Preface: The voice of the individual conservative had been totally taken away over the past seven years. Talk radio used to be an intellectually exhilarating experience. Today there is no thinking required at all....in fact we are not allowed to think on our own. No longer just a Fox contributor....or weekend host....Tucker Carlson began his own weekday television show in November of 2016 at 7 pm....and then on January 9, 2017 replaced Megyn Kelly at 9 PM...and then was promoted again in April as he replaced Bill O'Reilly at 8 pm. Conservative talk radio and Fox nightly cable would never be the same....as the conservative audience was simply herded into a pen and branded. Receiving the mark so to speak....they became disenfranchised.......or told to go somewhere else.
In the buildup to Putin's invasion of Ukraine there were doubters that it would ever happen....Breitbart's Alex Marlow was one of them. The day before the invasion.....he spaced his words for effect and ridicule as he said...."Putin....is...not....going...to...invade....Ukraine!" I purposely listened in the day after as Putin had invaded. Marlow could not get out of at least making a comment....so for a few minutes he sheepishly admitted that he made a mistake....and that was it.....on to other business.
In early 2017....As President Trump was confusing conservatives....to put it mildly....on some of the decisions that he was making.....Mark Levin was challenging these decisions....and showing concern. Then....and it shocked me....as out of nowhere that I could discern....he said that he made a decision not to criticize Donald Trump anymore. Sometime after that....I was listening in....Mark was now defending everything that Trump did....and he paused....and oddly said these words....with very discernable emotion...."I love that man!"
Rush never challenged President Trump. In early August of 2017 President Trump came out and endorsed the establishment candidate in the Alabama Senate race....Luther Strange....over Roy Moore and Mo Brooks. This was a shocker....even an earthquake. I tuned into Rush for ten straight days as he never even mentioned the Trump endorsement....and then on day ten or maybe eleven he came out and admitted that he purposely avoided commenting on it. The reason? He said he did not think he should get involved....which considering who Rush was....made absolutely no sense whatsoever.
The following in italics is from a DISPATCH post on May 17, 2018. Conservative talk radio by now was no longer debate or even dialogue...and not really even conservative as much as....America only.
****Dispatch.....Thurs 08:06.....**** It looked like it might be one the best calls in over a year on any of the conservative radio talk shows......and one of the very few that was critical of President Trump that the call screeners let in....it lasted about one minute and then the caller....someone who said that he had...."worked tirelessly for candidate Trump".... was just about to make his key point....and then the call went blank....Alex Marlowe said......"Oh did we lose the caller?....That's too bad." I didn't laugh....and I didn't scream.....it was somewhere in between.
Sean Hannity's show had also changed....as gone was the back and forth conversation....the sharing of opinion. It was now only purpose-driven talk radio....defend Donald Trump....but one morning in January of 2018 Raheem Kassan was filling in on Breitbart's morning show....and he was actually letting other opinions in. Later in the day Louis Gohmert was filling in for Sean Hannity....and he also was letting other opinions in! I took note of this refreshing change and posted on it....but it only lasted a day with fill-in hosts.
Prior to August of 2016 Steve Bannon was clearly the second best conservative radio host behind Rush....but in effectiveness really not that far behind Rush. He was that good! At about five minutes after six in the morning on Wednesday August 17, 2016....with 88 days left in the campaign....I was at the drive-by window of McDonalds for my breakfast to take to work....tuned into Breitbart as usual....but Steve Bannon was not there. Later in the day it was announced that he had been appointed chief executive of Donald Trump's campaign. I knew then....immediately....that Trump would win the November election....and I told people....and later when Trump did win I celebrated....for a few weeks....maybe a month....until Trump took his mask off.
I remember how it transpired.....but not the date....probably 2018. President Trump had just been caught in a couple of whoppers....so obvious that even supporters could not deny them. Within a week....all three hosts.....Rush and Mark and Sean....addressed the issue....and all three sheepishly admitted that....yes Trump incorporates lies.....but that's just him. My question to these three men was....OK....so why are you not concerned that he lies to you also?
It was August of 2017 in Phoenix....at a Trump rally....and the crowd was raucously singing and dancing to The Village People songs....and the Stones. Franklin Graham was introduced to pray. The crowd went silent as Graham gave a wonderful prayer....of which my shorthand transcript of it follows this. As soon as he ended and walked off the stage....the crowd immediately started chanting....USA USA USA. Apparently Franklin Graham did not discern the absolute absurdity of the moment....nor did he remember his father's many warnings of mistakes that he himself had made on combining politics with the gospel. This was Franklin's prayer....
"Our Heavenly Father.....you've blessed our country more than any nation on earth and we acknowledge that apart for you we have no hope....we come tonight....as a troubled nation....we're broken spiritually....were divided politically....we're divided racially....we are adrift morally..... following whatever direction the wind of popular culture blows....with no regard for your word or the consequences of our disobedience....we ask tonight for your help....our sins have paralyzed us....as a country we have seemed to have forgotten right from wrong.... you warned us in your Holy Word the Bible that there would come a time when truth would become a lie....and lies would become truth....we come to you this evening confessing our sins as a nation.....we confess the sins of our past.....of injustice....of pride.....of self-indulgence.....we have failed to protect our young and our innocent.....and we ask for your forgiveness.....we ask that you would unite this country for your glory.....Father we need a shepherd.....I pray that you would be the shepherd of our nation.....you are the God who restores our souls.....your rod and your staff they comfort us....and I pray this all in the name...the powerful name....the name of your son....the Lord Jesus Christ."
USA...USA...USA...USA!
