaboration is happening among the anti-war Left." Describe how they’re collaborating.

INGRAHAM: Well, the "International ANSWER" [Act Now to Stop War and End Racism], which is the group that organized a recent rally in Washington against the occupation, and rallies all over the world, have Marxist roots. The Workers World Party and International ANSWER both have the same executive director, same organizers. Ramsey Clark, our former attorney general, is active in International ANSWER, and he actually had a press conference last October, in Baghdad with a portrait of Uday Hussein behind him on the wall — that picture’s actually in the book. And for these groups to get together and have these rallies, they have the right to do that. But we have the right to point out their ties to subversive organizations that in the end really want to see an end to the way of life in the United States as we know it.

WEBB: And do you think that they’re collaborating with folks… I mean, do they pick up the phone on a daily basis and call their friends at CNN to…

INGRAHAM: Well, I’m not saying it’s necessarily like that, although, when you think about the goals of some of the anti-occupation folks, and the goals of the university faculty, or the goals of some of our more left-wing politicians, they have a lot of similarities. I mean, they much more would rather have us be like Europe or France than would have us be like Kansas or Iowa. Whether it’s gun control, or the pro-life issue, or pornography, or certainly how we deal with countries like Cuba, their beliefs are much more European than they are traditional American.

WEBB: Alright, well you say that the elites believe that President Bush is the most dangerous man on the planet. Why do they think he’s so dangerous?

INGRAHAM: I think they think he’s dangerous because number one, he’s effective. If he wasn’t effective, they wouldn’t hate him as much as they do. Number two, he’s a man of deep and abiding faith, and that scares them because they’re obsessed with religion, obsessed with removing religion from public life. And they really think he’s dangerous because he has a vision, and he won’t be moved from that vision. Sometimes he makes mistakes, President Bush, but I think in the end he has a clear set of convictions and he’ll follow them through. And that for the Left today is very dangerous, because President Bush does not disrespect the average views of the so-called average American. He listens to them and he respects our traditions and he respects what we tried to do in the last 230 years. And I think some people on the Left have forgotten the roots of this country, and that’s why the Democrat Party is on the verge of becoming the minority party in this country.

WEBB: Alright, and two questions to finish up. Do you think the President will be reelected? If he’s not reelected, Laura, who would carry on the conservative message? Is there someone out there that you see who would carry on the conservative message?

INGRAHAM: Well, I think there are a couple of real bright lights in the U.S. Senate. I like Senator Rick Santorum a lot. He is an absolute inspiration to me on issues regarding the faith-based initiative, certainly on the pro-life issue. And I think people like Bill Frist, he’s a doctor, he may not be as conservative as some of your viewers, but he is an absolute solid individual, a great family man, and is a real conservative. I think both of those men are in their 40’s, and I think they’re both people that we can look to in the future.

I think President Bush is going to have a tough election ahead of him, but I think if we had to bet today, I’d bet that he’ll win.

WEBB: You think he’ll win then.

INGRAHAM: I do, but the Iraq situation is going to be difficult. If we keep losing people every day and we don’t have a clear message coming out of the administration, I think it’s going to be risky.

WEBB: Alright, Laura Ingraham, the book is called Shut Up and Sing: How Elites from Hollywood, Politics, and the UN Are Subverting America. Laura, again, thanks for being with us.

INGRAHAM: Thanks Lee.