I happened to tune in AM talk radio yesterday to see how they were dealing with their pain regarding McCain winning South Carolina. Rush Limbuagh said that if John McCain were to win the Republican nomination he would not vote come November because it would be between two Democrats. Of the other hand Sean Hannity did a turnaround.
With much press of late – some from conservative talk show hosts themselves – that Right-wing talk radio is on the run, Sean Hannity began his show with a reasonable monologue sounding like a reasonable Republican. He said there is something to this idea that we cannot just go on and on reducing taxes forever and ever. That if the entire world and the majority of American voters are concerned with Global Warming, perhaps it is time for a little give and take concerning the environment. He covered a few more issues and ended with a very nice speech that perhaps rounding up, jailing and deporting 12 million Mexicans needs a bit more compassion and common sense added to the issue.
I didn’t think that much of it as it was not a Democratic or Liberal speech, but more of a pragmatic view of how things have changed since the last Presidential election. Just some common sense to keep the GOP from going from Hegemony to the trash heap of history. Not so his callers though. Wowzer!
They screamed, hollered and cried calling him a sellout, a traitor, on drugs, crazy and on and on. Finally a woman called and said, "Sean, you gotta be kidding!" He laughed saying he was amazed how long it took for his callers to realize that he was just being silly and sarcastic! Not realizing that when views get as far out of whack as Hannity’s, sarcasm no longer works, he went on to screech for ever lower taxes, the myth of Global Warming, building the longest and highest fence in history and the police rounding up 12 million Hispanic families to be jailed and deported the day before yesterday.
So what is going on with these guys?
It is a two parter. First is to play the straw man argument that word is they are going out of business because of their hardcore -never give and inch- conservative ideology. That is not what is being said, but rather, like the Religious Right they have lost their political power and gravitas not their audience, their share or their revenues. Only by becoming reasonable would they lose that.
Their audience is made of three demographics, represented by Grover Norquist’s no taxes for the wealthy, Ted Nugent’s militia, racist, gunloon crowd and Pat Robertson’s American brand of the Taliban. All on the run and madder than ever.
With changes coming, these groups will need even more of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Michael Savage to confirm what wonderful human beings they are, for without that reinforcement, they may snap and start shooting. Staying the course is in the best interest of the talk show hosts, their audiences and America.
Secondly they are hoping that their candidate, Mitt Romney – who has enough money of his own to hold on past the primaries until the Republican Convention come August – will generate a delegate fight on the floor and steal the show.