Posted by Jonathan Adler:
Is Talk Radio Bad for the Right?
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_03_01-2009_03_07.shtml#1236086948
Conservative voices dominate AM talk radio. Is this a good thing for
conservatives? John Derbyshire [1]makes a strong case that talk radio
has contributed to the dumbing down of the American Right.
With reasons for gratitude duly noted, are there some downsides to
conservative talk radio? Taking the conservative project as a
whole�limited government, fiscal prudence, equality under law,
personal liberty, patriotism, realism abroad�has talk radio helped
or hurt? All those good things are plainly off the table for the
next four years at least, a prospect that conservatives can only
view with anguish. Did the Limbaughs, Hannitys, Savages, and
Ingrahams lead us to this sorry state of affairs?
They surely did. At the very least, by yoking themselves to the
clueless George W. Bush and his free-spending administration, they
helped create the great debt bubble that has now burst so
spectacularly. The big names, too, were all uncritical of the
decade-long (at least) efforts to �build democracy� in no-account
nations with politically primitive populations. Sean Hannity called
the Iraq War a �massive success,� and in January 2008 deemed the
U.S. economy �phenomenal.�
Much as their blind loyalty discredited the Right, perhaps the
worst effect of Limbaugh et al. has been their draining away of
political energy from what might have been a much more worthwhile
project: the fostering of a middlebrow conservatism. There is
nothing wrong with lowbrow conservatism. It�s energizing and fun.
What�s wrong is the impression fixed in the minds of too many
Americans that conservatism is always lowbrow, an impression our
enemies gleefully reinforce when the opportunity arises. Thus a
liberal like E.J. Dionne can write, �The cause of Edmund Burke, Leo
Strauss, Robert Nisbet and William F. Buckley Jr. is now in the
hands of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity. �� Reason has been
overwhelmed by propaganda, ideas by slogans.� Talk radio has
contributed mightily to this development.
References
1. http://www.amconmag.com/article/2009/feb/23/00006/
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