John Rush sits down with author and journalist Dennis Neal to dissect The Leadership Genius of Elon Musk—but this conversation goes far beyond biography. They dive into Musk’s recent political disillusionment, corruption in Washington, and how both Republicans and Democrats feed from the same bloated trough. John doesn’t stop there. In a fiery monologue, he rebukes Colorado Republicans for demanding instant results while failing to understand basic strategy. From misplaced outrage to misguided posts, Rush calls for maturity, long-term thinking, and realistic expectations if conservatives hope to win again.
00:12:35 Final Thoughts on Political Change and Public Perception
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This is Rush to Reason.
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With your host, John Rush.
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My advice to you is to do what your parents did.
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Get a job, sir. You haven’t made everybody equal. You’ve made them the same, and there’s a big difference.
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Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
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It’s Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush, presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right, welcome. Hour number two, Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Dennis Neal joining us now. As I said a few moments ago, he would be an author of The Leadership Genius of Elon Musk. Welcome, Dennis. How are you? I’m fantastic. I hope you’re having a glorious day, sir. Always, always, always. Now, question, and this is something I talked about last week, so when I had an opportunity to talk to you and interview you, I’m like, yeah, this is right along the same lines of what I’ve been thinking of late, and that is, you know, Elon Musk going to D.C., trying to get as much done as he could, and of course he only wanted to work a certain amount of days, otherwise he ends up on payroll, which I nor him would ever want to do, by the way, so I can understand fully his predicament as far as that’s concerned. But I also think that he’s had a real reality check in how slow the wheels of government actually are probably slower than what he probably ever thought they would be.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, I’d say it’s not even the speed, John. It’s, my gosh, how can they be opposed at all to what we’re trying to do? That’s what stuns him. You know, on my podcast, What’s Bugging Me, the most recent episode came out on Thursday, and I talk about, well, does Elon leave Washington defeated? I think he leaves disgusted. Yeah, thank you. Agree. I think he can’t believe that the Republicans balked at putting these cuts into law. They’re just incredible.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, I think what it shows you, Dennis, is, and this is my opinion, how much payola goes on in politics on both sides of the aisle. In other words, how much money is at stake for me, my campaign, my future political career, and so on. These guys want to be career politicians, and there’s lots of things we could do to change that, that we could talk about, Dennis. And it’s not just term limits. It even has to do with how we set up pensions and things like that. For example, as a representative, you need to be elected three different times so you get your lifetime pension. You know what, Dennis? We need to eliminate some of that garbage, and they wouldn’t be encouraged to do so.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, that’s true. Well, we just need to even do a better job of tracking spending because the government sends out 1.5 billion payments of some kind or another per year. And half a billion, one-third of them, have no tracker number, have no way of knowing where the money went and what it was used for. And I think that’s by design.
SPEAKER 08 :
Agree. Yeah, because it’s that old saying, it’s a leadership saying as far as that goes even. If you don’t track it, how do you know what’s going on? The reality is you don’t, in this case, nor do they want to.
SPEAKER 05 :
And because of that, more than 400 government entities are unable to pass a basic audit. How did it get to this?
SPEAKER 08 :
My gosh. Because it just continues, as you know, to balloon and balloon and balloon and balloon. And nobody other than Elon Musk has really ever come along. I mean, Donald Trump, to his credit, has come along and said, listen, we’ve got to rein some of this in and get control over it. But then you’ve got literally, Dennis, as you know, and you talked about it, Everybody, even some on our side, pushing back saying, well, you know, you can’t touch that. You can’t touch this. You can’t do this. You can’t do that. I mean, to your point, he’s got to be leaving there in utter disgustment.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes. And just, I mean, look at some of the things that he told us about. The nine-month-old baby who got a $100,000 loan from the Small Business Administration. The bureaucrat who’s been there 25 years and told them that he has never questioned a payment, has never rejected a payment in his 25 years. He just signs the checks and gets them out there. I mean… The fact that, you know, $300 billion a year, 90% of it goes to 7,000 NGOs, the same one over and over. The $92 billion spent in the last, I think it was 30 days of the Biden administration. Right. Going like crazy, you know, in funding companies that didn’t even have a business plan. Just horrible, the graphs and how far it goes. And I think the Republicans feed at that very same trough. And I think billions are round-tripping back here to the U.S.
SPEAKER 08 :
Agreed. And I think, to your point, too, Dennis, this has been my frustration, is while there is some really good people on our side of the aisle, and I never want to shortchange those folks, because I do think there’s some folks that go there for all the right reasons. They’re doing their very best. The problem is they’re They’re far outnumbered. And my point is, when we’ve got even Democrats, you know, accusing Musk and and other individuals of Doge of doing this, doing that, you know, basically accusing him of of, you know, of cyber, you know, a warfare on on government and being into things he shouldn’t have been into and this, that and the other. Not near enough of our side came out in opposition of those Democrats.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, just terrible. They’re cowards. They’re really flimsy. Republicans are so pulsillanimous. And this is why the Trump presidency has been so fascinating, because he is truly an outsider. He is shaking the system. And so was Elon Musk. Those two came together because of that old saying, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. And they are hated by the same forces, aren’t they?
SPEAKER 08 :
Yes. Yes. I believe that you are correct in that. So here’s a question for you. And this is something where, I mean, it’s hard to not be discouraged by all the stuff that you just saw Elon go through. But on the same token, we’ve got to keep fighting. How do we do that?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, first of all, Elon is going to continue to shine a light on the X platform to his 200 million followers on every new scandal that he finds through his people he left behind at Doge, and you’ll be seeing that. So we’ve got to campaign against that. We’ve got to make the media cover it. We’ve got to repost Elon’s posts. I mean, we simply can’t. sit back. You know, one reason Elon got involved in the campaign, at great personal risk and personal harm, at great harm to his shareholders, including me, I’m one of them, he really thought that the U.S. was in danger of just sliding off the cliff and never being retrievable again. And it amazes me how close we came to just letting things go totally crazy, men and women’s sports, I mean, just all of it. The whole world is upside down. It’s absolutely bizarre and we were standing idly by and letting it happen rather than pushing back and saying enough agree the book itself the leadership genius of elon musk what are folks going to find in it amazon barnes and noble books a million and please put up a good review at amazon some of the elon haters out there are crushing my ratings oh geez okay so and uh that’s where you can find it what are they going to find in the book though when it comes to his leadership genius Here’s the great thing, 11 lessons of Elon, one per chapter, that explain his success. and which we can borrow to build a better life for ourselves or at least to feel better about the life we have. You know, I’ve come to learn that you cannot change the setbacks that happen in your life, the bad things, oh, gee, you know, a terrible divorce, et cetera, et cetera. But you can change how you choose to look at it and whether you’re defeated by it or energized by it. And Elon has the most amazing sense of optimism in this world. He says he’d rather be optimistic and wrong than pessimistic and right. I think that. You have to be willing to embrace failure and risk, and Elon does hugely so, more so than any other executive I’ve ever seen in my 30-year career as a business reporter.
SPEAKER 08 :
Besides that, out of all the things you learned about Elon and his leadership style and so on, what’s another great thing you’ve learned about him that you don’t see in other leaders?
SPEAKER 05 :
You know, I think he’s really in touch with that basic human need of wanting to be loved. And when I watched him on stage with Trump at those rallies, just the elation, the jubilation he felt to be one of the cool kids finally and to be loved by the crowd. It just was sweet to see. And we all want that kind of approval. We all want other people to feel like they’re doing a great job. And I’m sure that when this backlash against Elon began, I think somewhere inside himself, even though he’s worth over $200 billion, I think he was genuinely hurt.
SPEAKER 08 :
Interesting. You know, I can’t disagree with you on that. I would think so, although at some point at his stage you get a little bit of thick skin as well. Even you and I have to have a little bit of that, or you can’t do what you and I do. But, no, I understand what you’re saying, and I would agree with you on that. Yeah, yeah. Awesome. Well, I appreciate it. Again, for those of you listening, Dennis Neal, author of The Leadership Genius of Elon Musk. And, Dennis, I appreciate you joining us. And, again, it was timely because I was talking about this very subject last week. So a timely interview, and I appreciate your time very much.
SPEAKER 05 :
Fantastic. I appreciate the opportunity. You bet. Have a great night.
SPEAKER 08 :
You bet. Appreciate you very much. Vector Windows and Doors is next. Dave Bancroft. We talked to Dave on Friday, by the way, and there are some changes potentially coming up when it comes to the Energy Star rating of Windows. Talk to Dave about that and how that would affect your home in particular. Go to klzradio.com to find Dave.
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SPEAKER 08 :
All right, and we are back. And after that interview, talking about Elon Musk, and I talked about this a little bit last week in regards to just how frustrating it has to be to know that there are so many things that, in this case, that he found through Doge. And I think some of this he even knew on the front side. Some of this you can just see. But then really getting an understanding of how much waste, fraud, and abuse is there, knowing that it’s right in front of us. Here are the facts. And then yet getting so much either pushback or apathy towards it that, yeah, I do believe he left Washington not only upset, just disgruntled and so on, but saddened probably at the same time knowing that we’ve got this great country. He, like the rest of us, are fighting for it as much as anybody, even though he’s not a native-born American, realizes, though, that it’s the best country on earth, wants to save the country. goes there to do just that, but then gets extremely frustrated by just how slow the wheels of Washington, and then, like I said, the apathy, and then, of course, in his case, the Democrats, who, by the way, at one point in time, he was their icon. He was their idol, literally. And then they turned on him like they have. And I think for me what it also shows, and this is something that I wanted to talk to those that are really involved in hardcore politics in Colorado and have high expectations, those of you that are on the far right, especially some of you that are the Davidians of sorts, the Dave Williams followers, you guys expect immediate change. We get a politician elected, we send him off, and you expect things to change tomorrow. Literally, that’s your expectation. And some of you are saying, well, that’s not true. Yeah, it is. Well, at least it’s what you say and what you post. So if that weren’t the case, then you should change what you post and talk about. I think Charlie and I were talking about this during the break. I guarantee you there are hardcore Republicans that think Elon went there on a whole different mission because he didn’t accomplish everything that was set out to be accomplished. And I think some are going to come back and say, well, yeah, he just went there for his own self, for his own glory, for his own publicity and so on. Although he lost all sorts of money inside of his own companies in doing so. But, yeah, I think there’s people on our side that would go down that path and say, yeah, he just did that for himself. Because we have people on our side of the aisle that nothing can please them. Nothing can please them. They literally think that you elect so-and-so nationally to go to Congress or the Senate, and they think that you should see immediate changes next week. And I’m not exaggerating at all when I say that. That’s exactly how some of you think. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, you guys look at even our chair here in Colorado, the GOP chair, Bretta Horne, and think changes should happen overnight, immediately. I mean, I read through some of the stupidity That’s going on inside of our own party right now regarding where the offices are going to be. I mean, I’m sorry to say some of you are literally you’re as dumb as a rock. And look at it, complain about things that frankly just don’t matter. But you’re going to die on that hill. Some of you are absolutely insane. I have no other way to say it. You’re just that dumb. I guess. I don’t know any other way to say it. And some of you, by the way, talk about things that you have no business talking about because you don’t even know how it works. But you talk about it anyways. You’re dumb as rocks. Literally. You really should study the topic that you’re even discussing before you post about it so you don’t look as dumb as you are. But you do it anyways. And it just makes yourself look that much dumber. I don’t get it. I do not get some of you out there that listen. I know you listen. I see some of the comments. I get it. And I just don’t understand where you come from. I really don’t. I don’t know what you’re really trying to accomplish at the end of the day. I do believe this. You and I, even though I totally disagree with your methodology, you and I want the same thing for this country. That I do believe. We want freedom. We want to see things get back on track where they need to go. Our tactics and how to do it are completely different, but we all want the same thing. We want the country back. We want freedom back. We want the left to be put in their place. We want wins. We want to see things go the proper direction. We both want the same thing. We’re just totally at opposite odds in how we get there. And your expectations are far different from mine. Far different. I guess I have because of the name of our show. I have realistic expectations as to what’s going to be accomplished and what’s not going to be accomplished. Some of you have unrealistic expectations of what’s going to happen. I’m sorry to say, you have unrealistic expectations of what’s going to happen. And I’m not sure where that comes from. I have thoughts here in the state of Colorado where some of that comes from, but I don’t know exactly where that comes from. And I even see posts along the lines of, you know, we can take the state back. Here’s how we do it. First of all, take the state back from what and when? I ask that question a lot. I never get any direct answers. I’ve lived here my whole life. I feel like I can talk to this particular topic better than anyone, especially at my age. Take it back from – it’s been – really, it’s been on the side of the left for as long as I can remember. Yes, we’ve had times where we as conservatives have done better than other times, but have we ever completely had this state in the red since I’ve been here? No. No, we haven’t. Was it better than it is now? Yes, it was. If that’s what you’re talking about going back to, okay, that I can buy into. But this whole let’s take the state back red, folks, it hasn’t been red in my lifetime. I say that a lot because I really want to get people to understand that because when you say the things you say, again, you sound stupid because you evidently haven’t been here as long as I have. Because you can’t take it back red when it wasn’t that way to begin with. And it hasn’t been in my lifetime. Not in the sense of what a Florida is today or those types of states, okay? If we want to maybe take it back to where it’s not the dark, deep blue that it is right now and get it back more to the purple, if that’s what you’re referring to, okay, I can buy into that. But that’s not what you’re saying. That’s not what you talk about on social media and so on. And I get it. Social media is a platform and people say things and they vent and they talk about things that, frankly, sometimes they shouldn’t talk about because it makes you really stupid when you do. I’m sorry to say, but it just does. I don’t get it. And, you know, you guys expect immediate change. I’m sorry to say it. I see it. I see it in the things that you post. I hear it in the conversations. You want change overnight. Doesn’t matter who it is. Doesn’t matter who it is. And then when it comes to the situation like we’ve got right now in state politics with Rita Horne being the GOP chair, you’re still so dead set on the last chair that the next one will never do anything right. Doesn’t matter what she does. She could bring the state back red, as you would call it, and still isn’t going to be good enough because she won’t do it the way you want it done. And some of you, I’m just going to be straight up honest. Some of you just need to go away. I’m going to be straight up honest. Just go back into your cave. Do whatever it is you were doing prior. Be quiet. Let the adults handle things. And we’ll be better off when it’s all said and done. Because there’s a lot of you listening that all of you do. Literally, all you’re doing is screwing things up at the end of the day. You’re not helping at all. You’re making it worse. And I won’t call out anybody by name because I don’t do that on this program. I have at times. I will refrain from doing that now. But some of you really, you don’t know how stupid you look on social media. But you do. And in a lot of cases, it’s because you’re based 100% solely on emotions, not on facts. You don’t know the facts in a lot of cases. And you get hung up on things that just don’t matter. Literally. I don’t need to say it. You get hung up on things that don’t just matter or just don’t matter. Now, one thing that I will say that, again, I’m in agreement with the majority of people that are on our side. This whole transgender movement that’s in the state of Colorado, this bill talking about dead naming people and so on, it’s all utter nonsense. I would agree with that 1,000%. How do we handle it from this point forward? Again, you’re going to have differences of opinion than I and so on. Collectively, can we make a difference there? Maybe. Maybe. The problem is we’ve had such poor leadership in regards to getting the right people elected in Colorado that could have stopped some of that from happening in the first place that now we’re doing damage control. And you’re all running around whining and complaining, I’ll just be straight up honest, about the wrong things. You’re complaining about where things are today, and yet you’re part of the problem as to why they are. And I’m being very honest when I say that you’re part of the problem as to why we’re here. Because you don’t know strategy. You don’t understand how to get the ball moved across the goal line. You want all or nothing, i.e., you know, Elon Musk and even some of our side being against him. You’re going to hear that before it’s all said and done. Trust me when I say that. I mean, some of you, no matter what, I’ve said this before. Jesus Christ himself couldn’t come back to Colorado and run the party and please some of you. Even he wouldn’t do it the way you think it needs done. And I mean that sincerely. Some of you are that far off base in your thought process. He himself couldn’t run the party and make it work when it’s all said and done. And I’m not exaggerating in the least when I say that. Golden Eagle Financial coming up next. 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SPEAKER 03 :
Putting reason into your afternoon drive, this is John Rush.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right, we are back. A couple of text messages, by the way, that came in. One was, why is it that our expectations, our things will change immediately when our politicians go to Washington, D.C., and yet typically we don’t get the results we want, and yet liberals, the Democrats, they can go send somebody, and with one to two years, they get exactly what they wanted. Well, I’ll give you the answer. We are independent thinkers. We don’t buy into things lock, stock, and barrel. We do have a tendency to want to do things our own way, which, by the way, is a good thing. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. That’s a good thing. But the left doesn’t think that way. The left, they are – literally, they are told – how to think, what to do, how to react, how to respond, and so on. And they do exactly that. Our side of the fence does things differently than that. And again, I’m not saying that’s bad. Richard, I know, is joining us now. Richard, I’m not saying any of that is bad. The way we think, I wouldn’t change. The problem is that does affect us when we try to make universal changes inside of our party.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, well, and it’s sort of our biggest detriment, right? Yes. It’s one of our biggest benefits, but it’s our biggest detriment, and you and I have talked about it, you know, many, many times, unfortunately. There’s just not really a great way to, well, like you said, we need to figure out how to come together on certain issues, and at times, Dad, our party and our people, they take our free thinking and we sort of, We back ourselves into corners that don’t need to be backed into, you know, like we can almost go back to back and help us defend from all different sides and angles. But sometimes all sides of the party, we get so, you know, bent and determined to do certain things or bound to determine, I should say, to do certain things that we like you say, we sort of lock ourselves into places. bad positions and we sort of push against each other when we need to kind of be pushing with each other, right? You know, kind of pushing each other forward and pushing ideas forward and sort of coming to the conclusion that, you know what, we’re going to agree to disagree on a few different things. But the core tenets need to be the same, right? And our ideas need to be the same. And we do miss that. And I know you and I have talked about that at times, that it feels like our party, I’ll just say, Dad, right, we fight so many times about things that don’t need to be fought over. Right. And we just need to – and again, the left does a great job at coming – they sort of come together on certain issues. Now, right now, to our benefit, they’re coming together on issues that are really poor for them in a lot of cases. They’re coming together about pushing – certain rights and issues that are not for the right. Well, for example, Dan, let’s go to what’s going on with the budget bill, right?
SPEAKER 03 :
Right.
SPEAKER 07 :
And you’ve got guys like Thomas Massey and even Rand Paul and some of these guys that are sort of hardline. And I get it. I think you and I are on the same page.
SPEAKER 08 :
I get it. I’m on the same page as they are as well. The problem is their hardline stance isn’t going to get the football moved at all.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, it’s kind of like what you, for example, on the budget and the deficit, right? Besant came out this weekend and said, you know, it’s… Basically, we’re making progress, but this is not something that’s going to happen overnight. And unfortunately, you have to understand that you’re not going to trim the deficit that’s $2 trillion, right? You’re not going to get rid of it in one year. As much as you and I would both like to do so, and we as conservatives would like to do so, it’s almost like an addict, right, Dad? We need to have a plan. We need to have our seven-step plan or whatever, you know, whatever, if you’re an alcoholic, right? Like there’s the 99 steps or the 10s or whatever. I don’t even know how many steps it is. But we need to have steps. And we need to, and you and I kind of talked about this last week, we need to go after the systems in place. And we can’t, you know, you can’t just completely chop $2 trillion off of the top and make everything, you know, be hunky-dory and okay. Unfortunately, it just won’t work. And you’re cutting systems and people at play. Again, Dad, it’s like going cold turkey on something. Right. Anytime you get an addict to go cold turkey, it takes some really strong willpower for that guy. Most don’t. And there’s a lot of people that do, but like you said, most people don’t, right? If you try to cold turkey someone, they relapse. It can be bad. Some people, in some cases, they can even die, right? And because the body fights against it. And that’s sort of how you have to almost view us as a country and, again, just as obvious as one specific issue, but our spending. And you kind of said it best. I think their heads are in the right places, right mass. We need to cut more and chip Roy’s. You know, we need to do single bills. And again, I think these are all great things, guys.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I’m not arguing with them, but it’s not going to happen.
SPEAKER 07 :
No, but you have to show some steps of progress, Dad, right? And that even goes down to, and you’ve talked about it, I think our state party is actually, now that they’ve got some new leadership, they’re kind of getting to be in better shape, right, than they were. You have to take those baby steps. And as much as we want big, you know, kind of really concrete, to determine this stuff, Dad, ultimately you’ve got to sort of take the little baby steps to get where you want to go. It’s like in sports, right? That’s usually kind of what our segment is right now. It’s like in sports. You can’t change someone’s form or you can’t change an entire team in one season, right? Very rarely does a team go from last place to first place. It takes time, right? You have to make little steps in the process. And like you said, Dad, with our party, we sort of struggle at that. Because we start fighting each other and, well, you’re not doing enough and you’re not doing this. And it’s like, guys, you know what? We can disagree on the little things. And guess what? It’s those little things that we can really, really hammer and figure out over time. However… In the meantime, we’ve got to get the big things done. It’s like the debt ceiling. You and I don’t want to increase the debt ceiling.
SPEAKER 08 :
We shouldn’t.
SPEAKER 07 :
You don’t have to.
SPEAKER 08 :
Trim things up to where you don’t need to. But as much as I don’t want to, that’s not reality.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, and I think you just kind of hit the nail on the head. We can have good goals, right? We can have good aspirations. And I think, again, have a plan to get there. But it’s the getting there piece that, like you said, we have to be in reality, which is, okay, so we need to make our goal for this year, instead of having a $2 trillion deficit, we have a $1.5 trillion deficit. Yes, that still means our debt this next year is going to go up $1.5 trillion. And that is a lot of money. But next year, Dad, maybe we go from $1.5 trillion to, I would love it to be $1 trillion, but maybe it’s not, right? You just need to start chipping away at it each and every year because it goes back to, well, I’ll just say specific examples, right, Dad? You can’t pull people off of spending, and that’s Medicaid, Medicare money. now that that and I’ll even pay this debt in the this some people may disagree with me I think one of the biggest quote-unquote social assistance programs we have out there is our defense spending because there are so much of the economy yeah and there are so many people within our economy that are reliant on really extreme defense and I’m not saying that that needs to go away and I think maybe that’s even what Trump kind of doing dad because his whole thing with NATO is to get them to increase their defense spending well yes, I know Europe manufactures some of their weapons and stuff, but a majority of the advanced weapon systems in the world comes from America. And so, to your point, it’s like, guys, we need to sort of wean ourselves off of this, get other countries to pick up the
SPEAKER 08 :
Richard, we could go down the list of things even in regards to farm subsidies and some things we do inside of the SBA and on and on and on we go. I mean, the reality, Richard, is the list is it’s almost endless. It really is. There’s so many things we could trim back.
SPEAKER 07 :
Correct. And so going back to your original point of free thinkers, again, I think that that’s one of the biggest benefits to our party is we do. We are free thinkers. We have a lot of differing viewpoints, and we listen to a lot of that. But unfortunately, and we get a bad rap for it in the media and everywhere else because when we get in power, we spend so much time bickering about the smallest things. that we end up getting labeled, well, Republicans can’t govern. They can’t pass a bill on there. Heck, Dad, we couldn’t even hardly elect a speaker. without you know but the problems before right and then you had your grant the update your date right you met gates the grand standard that you know that that ended up you’re causing problems with mccarthy you know it is just like a little things that really don’t get up anywhere so not but again that much of the free thinking is one of our biggest benefits and something that we have republicans do way better the democrats do ultimately that it causes one of our biggest downfalls and and and i i think you’re right we need to come together figure out how to work together. It’s just like a family, right? No family, no marriage is perfect, but you’ve got to sort of figure out when to put certain things on the back burner in order to accomplish the major goals.
SPEAKER 08 :
That’s a great comparison, Richard, because relationships in general, you’re never going to always agree with that other party 1,000%. By the way, if you are, then somebody’s not thinking clearly. Somebody is an extreme narcissist in that relationship, not allowing the other person to think clearly. you know for themselves and so on because no two people are ever we saw this even back in biblical times with biblical characters talked about in the bible the reality is people can have very differences of opinions on how certain things should get done it doesn’t mean that you need to go completely separate ways some cases in the bible it did by the way but at the end of the day richard we can still be on the same team and have different approaches and how we get things done and i’ll tell you right now inside of the gop nationwide even especially here in colorado We haven’t figured that part out yet.
SPEAKER 07 :
Nope. Again, we are worried. Again, marriage, you’re worried about your husband or your wife not putting away that towel versus you need to find the right school for your kids to be in. You know, like there’s varying things that you should be worried about. And as long as you’re aligned on your core tenets, right, your faith, your family values, things like that, which, again, we as a conservative party, I think for the most part. are. Now, there’s a few bad apples, and you look at, again, our past history with our state party as a prime example of that. But ultimately, Dad, like you say, we have to come together better as a party to do that, and then that will transfer. Because I also think the same tenets hold true for even working with Democrats on some issues, although, Dad, it’s a lot harder, because it’s kind of like you’ve got really two completely opposite ideologies when it comes to your conservatives and democrats on on how to deal with more issues and that’s the biggest it could some people like what you you you republicans fight as much yet we at least agree on your small government right you know we agree we may disagree on how to get there right Well, we agree on that versus Democrats with the exact opposite. So, no, I agree, Dad. And hopefully we can get on track. I mean, I think I feel like as conservatives, we take like three steps forward and then 50 steps back.
SPEAKER 08 :
We do. And we need to capitalize on some of the things that happen better than we probably do. That’s one of those things where and again, a lot of what I’m talking about, Richard, comes down to leadership. And the reality is better leaders create more synergism inside of – cynicism, I should say, inside of an organization. And the reality is we haven’t had that here in Colorado for quite some time. And we will see if that will now start to change. On the same token, the – The volunteers, I guess you could say, or the followers also have to be willing to give, especially new leaders, some grace coming in and say, okay, I’ll give them a little grace. We’ll see how well they do, how well they perform, and so on, before they actually just jump off the bandwagon. Unfortunately, here in Colorado, we’ve had some that didn’t even get on the bandwagon in the first place.
SPEAKER 07 :
Correct, and that was some of the issues. At times, Dad, with some of these, well, again, just with people within our own party, they do become grandstanders, right? And they sort of make this show of it, and I can’t even joke. It’s like, okay, make your statement, right, duly noted, make your objections, right? It’s like in court. Make your objection, it’s noted, but then let’s move forward because we have to accomplish these goals that need to be accomplished, and we can’t do that without when not everyone’s on board.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yep. Somebody said it’s a 12-step system. First step is admitting you have a problem in order to start changing. We as a party, Richard, to this particular text, we haven’t even admitted we have a problem. Well said, by the way.
SPEAKER 07 :
You know, again, we probably need to go to, again, some of these addiction steps, because we do. We as a party need to admit this, and then as a country, right, we need to admit that we have these issues. That’s right. And then start working towards solving it, because, again, none of these problems, Democrat or Republican, as a country, will not be solved overnight. That’s right. It just has to be a gradual effort to get it solved. But, again, like I said, the first step is admitting that you have a problem.
SPEAKER 08 :
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SPEAKER 08 :
All right, we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Time of the week where we do some car reviews, Richard. And what have you driven lately?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I drove a really, well, I guess one of my more enjoyable cars, to be honest with you, of late. And that’s for the value and just for a lot of things. And that’s the 2025 Toyota Grand Highlander Hybrid. And this was the Nightshade package, which we’ll kind of get into. As it sits at $56,818, again, for that hybrid. fuel economy 36 and 32 for an average of 34 and the reason i’m leading off with that is because that to me is one of the best selling features of this car and we’ve talked about this in the past right with toyota and their hybrid systems and just the hybrid um especially with fuel prices there the hybrid uh system is really second to none and and what we mean by that is just it works really well dad and it gives you an extra i don’t know i would say 10 to potentially 20 percent of added range onto the vehicle just through that extra fuel economy. It works really well. It’s simple to operate. You don’t have to do anything. And then on the Highlander itself, Dad, so the Grand Highlander is basically a Highlander, just bigger, right? It gives you a little bit more room. That third row is a little bit more spacious. There’s a little bit more room behind the third row. It’s not of these large SUV variety, Dad. It’s still kind of that midsize SUV, but it’s still a great value model for the vehicle and again you have uh it’s it’s got a let me see here the the base hybrid is a 245 horsepower base hybrid engine um and it’s this is second for the model year dad for it was reintroduced in 2024 um but it’s it’s obviously 2025 now it really is phenomenal the interior apportionments are everything that you’d want there’s a bunch of cup holders Great center storage space for purses or for all of the kids’ nonsense that you would say. Something that you need when you have kids running around. It’s got enough room in the middle row for two booster seats or two kind of full-size seats. This model had the captain’s chairs, which worked really nice. People could get back to that third row if they needed. And like I said, the fuel economy really is great on this hybrid. And you’ve driven the Highlanders in the past. Great car. And it’s one of your more favorite kind of midsize SUVs.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, great-sized car. It’s positioned very well as far as in its class. In fact, I think, to your point, in the Grand Highlander being a little bit larger, I mean, it really is outside of probably the minivan choice or stepping up into a full-bore body-on-frame SUV. This is going to be one of your top choices for the money.
SPEAKER 07 :
It is that, and that nightshade, it sort of just kind of adds a little bit, it adds a darker theme, right? I don’t have all of the effects as far as what it does, but it is exactly that. It kind of adds a little bit different and some darker texture to it and different features that way. but it’s again like you say that it’s a really efficient vehicle and what we mean by that folks is outside of the hybrid just how it’s designed and it really is family focused family centered all of the controls are available for you you’ve got um heated and ventilated seats i think you have a heated steering on this you have a 360 degree camera system that’s a really great feature you’ve got a panoramic roof on this um on the vehicle dad you also have the panoramic view monitoring system Again, really a fun car. I enjoyed driving it. Owned a hybrid, or not a hybrid, owned an original Highlander. I should say not the Grand Highlander before that. And this extra room was really nice, but it didn’t make the car feel that much bigger. So, folks, if you’re interested, head to your local Toyota dealer. Test drive, again, 2025 Toyota Grand Highlander Hybrid. And when you do that, let them know that John and Richard Rush from Drive Radio and Rush to Reason sent you.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right, well, those opportunities, we have a couple to do. What’s your next one on the docket here?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, so this is, again, a really competitive class that we’re going to get into this next one, which is kind of that small SUV class. This is the 2025 Honda CR-V Hybrid, Dad. And so that market is really, really competitive. And folks, if you want to know all the different ones in there… encourage you to you know kind of go check them out um but this is no significant changes for 2025 folks they kind of redesigned the crv back in 2023 um this is the i guess kind of the middle tier data of the honda suv market right there’s a little bit larger vehicles um in in this class for them fuel economy we just mentioned in our previous review 40 and 34 for an average of 37 dad this vehicle as price and we mentioned this is the all-wheel drive sport touring model 42605 so you get the hybrid system on it dad and you get kind of pretty much all the bells and whistles um that you would get on a crv dad essentially within this model and you’re just over forty thousand dollars Lots of soft-touch material throughout. It’s got 39.3 cubic feet of cargo capacity behind its rear seat. So again, this is technically a five-passenger SUV, Dad, but really kind of four full-size adults can fit pretty easily. But again, almost 40 cubic feet of cargo room in the back, which is really, really phenomenal. And one thing, again, Dad, we talked about it. With this hybrid technology, You and I, when we do quite a bit of driving, we would be able to go a little over a week without fueling up this vehicle.
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s huge.
SPEAKER 07 :
And that’s something that can be said, especially for folks that are in the market for this car, Dad, which maybe moms, families, where fueling up is time. And maybe you forget, right? You’re going from one kid event to the next.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right.
SPEAKER 07 :
And it’s hard to do. And so being able to go longer without a massive price increase, Dad, it’s a really, really great feature that I like. And I encourage folks, check it out. Honestly, we could sit here a lot. They’ve got lots of charging ports, auto dimming mirror, you know, 12-volt power outlets all throughout this car. I could sit here and kind of tell you all the different features, but we’d be here for forever. So I encourage folks that. Check it out. It’s one of my more favorite of the small SUVs, especially with this hybrid dad and especially here in Colorado, with the all-wheel drive that was on this model. It makes it really great for all of the weather that we get here just because you can never tell in Colorado. So we encourage folks, check it out. Hedge your local Honda dealership. And when you do that, let them know that John and Richard Rush from Drive Radio and Rush to Reason sent you.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right, before I let you go, too, for all of you listening, remember, we’ve got car reviews that go back a long time. So some of you may even be in the market for a new used car, wanting to know one from another. And that’s a whole other topic, by the way, because a lot of it has to do with, you know, who owned the vehicle before, how it was maintained and so on. But in general, to find out, hey, what did we think of that car when it was new? We’ve got all those reviews out there as well. So, Richard, thanks. I appreciate it very much. I’ll let you go.
SPEAKER 07 :
Sounds great. See you guys.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right. Up next, we’ve got Cub Creek heating and air conditioning. Again, folks, if you’ve had any issues at all with your HVAC system, could be furnace, which in some cases it may be running depending upon where you’re at up on the foothills because of our cooler nights that we’re still having. Could be the AC unit that’s not doing what it should be, not getting cold enough. Whatever it is, either or, Cub Creek is there for you. Find them today at klzradio.com.
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SPEAKER 03 :
Now back to Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right, we are back. Got a few minutes or a few seconds left, I should say, of this hour. Got another full hour coming your way. No guests next hour. Got several things that I’m going to talk about, though, so never fear. We got plenty of topics. Never a dull moment when it comes to things to talk about in this world. Going back, though, to some of the things even Richard and I were talking about in regards to, you know, the GOP nationally, locally, the expectations. And I’m not saying that we shouldn’t have expectations. high expectations and we shouldn’t want the best for not only the party but the country but i do think that the biggest difference that i think a lot of folks have inside the party nationally and locally is strategy now i will tell you straight up that’s where leadership comes in leadership needs to step in and help with the strategy and how we’re going to get things moving forward get everybody on the same page that’s what good leaders do and i’m still waiting for somebody in our party to step up and be one of those. I’ll be just straight up honest. We need that on all levels in Brita. I hope you can do that here in Colorado, and we will see. We’re going to support you along the way, but ultimately we need to be collective in the message that we send out across the board locally and nationally. We’ll be right back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
Elon Musk, Washington, and the Real GOP Problem
John Rush sits down with author and journalist Dennis Neal to dissect The Leadership Genius of Elon Musk—but this conversation goes far beyond biography. They dive into Musk’s recent political disillusionment, corruption in Washington, and how both Republicans and Democrats feed from the same bloated trough. John doesn’t stop there. In a fiery monologue, he rebukes Colorado Republicans for demanding instant results while failing to understand basic strategy. From misplaced outrage to misguided posts, Rush calls for maturity, long-term thinking, and realistic expectations if conservatives hope to win again.
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