On Tuesday, House Speaker John Boehner claims he wanted to
“talk.” A breakthrough in the debt ceiling impasse with Boehner actually bowing
to common sense? No; President Obama
calls him up and discovers that he just
wanted to say “hi.” Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is doing his
best Harry Truman impression, standing fast against those “do-nothing”
Republicans. Former House Speaker and
current bloated-head talking Newt Gingrich claims that 63 percent of Americans blaming
Republicans for the impasse isn’t as “bad” as it sounds. A Pew Foundation poll
says that 69 percent think that Congressional Republicans are acting like “spoiled
children,” while less than a quarter think they are acting like “responsible
adults.”
Republicans justify their actions by claiming that the “American
People” support their positions, despite the fact they lost the last two presidential
elections spouting exactly the same thing. As a follow-up to the previous post
on the subject, the Republicans seem to be allowing a very small percentage of
the population to dictate terms for a more sensible majority. This rump,
strangely enough, coincides with the number of hardcore listeners of right-wing
hate talk radio. Rush Limbaugh may claim to have “millions” of listeners, but
in fact that impression is only given when the mainstream media publicizes
another one of his inane comments, giving him a “national” audience for a
minute or two. More often, however, it is those odd-ball, out-of-the-woodwork radio
shows that bring out and enable the paranoids who believe that no one is “listening”
to them (usually for good reason).
Since my “day” starts in the wee hours of the morning, I sometimes
give my Walkman’s AM radio dial a spin. Unlike the FM side, you are liable to
pick up almost anything that the mind can conjure up, especially at night when
the reception crosses state lines. Not surprisingly, the “wackos” tend to appears
like ghouls in the darkness, where even the nuttiest paranoid theorems are
disseminated and discussed in all seriousness, and the worst impulses capable
in human nature are encouraged. This is why shows like “Coast to Coast” in its
current iteration has great potential to unbalance already disturbed minds.
Some people might remember when Art Bell hosted the show; Bell was perfect for
a show that focused on the paranormal, weird science and conspiracy theories.
He had the deep voice that lent a certain gravitas even to the dopiest topics,
but you never had the impression he was taking everything at face value; if what
was being said by a guest stretched credulity, subtle changes in tone let you
know he had his doubts as well.
As time went on, Bell kept the politics to a minimum; that
is not the case on the show today, hosted principally by George Noory. Noory
may have a “mild-mannered” personality, but that only makes his far-right, gun
rights fanaticism just that much more absurd in conjunction with the usual
paranormal and “intelligent design” rubbish.
He is so devoid of personal accountability that even the dumbest and dangerous
ideas by callers are given a sympathetic hearing (probably because he doesn’t
want to “alienate” his core audience). On Saturday evenings John B. Wells takes
over, and while a reasonably intelligent person can simply wave off Noory as a
loon, Wells has this low, solemn voice
which intones the apocalyptic, thanks to the satanic designs of the Obama
administration and liberals generally. One wants to reach across the airwaves
and knock some sense into this hypocrite, but then you realize the show is
actually a parody of politics and intellectualism, like the British skit comedy
“Monty Python.”
The problem is that Wells and most of his right-wing listeners
don’t know that. The other day Wells was talking to Jesse Ventura, former
wrestler and one-term “independent” governor of Minnesota who inherited a $6.5
billion budget surplus, pushed through a property tax “reform” law, and saw
that surplus turn into a $6 billion budget deficit by the time he snuck out the
backdoor; sounds more like George Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress. Ventura has added another book to the JFK
assassination cannon; isn’t it remarkable how many of these conspiracy
theorists who are also paranoid anti-government fanatics never put two and two
together—that those arrayed against Kennedy were mostly right-wing extremists
like themselves?
But mornings and afternoons is where the real damage is
done. Left-wing talk radio—which is now impossible to find even in “liberal”
Seattle’s airwaves since Progressive AM 1090 was replaced by yet another sports
talk station—is generally marked by degrees of wit and common sense discussion.
On the right, outside of Michael Medved the general mood is relentless paranoia,
fear, hate and just a “hint” of the racial politics that was the major feature
of the Republicans’ “Southern Strategy” of the 1960s, and hasn’t changed since,
despite protests to the contrary. Most
of that small cadre of hardline listeners (who are also likely to be more compelled
to call and write their congresspersons and senators with their ossified views)
are fed a steady diet of anti-government, anti-liberal and anti-Obama hate talk
from people like:
Pastor Chuck Baldwin, who still thinks that slavery wasn’t
all that bad. His take on the Civil War, composed in a recent commentary on his
website:
“The same thing happened in the War for Southern
Independence. How many Christian men in the North took up arms against their
spiritual brethren in the South for basically the same reason that Christian
Tories took up arms against colonial patriots years before: to forbid them from
declaring independence. Too many to count. How many Christians were among the
troops that invaded Virginia and assaulted the citizens of that State (a
sizeable percentage of whom were believers) in the First Battle of Manassas? Again,
too many to count.”
Pastor Chuck refers to anti-government fanatics as “freedomists,”
and the pro-government side as “statists.” Naturally, there is a “Christian”
element to this, although any reading of Jesus’ teachings would suggest that he
was a “socialist”: “Ladies and gentlemen, the chasm between freedomists and
statists is widening. It is pitting brother against brother; husband against
wife; father against son; mother against daughter; friend against friend; and
Christian against Christian. In much the same way that the great struggles for
liberty have divided brethren in the past, so, too, it is happening today. And
the chasm is only going to widen further in the months and years to come.”
You satanic unbelievers and paranoid faithful “mark this down: as the chasm widens, there
will be no room for neutrality. Everyone, and I mean everyone, will have to
pick a side. We either believe and understand the divine principles of liberty
and are ready and willing to fight and defend those principles, or we support
the tyrant’s position that the state stands in the place of God and must be
obeyed at all costs…This is why it is so important for Christians to leave
these churches that promote the damnable doctrine of unlimited submission to
the state; and I mean right now. Pastors who continue to preach this fallacious
doctrine of unlimited submission to the state are facilitating the destruction
of liberty in America. They are helping to put shackles around the necks of our
children and grandchildren.”
What do you expect from someone who was endorsed for
president in 2008 by Ron Paul?
Glenn Beck also says we all need to find “God,” like he
claims to have, obviously the eye-for-an-eye version. We lost our way because
we turned our backs on God. God and faith are all over his website. In a recent
“op-ed” to be found there, he solemnly states
“Now, the reason why the French Revolution lost is because
they went on to say all men are equal. No, they’re not. They don’t have equal
outcome. They’re created equal, so everybody gets their fair shot. Once you say
all men are equal, well, then you’ve got a problem because once you start to
look at wealth and everything else and equal outcome, then somebody has to
change the rules to make it work right for somebody else. No. No, what we had
was everybody is an individual and everybody has to stand on their own two
feet. But then you couple that with faith, which taught charity. It is the
Judeo‑Christian
value of charity. And the Judeo‑Christian value of the power of the individual, that God
loves each of us and created each of us as individuals. And he loves each of
us. Good or bad, black or white, we’re all his children. All of us. And it’s
for him to settle those scores. It’s for us to try to do the right thing.”
Huh? According to Beck, “God” is supposed to “settle the
score” with those greedy bastards who want everything for themselves; but here
on Earth, the “right thing” is to enable those greedy bastards. Of course he also
says things like because Obama supports stem cell research and abortion rights, he is
a “Nazi-style eugenicist.” With Planned Parenthood, he is hoping to create a “master
race” of white people. Of course, why Obama would want to do this being black
is a debatable question, but logic need not apply; frankly, I didn't know Beck cared so much about black people, like "abort them all" William Bennett. Beck also confuses “socialism”
with “fascism,” but prefers the latter because everyone hates “fascism”—except
maybe the real neo-Nazi, Hitler-worshipping types, mostly in the Southern
backwoods. Never mind; Beck knows what real fascism is: “People are once again
feeling oppressed by an out of control state. Like it or not, fascism is on the
rise.”
Believe it or not, some people actually take Ann Coulter at
face value. She also pretends to be a Christian, which of course only gives
Christianity a black eye. People likening Coulter to Hitler are not completely
off-base; her Big Issue, if you check her “archives” page, is immigration—and not
just against the “Mexicans,” but legal immigrants as well. Headlines that
scream SEND US YOUR VIOLENT BIGOTS, YEARNING TO BUTCHER OUR CITIZENS and WHEN
DID WE VOTE TO BECOME MEXICO? are typical.
Laura Ingraham is another bleached blonde Nazi who claims to
be a “Christian.” She doesn’t post any of her own commentary on her website,
probably because the books she has published are so stupid that even her own
fans are “disappointed” in their inanity and vulgarity.
For real “patriots” there is Watergate burglar G. Gordon
Liddy and main Iran-Contra criminal Oliver North. Liddy, who because he is a
convicted felon is legally banned from owning a gun, has in the past advised
listeners to shoot (as in “headshot”) any federal officer trying to take their
guns away. North—another convicted felon—has somehow managed to convince people
that he is not really a traitor as specified by the Constitution, but a
“patriot.”
Then there is Michael “Savage” Weiner, proof that not all of
the Jewish faith are “liberal.” Back in 2003, David Gilson wrote in Salon that Savage “launched a one-man
mission to save America from its enemies at home and abroad, which on any given
day includes liberals, gays, academics, the homeless, the Clintons, immigrants,
feminists, CNN, the American Civil Liberties Union, Muslims and other
minorities. Broadcasting three hours a day, five afternoons a week, from a
rented studio in downtown San Francisco, he gives voice to the right wing’s
darkest fantasies.”
The British Foreign Office justified its banning of Savage from
entry into the UK by labeling him a "Controversial daily radio host.
Considered to be engaging in unacceptable behavior by seeking to provoke others
to serious criminal acts and fostering hatred which might lead to
inter-community violence."
Savage doesn’t bother to “elucidate” his own political views
on his website, mainly because his own books show that having a Ph.D doesn’t necessarily mean you have anything
intelligent to say; he should stick to his “expertise” in herbal medicine. One of
his books is Liberalism is a Mental
Disorder; the following comments suggest that he is the one with a “mental
disorder.”
"They (kids with Autism) don't have a father around to
tell them, 'Don't act like a moron. You'll get nowhere in life. Stop acting
like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don't sit there crying and
screaming, you idiot.”
“Liberalism is, in essence, the HIV virus, and it weakens
the defense cells of a nation. What are the defense cells of a nation? Well,
the church.” We don’t need to go there again.
“These big-mouthed, phony scum of the ACLU, who should be
rounded up, arrested for sedition. Their property seized, and they should be
put into Abu Ghraib prison as far as I’m concerned. That wouldn’t be enough of
what I’d like to see done to the ACLU. They’re the worst vermin America has
ever tolerated. The worst vermin in the history of America are the vermin in
the ACLU.”
“When I hear someone’s in the civil rights business, I oil
up my AR-25.”
"Why do I call them socialist perverts? Answer: because
they are. By and large, 90 percent of the people on the Nobel Prize Committee
are into child pornography and molestation, according to the latest scientific
studies.”
“Whenever I hear anyone preaching to me about how
compassionate they are, I reach for my Glock. That's all I can tell you. They
can all drop dead."
Savage is also a favorite on the neo-Nazi website “Stormfront,”
even if it is grudgingly admitted that is seems counterintuitive since he is, after
all, one of those evil Jews, though perhaps not one of them behind the establishment of a freedom-destroying New World
Order.
Most people (I think) find Savage and his ilk so
preposterous that they can’t be taken seriously. However, someone does, or else
they wouldn’t be in business raking in millions (or billions) of dollars in ad
revenue from corporations who support these rantings. Michael Harrison, the publisher of Talkers Magazine, said in an interview
that right-wing listeners have the “a perfect mind-set for radio, a niche
medium, to target an audience that will be loyal. They’re seeking validation…the
conservative audience mind-set is much more cohesive and uniform, whereas
“liberal” is a broader term that takes in many different political
philosophies, ethnicities, voting habits, socio-economic classes. It’s not as
cohesive a unit.”
It is fact that liberals have a harder time speaking with one
mind, since they generally have different agendas; the right, on the other
hand, have just one thing on their mind, and that is hating everything.
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