Mort Kondrake's solution to GOP's woes: fire conservative talk show hosts.

[DCBob]

First Steps to GOP Recovery By Mort Kondracke

How can the Republican Party rebound? The first step would be to quit letting Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham set its agenda.......... Step One is to fire Rush Limbaugh and his ilk as the intellectual bosses of the GOP. They shouldn't be muzzled, as some liberals want to do by reviving the "fairness doctrine" in broadcasting, just ignored more frequently. In recent years, Republicans have let right-wing talk show hosts whip the GOP base into frenzies -- over immigration, brain-damage victim Terry Schiavo and same-sex marriage -- that have branded the party as troglodyte. The result is that the demographic groups representing the future of American politics shifted decisively to the Democratic Party in 2008 -- Latinos, young people, the well-educated, moderates, working women, first-time voters, suburbanites and "seculars." As former White House political guru Karl Rove observed last week, "the GOP will find it hard to regain the majority" if it keeps losing Latinos.

more: http://www.republican-leadership.com/node/679
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I think Morty Mort is actually right. Those wacko talk show hosts are so off-the-wall many do not them seriously and it reflects negatively on the GOP in general. But these talk show hosts are immensely popular with their listeners and make millions from advertisements and conservative product sales. They are not going anywhere because the mighty dollar dominates. The Republicans are so screwn!

[BrklynLiberal]

1. YAY! What an incredibly intelligent and insightful suggestion.....

It could make this a better country all around...but on the other hand, as long as those morons are spewing their hateful filth, we can be sure that the repukes will stay out in the icy cold...

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

I hope that more people of Kondracke's ilk jump on this bandwagon.

Of course we can now assume that Kondracke will be the butt of all the RW talk show hosts' hate talk..

[DCBob]

3. Laura Ingrahm slapped him around on Faux last night.

It was fun to watch!

[BrklynLiberal]

4. So predictable..Right? Can't wait to see what the rest of the wrecking crew have

to say about him.
I guess this means he is blackballed from the McLaughlin Laugh-fest.

[peace frog]

5. Good, let them diss him

and anyone else on the right who has a great idea for turning the GOP around. The more sane people they expel from their ever-shrinking tent, the stronger and larger our Dem constituency grows.

[leftist.]

18. You said it! The more hate radio is involved, the more we win.

The good news for us is that, for the forseeable future, no one in the republican party can move against talk radio - it's just too strong of an entity now and especially so given that it's now the home for a very angry portion of the population that hates that "a black muslim, arab, terrorist" beat their wet-dream queen Palin.

[tblue37]

49. Just as conserative pundit Kathleen Parker was attacked during the GE campaign for

pointing out that Sarah Palin did not belong anywhere near the national stage and that she was a serious drag on the ticket, and just as Parkershe is now being excoriated by the base for daring to suggest a few days ago that the GOP needs to stop letting its "oggedy-boogedy" wing (as she calls them) dictate their positions and campaigns.

[SoCalDem]

21. They don;t even need to be fired.. JUST OFFER THE REST OF US AN ALTERNATIVE

a real alternative...not a watered down, version of Rush..

Mort's a bit off-base, if he thinks the Fairness Doctrine is a bad idea.. It's the BEST idea, because it enforces equanimity, without "mass-firings".. If Rush's show is a "moneymaker", why would the stations fire him? They won't, but if the COST of hiring a bombastic blowhard LIKE him, is that they have to provide Equal time for the OPPOSITE opinion, HIS "value" goes down, and so might the "heat" he generates.

The cannibalism that took place in "radio-land", made anything BUT right wing practically impossible to find. There are stations that run hate-radio "shows" back-to-back, 24-7, and in some areas, all the stations are owned by the same conglomerate, so no other message ever gets aired..

And it makes NO difference what part of the country one lives in.. In LA...BLUE BLUE BLUE Los Angeles, unless you BUY XM-Sirius (don't get me started on that fiasco), you have only a few sporadic and very static-y AM stations where you can even GET anything not right wing or fart-joke...and if you do find AM1150, the signal ends at dusk..

The right wing "audience" is only 30% (less these days), and yet they are "treated" to 95% (or more) of the radio-availability of shows they "like"... It's because liberals WILL listen to the blowhards, if only to complain and kvetch about the injustice of it all, and our interests are diverse enough that we will ALSO listen to other things on the radio, so WE contribute to their "ratings" inadvertently, but the dyed-in-the-wool conservatives ONLY listen to them, and to ALL of them..

I have never met anyone who ever bought ANY of the crappola they are "selling" in their commercials, but the people who bought up all those stations, have deep pockets and I don't think they care if the make a "profit".. Their profit comes in the form of getting enough loonies fired up at election time, to get BIG MONEY through legislation...not from selling Duxxiana beds, or quasi-medicinal supplements.

Excluding OTHER messages is their game, and until they are FORCED to equalize message-availability, and do it on decent AM stations that anyone can tune in anywhere on any radio, they "win"..even if they are losers, overall..

[leftist.]

25. What a great post! Thanks!

I especially like this point: "The right wing audience is only 30% (less these days), and yet they are treated to 95% (or more) of the radio-availability of shows they like". Hate radio hosts have already started setting themselves up as martyrs with respect to the Fairness Doctrine and their main argument is censorship and free speech. But as you point out, is there another niche group of people anywhere in society that have an entire medium to themselves?

[BrklynLiberal]

34. You do make a lot of sense. I have never listened to any of those morons.

My stomach and my head cannot endure it. I do not even has FAUX NOISE on my channel selections. I used to listen to AAR, back when it provided a full day of really good listening. They changed the location on the radio and I cannot even get good reception any more.
I do agree, that if these RW financiers were forced to give equal time to the other side, they would either drop out altogether, or we would have the opportunity to hear some information that might be worth listening to.

[alwysdrunk]

48. Talk radio is a business not a public platform

The reason they are playing the hate shows is because it sells. they are in business to make money, they are private corporations. They don't owe anything to anyone except their customers and sponsors. It has nothing to do with any "message".

You act like you can FORCE a 24-hour RW media bubble person listen to some liberal talk show host and that will magically make him see the light. He will just change the station.

Liberals are just jealous but I don't know why. In this information age AM radio is way down on the totem pole in the exchange of ideas. The fairness doctrine is the a horribly outdated idea. It really worries me that so many serious people are really trying to bring this in.

[Jazzgirl]

59. Why are you here?

You used the term "liberals are just jealous" but you are here. I am confused. :shrug:

[Joe Chi Minh]

41. What you said.

[doc03]

2. This time I agree with a Faux whore. n/t

[FormerDittoHead]

His suggestion is sound. Time for the Republican party to get out of lockstep.

McCain would have gotten more votes (but not mine) if after hearing his rally participants using racial epitaphs and saying "kill 'em" about Obama, he told them to get the fuck out of there.

But they have to all agree and stick up for each other.

They talk about personal responsibility, but when do they actually hold one of their own to that standard?

The question I'd liked asked of any Republican politician is, "What does Rush Limbaugh say that you disagree with?" I'd like it asked because I don't know of a single thing which Limbaugh says a single thing which he has said, a single position which he has taken which the Republican party DOESN'T stand for.

They're too afraid to say. They're too afraid to say because Limbaugh, et al maintain a 3-6 hour a day stranglehold on the ears of their core supporters, and to go against any one of them is to then get RIPPED UP hour after hour for their caving in to the "commies".

...and that is, as Kondracke suggests, is just ONE of their problems.

[leftist.]

22. Given the medium, that 3-6 hour stranglehold is paramount.

That's a lot of attention being given to a medium that "exists in a sort of perpetual amnesiac state" as Nate at 538.com put it. Also, Kondracke may suggest that it's just one of their problems, but imo it's the most important issue on their table right now.

I'd also like to see our side begin to drift away from associating hate radio with Limbaugh. I see him as a waning presence in that medium, one who exists solely to try and find the most creative ways to work "Democrat Party" into any sentence (I've heard him say "The Democrat wing of the Democrat party, with control in the Democrat House and the Democrat Senate" more times than I'd like to count!). I'd like to see our side begin to put Hannity's name out there more, as he's a rather awful human being that's very easy to attack.

Are you a former Limbaugh fan or a former Geddy fan?

[FormerDittoHead]

40. Sometimes I wish I had registered "FormerDittoHead".

...although I DO own both formerrushfan.com and formerdittohead.com

I think it's wrong to discount Limbaugh's presence, as he continues to remain unchallenged in that medium, however, you're right, in that 16 years ago, many stations where Limbaugh was syndicated, they then their own line of "anti-establishment" right wingers, there was NO FoxNews, and the right wing "think tanks" were just getting started. Times HAVE changed...

[leftist.]

47. I don't want to discount him either, I'd just like to move him back a bit.

IMO Hannity has moved to the forefront. The two have entirely different show formats and Hannity's seems to be the one that gets mimicked the most these days. Do you think that's wrong? Perhaps move them both into the forefront? Or just leave it as is and have Limbaugh as the titular head of the medium. I'm certainly not the smartest person on these things.

[opihimoimoi]

6. Send them to Rehab in Tuva or some Devil forsaken place....let them learn whittling

[izquierdista]

8. Tisk, tisk, tisk...

What did the Tuvans ever do to you?

[opihimoimoi]

11. I hate their singing....LOL

[SpiralHawk]

13. One entities music, is another entities messic. Tuvan throat singing (youtube)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DY1pcEtHI_w

[opihimoimoi]

17. LOL...Richard Feynman turned the world onto to these dudes years ago

Thanks for the link....

Must be long winters there...very boring in the huts...need something to pass the time away...no wood for whittling....just making music......

:toast:

[SpiralHawk]

23. Come. We go consume bowls of rancid yak butter

While saturating our souls with the vivid vibes of throat, um, singing. Or whatever. As long as their are no republicons around to louse up the party even further with their freaking twisted so-called diaper-clad 'family values.'

[opihimoimoi]

28. Awwwww now ya owe me a cleanup for the keyboard...Diaper clad? Like in Vitter?

i take a pass on that there Yak stuphs...esp if its rancid....yikes...

Come, we go eat POI

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

36. I am Lothar of the hill people.

Much have I seen and much have I done.

[eleny]

20. "Mort Kondrake, throat singer"

:rofl:

[fascisthunter]

7. Good Idea... with These Pundits, the GOP looks like the Nazi Party

extremely intolerant to others and extremely dishonest...

nothing good comes from either detriment.

[patrice]

9. Personally, I want to know who the Crazies are, so I don't know about this move.

:shrug:

[Faygo Kid]

10. Kondracke is exactly right. Some Repuke needs a "Sister Souljah" moment.

Until so-called "mainstream" Republicans condemn the spew of hate from Limbaugh and his ilk, they will never return to power. You simply can't persuade people by calling those who disagree with you idiots and/or traitors. The Repukes live in an echo chamber, and they have to break free of it and start saying it's OK to have a dialogue with those with whom you disagree.

I think they have another election cycle before this happens. But somebody will someday, on the Right, call out Limbaugh/Hannity/Ingraham et al for the haters they are. I'm not holding my breath, though.

[leftist.]

12. I only know of Kondracke from his appearances on hate radio. He's right though ...

Hate radio is currently in a struggle with the moderate, "reformer" wing of the party for control over it's future direction. The "reformer" strategy is a smart move imo - any number of things could happen during an Obama administration that would allow for a "reformer" party to slide in and say "We're the ones who can fix this".

This reformer movement will not win imo and the evidence I point to is how hate radio - using Sarah Palin as a conduit - was able to stir up such a vitriolic frenzy during McCain's pathetic presidential campaign. That kind of extreme emotional disaffection will cause anyone on the hate radio side to simply pull their support from the reformer side, thus ensuring that the republican party is permanently stapled to the hate radio base. And when that happens, we win :)

The delicious irony here is that McCain - a self-styled "reformer" and "maverick" - wanted to win so badly that he was willing to give birth to the Palin monster and as such put hate radio in the drivers seat for good.

[AllentownJake]

14. That is why we need to say no to the Fairness Doctorine

The fuckers on Talk Radio do more damage than good by dragging the party to the right.

Trust me we will see this in 2010 when there are a few open seats and we see who the GOP nominates for those seats.

The Palin side will win because they will be energized by Talk Radio...leaving us the ability to be moderates in comparison.

[AlinPA]

24. To Kondracke: shhh. Let them continue to act like the troglodytes that they are.

They will be rejected along with their party. Maybe we will see the Westboro Baptist Church in their camp too. Give Savage some air time on Fox "News".

[grantcart]

15. This is the genius of Obama

Obama is making an effort to listen to the reasonable right and accomodate some of their concerns.


This will alienate them from the talk show base and the talk show nuts will aim their knives at the moderate Republicans who are trying to find some agreement with Obama.


It is classic divide and conquer. This is the real fear of the Republican Party.

[leftist.]

19. Salient point! +1 Internets for you!

I hadn't thought of that repercussion but it sounds reasonable. And it brings me back around again to the point that, where we can continue to involve hate radio in that party, we win :hi:

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

38. Seems to me he's listening more to them

than to the netroots that made his victory possible. One, ONE fucking progressive in the cabinet, Mr. President Elect.

[stillcool]

58. More of that group think...

lock step? I would think that an individual reply could be massaged a little to reflect a little originality. 'We the people' made Obama's victory possible, and while we may be the 'netroots', we are not so easily labeled. How is it that you and your lock-stepping, group-thinkers know who Obama will appoint, and what criteria do you use to determine who is worthy of your prize?

[opihimoimoi]

43. They saw it coming but was flummoxed as what to do about it...

The Pubs are in a corner without a clue as how to escape

Now that the dagger is in deep...they ponder options...

Too widdle too late....The GOP is dying a slow morbid death

[Veruca Salt]

60. Yeup. And the Obama Republicans were just the start IMO

I think that the fiscal wing of the pubs will fall into the D column for years to come if Obama is successful in turning around the economy or even getting a jump start on it. A lot of the fiscal pubs I know are socially liberal but always believed that the pubs knew economy better.

[Maru Kitteh]

16. I think he's right - but hopefully nobody will listen to him

I'm all for letting them wander for 40 years in the wilderness.

[IndianaGreen]

26. Let's restore the Fariness Doctrine first!

Then let's take away the tax exempt status of all churches that engage in partisan politics, including RCC and LDS.

[AllentownJake]

32. No, I like them listening to the nut jobs

the knuckle draggers aren't going to change and if they keep being told Sarah is their savior everday they'll vote stupid not strategically.

Besides the future is internet not broadcast. Talking radio will die a slow death demographically because they have less and less new listeners. The age of the avg talk radio listener is increasing.

[burythehatchet]

27. He has a great point. But I hope they don't listen. We need the loudest voices to keep talking

Its the best way to expose their ignorance

[Obi Juan]

29. Here in MN, since Jason Lewis has come back on the air in '06, Dems have been up, big...

I remember listening to his first couple of shows since his return (he'd left for the NC market from a different MN station), and he and his kook-callers had a genuine belief that he'd turn the state red.

BTW, if you want to get an example of this gift to MN's DFL party, you can catch him subbing for Rush every now & then.

[AllentownJake]

So he helped us in NC too

:evilgrin:

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

51. Jason Lewis has got to be one of the most insufferable

assholes that walks this planet. He's crazier than a shithouse rat and actually believes that he's a serious "thinker." Epic fail on that count.

[chieftain]

30. The GOP has danced with the devil for years, they will not

be able to extricate themselves from the grasp of Rush and his soulless mates of the AM radio propaganda machine. If Obama has a successful presidency, the Republican Party is destined for minority status for decades.

[janx]

31. Agreed. n/t

[EconomicLiberal]

33. Bingo.

If Obama doesn't trip over his feet, he is guarenteed re-election.

If he has a very successful presidency, the GOP may be in the wildness for two decades.

[Sebastian Doyle]

35. Mort must have his own retirement plans secure, I guess

Because Murdoch sure as Hell ain't gonna keep paying his old ass if he writes stuff like this.

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

37. Asshole Mort has a good point. But it ain't gonna happen. Ever.

The fascist assholes and fundies have a death grip on the Repig party. They are its base, footsoldiers, contributors and majority. They are also a dying breed, demographically. This country is becoming younger, browner, better educated and more tolerant. The Repigs have nothing to offer these people except a seething and unrelenting hostility to everything they are. The Repig base (not the elites like Brooks, Buckley, the Obamacans, et al) are dumb-as- a-brick mouth-breathers who hate everyone who ain't a white snake handling fundamentalist. The base of the Repig party is trailer trash whites. That is not where this country is headed.

[Forkboy]

39. It won't happen...and that's beauty of it.

:evilgrin:

[ShadowLiberal]

42. Nate said something similar at 538 recently about how talk radio is killing conservatives

Basically what he said is that conservatives have forgotten that you have to actually convince people that you're correct and your views are right, which is why they don't win elections anymore.

The conservative talk show radio guys don't do that, they just focus on passion and stirring up emotions to get their listeners to stay tuned in.

If you watch some of the talk shows they have on fox, like Sean Hannity, you'd be missing very little if you threw a blanket over your TV set and just listened to what he's saying, because their shows are constructed just like the radio, stiring up passion in their viewers, people who are already sold on the rightwing koolaid.

To go into details explaining why your right is boring in talk radio, and will cause people to stop listening to you. Being passionate and persuasive can't be done together, the more you are of one thing the less you are of the other.

Which is why those rightwing hosts get so frustrated when you question the lies they're so sold on, like Obama not being a US citizen. Nate asked that one guy about it who commissioned that push poll to try to prove Obama supporters were idiots. Talk show hosts don't want to get into boring stuff like that.

That kind of a flaw was visible in McCain's own campaign. While the whole "Obama is just a celebrity like Britney Spears" thing may have been able to stir up a bunch of passion and so many views on the internet, it failed to convince anyone that Obama wouldn't make a good president, it failed to say why you should vote for McCain. The ad also sort of had the effect of just reinforcing the opinions people already had about Obama, and McCain to in a way. I mean McCain was in a way attacking the whole pop culture and things that young people love, reinforcing the image of the GOP being run by a bunch of intolerant religious right fanatics trying to legislate morality. To older voters who are more socially conservative and who don't know much about pop culture it served as trying to say "look Obama is just like these immoral people" in a way.

[Doctor_J]

44. Hagel said the same thing Wednesday

The hate mongers have become a liability to the GOP, just like they've been to the country for 15 years

[janx]

50. Over 20 years, actually.

There are young adults of voting age in this country that have lived in a world in which this is considered normal.

[AspenRose]

45. It's called karma

Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind

Besides, these obscenely rich mouthpieces from the GOP aren't the TRUE problem; they only do what they're told (and paid) to do.

For true change to happen would require the PTB in the GOP to actually deviate from their message and change the talking points the propagandists spew. And I doubt they'll do that anytime soon.

[BREMPRO]

46. excited to see party moderates going on the offensive against the RW cancer on the airwaves.

Limpballs hannity, savage etc..have marginalized the party into a rabid christo-fascist attack machine.
Hope they succeed in restoring sanity to their party. would be good for the country.

[ecstatic]

52. They have an overwhelming media presence, but they have jumped the shark

They overplayed their hand and now their opinions are worthless. Haha.

[struggle4progress]

53. The fairness doctrine never muzzled anybody. It didn't even require

balanced treatment or equal time. It merely required a station, using public airwaves, to provide some time for those who stood on a different side to explain alternate views

During the Clinton years, rightwing radio regularly claimed Clinton was massing jack-booted storm troops and setting up concentration camps to take over the country. People heard that nonsense over and over again without any rebuttal. That's a dangerous situation -- and it gave us the Oklahoma City bombing

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

54. 2 things doom them - tedium and negativity

Especially now at a time of great change and challenges.

They are just flatly boring as they just flail on about the same old same old liberal threat to America while they simultaneously try to distance themselves from 8 years of horrific Republican governance.

Sean Hannity now styles himself as "The Conservative Underground" ! and sings his daily paean to his personal god Ronald Raygun and has Newt Gingrich on every other day to try to reconstruct "Conservatism" as opposed to Republicanism.

The other thing is, their callers sound more and more ignorant and out of it, because face it, you have to be ignorant and out of it to be an actual fan of either one of these cretins. But it's adding another layer of doom to their shows. It can't be good to think "My God! What a moron" with every single caller and then listen to either Sean or Rush try to make conversation with someone with the intellect of chipmunk.

At some point there has to be an awakening: All their fans/callers are morons, I am a fan, ergo I too am a moron.

[Arkana]

55. Actually this isn't a bad idea.

Maybe Kondracke's right.

[slampoet]

56. Firing them implies they were HIRED BY THE GOP

[rasputin1952]

57. Rush Limbaugh and intellectual just don't go together...

pompous ass, moron, cretin, arrogant gasbag and the like are more like it. If Limbaugh and his ilk are considered "intellectual" by the GOP, they are in much worse trouoble that can be imagined...:D