I love radio.....always have.....words with no images. The broadcast history of radio is complicated but Pittsburgh station KDKA's broadcast of the national elections on November 2, 1920 stands out. KDKA set up shop that evening in a shack with some transmitters and antennas on the roof of one of the Westinghouse Electric buildings on the historical Turtle Creek/East Pittsburgh site. It's quite possible that both of my grandfathers were laboring in their jobs on that evening in that building.
Fast-forward to the 1990s and the Democrat Party led by the Clintons and Al Gore were bent on literally destroying America's heritage. Later on Barack Obama would say on October 30, 2008 that "We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America." Conservative America's main voice in opposition to this Progressive/Communist revolution was in Rush Limbaugh....and it was a powerful voice! George W. Bush then eked out an election victory to stop Al Gore. In the aftermath of 9/11 Sean Hannity took the lead in defending our troops that were defending us....and this against much home-grown opposition....and it was yeoman's work indeed! Levin...Beck...Savage....and a host of others followed as President Obama began the transformation process.
Then along came Donald Trump. Where would we be had he not appeared? Well...it's hard to say. Ted Cruz may have won the nomination but would he have won the general election? We will never know but we do know this....had he or some other conservative candidate become the 45th president then the economy would have taken off as it has under President Trump....maybe not quite as fast because Trump does have that super-salesman persona....but regulations would have been eased and the corporate tax rate would have been slashed and the Iran deal would have been torn up. We would have had two new conservative Supreme Court justices....maybe even better ones.
What's important is that the Clinton machine was stopped. I posted back then that conservative talk radio was going to have to decide where to go and what to do now. My hope....since blown to smithereens....was that they would hold fast to conservative ideals and bring God and humility back into the equation. President Trump came under immediate attack....much of it in my opinion because of his own bad personal decisions and extreme narcissism of which his supporters utterly refused to hold him accountable for....thereby giving him no good counsel. With friends like these...who needs enemies? Talk radio panicked....unfortunately once again led by Rush Limbaugh. All they had to do was hold the President to account on his promises....criticize his slide back into the swamp that he claimed to come in to drain....and therefore....possibly....force him to act like a statesman which would have deprived the Progressives of much of their political ammunition....had they done this then the chaos over the past year and a half might have only been outside of the White House and not within it....but instead they covered up the gross miscues and backslidings of the President....let the towering image of Donald Trump dictate every move that they made.....and in the process let their listeners down who trusted in them to be defenders of truth over political expediency.
I now have a hard time listening to either Limbaugh or Hannity or Levin or Breitbart for more than a few minutes without having to turn the volume down for a while.....or off....and taking a few deep breaths upon listening to a once great source of information turned belly up. They present one side of President Trump's troubles adequately....but they either ignore or even distort the other side. This is not what conservatives bargained for when our support essentially built conservative talk radio. Alas most of the listening audience must not feel the same way but I will say this.....they may listen in....but they are only a shell of what they once were. There is no more rigorous thinking....only rote memorization on talking points....no more critical analysis.....and no more passion for truth....only glazed eyes upon the amulet oscillating in front of them in the form or tweets.
Note: I caught the last fifteen minutes of Breitbart's nine to midnight radio program. I have legitimate differences with co-host Rebecca Mansour in her admiration for President Trump....but I understand and respect how she came to those opinions. In this short segment that I listened to she stated the obvious on something that was not flattering to Donald Trump. Her co-host immediately took issue with her....this being the standard conservative talk radio fare of today. There was a few seconds of tension but her honesty was a breath of fresh air. I'll go so far as to say it was exhilarating. This is but an example of what is needed to bring the audience back into the conversation.
Fast-forward to the 1990s and the Democrat Party led by the Clintons and Al Gore were bent on literally destroying America's heritage. Later on Barack Obama would say on October 30, 2008 that "We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America." Conservative America's main voice in opposition to this Progressive/Communist revolution was in Rush Limbaugh....and it was a powerful voice! George W. Bush then eked out an election victory to stop Al Gore. In the aftermath of 9/11 Sean Hannity took the lead in defending our troops that were defending us....and this against much home-grown opposition....and it was yeoman's work indeed! Levin...Beck...Savage....and a host of others followed as President Obama began the transformation process.
Then along came Donald Trump. Where would we be had he not appeared? Well...it's hard to say. Ted Cruz may have won the nomination but would he have won the general election? We will never know but we do know this....had he or some other conservative candidate become the 45th president then the economy would have taken off as it has under President Trump....maybe not quite as fast because Trump does have that super-salesman persona....but regulations would have been eased and the corporate tax rate would have been slashed and the Iran deal would have been torn up. We would have had two new conservative Supreme Court justices....maybe even better ones.
What's important is that the Clinton machine was stopped. I posted back then that conservative talk radio was going to have to decide where to go and what to do now. My hope....since blown to smithereens....was that they would hold fast to conservative ideals and bring God and humility back into the equation. President Trump came under immediate attack....much of it in my opinion because of his own bad personal decisions and extreme narcissism of which his supporters utterly refused to hold him accountable for....thereby giving him no good counsel. With friends like these...who needs enemies? Talk radio panicked....unfortunately once again led by Rush Limbaugh. All they had to do was hold the President to account on his promises....criticize his slide back into the swamp that he claimed to come in to drain....and therefore....possibly....force him to act like a statesman which would have deprived the Progressives of much of their political ammunition....had they done this then the chaos over the past year and a half might have only been outside of the White House and not within it....but instead they covered up the gross miscues and backslidings of the President....let the towering image of Donald Trump dictate every move that they made.....and in the process let their listeners down who trusted in them to be defenders of truth over political expediency.
I now have a hard time listening to either Limbaugh or Hannity or Levin or Breitbart for more than a few minutes without having to turn the volume down for a while.....or off....and taking a few deep breaths upon listening to a once great source of information turned belly up. They present one side of President Trump's troubles adequately....but they either ignore or even distort the other side. This is not what conservatives bargained for when our support essentially built conservative talk radio. Alas most of the listening audience must not feel the same way but I will say this.....they may listen in....but they are only a shell of what they once were. There is no more rigorous thinking....only rote memorization on talking points....no more critical analysis.....and no more passion for truth....only glazed eyes upon the amulet oscillating in front of them in the form or tweets.
Note: I caught the last fifteen minutes of Breitbart's nine to midnight radio program. I have legitimate differences with co-host Rebecca Mansour in her admiration for President Trump....but I understand and respect how she came to those opinions. In this short segment that I listened to she stated the obvious on something that was not flattering to Donald Trump. Her co-host immediately took issue with her....this being the standard conservative talk radio fare of today. There was a few seconds of tension but her honesty was a breath of fresh air. I'll go so far as to say it was exhilarating. This is but an example of what is needed to bring the audience back into the conversation.
