A Liberal Deconstructs Conservative Talk Radio: 03/06/2018

Each day I listen to random conservative talk radio shows to get a sense of the mood of conservative voters. And to get a heads-up on what the "Fox & Friends" morning show will be discussing tomorrow. Plus, it's just pretty damn funny.

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Clearly, One Side Is Wrong
One of the more fascinating talking points on conservative radio is that Donald Trump is a runaway favorite to win reelection in 2020. The theory is that the Mueller Probe and all of the recent hearings and requests from the Democratic-controlled House are just indications that the Democrats are desperate because they know they can't win in 2020. Now as a Democrat, I'm all for the Republican base believing that argument. It lowers base voting turnout for Trump and it lulls Republicans into a false sense of electoral invulnerability.

The funny thing is that while this attitude is rampant in conservative media circles, the 2020 race is not seen as a slamdunk by the Trump White House or Republican Party officials. Which has led to this odd disconnect when you listen to Trump-friendly media.

This is a frequently heard argument on Mike Gallagher's Show. I mean, fish gonna swim, birds gonna fly and Mike Gallagher's going to take the rosiest spin on any story involving Donald Trump. Today his ire was of course directed at Democrats, but he was also not thrilled with Republicans such as Rand Paul. He was "furious" that there were some members of the President's party who were not going to support his effort to fund some of the wall with his emergency declaration. He moaned about how terrible it was that the building of the wall had become so political. Which is pretty funny, since no matter what you think of the idea, President Trump has been pretty clear that he thought building a wall would help Republicans during the 2018 mid-terms.

Gallagher continues to argue that Trump is an incredibly popular president and that building the wall is wildly popular with voters. As I said, I'm all in favor of Republicans overstating Trump's popularity. But I do wonder how otherwise bright folks can look at the totality of the polls that have been recently released and decide the results are almost entirely positive.


'You're A Socialist...You're A Socialist...Everyone's A Socialist'
One of the fascinating things about listening to Glenn Beck's Morning Zoo is that you never know which Beck is going to show up that day. Is it the politically conservative firebrand? The deep-thinking religious pundit? Or, as was the case today, the snarky and glib talk show host who purposely misstates political positions in order to make some point?

This morning show's included a discussion of how to define socialism and there were a lot of comments about Bernie Sanders and OAC. Lots of namedropping Karl Marx and noting that so many socialist parties or governments had the name "Democrat" in them. Which is not at all an accurate representation of historical fact. But it sounds outrageous and believable if you don't think about too much. That lack of critical thinking seems to have become the guiding principle of the Glenn Beck Show in recent months. Which is an odd evolution for a guy who always prided himself on being thoughtful and intellectually honest.

Regardless, while there was a lot of talk about how to define Socialism, I was most struck by the fact Beck and his on-air partner's starting point was "Of course, all Democrats running for President in 2020 are Socialists." Aside from the fact that's not accurate, I'm not even convinced that it's a winning political argument. The problem Republicans have about these claims that all progressive's are intolerant socialists is that they've been making this same argument for decades. And at some point, it becomes obvious to even the most anti-socialism hardliner that Republicans are not being intellectually honest when they label all progressives as socialists. Sure, this is another argument that might play to the base. But in an election where Republicans need to expand their voter base, I don't believe this going to change any minds.


The Power Of Imperfect Thinking
As I've said many times before, Rush Limbaugh is an impressive broadcaster and he has the ability to make even the most unlikely political theory sound not just plausible, but the only likely explanation. He was touching on all the points you heard on conservative talk radio on Wednesday: the Democratic Party is "imploding" (seriously..do all of these guys get the same newsletter?), criticism of Rep. Ilhan Omar and her alleged antisemitism and the general attempts by the media and Democrats to get President Trump.

The fascinating thing about this discussion is that he discussed previous impeachment attempts and he essentially argued that President Nixon didn't do anything all that bad and that he was railroaded by establishment Republicans who wouldn't support him. Rush is a smart guy, so I can't imagine he actually believes Nixon's crimes were overstated by Congress. But it did give him a chance to argue that Trump won't be able to survive without solid support from his party. Which is definitely the case.

But like a lot of conservative talkers, he also conflates the Mueller Probe with impeachment. The conventional wisdom in Republican circles is that the Mueller Probe hasn't found anything. So Democrats are now scared and that is why the House Democrats are casting these wide investigations of the Trump Administration. Think of it as "Witch Hunt 2.0." The problem is that these two efforts don't have all that much to do with each other. Mueller's probe is focused on provable criminal wrong-doing. In that respect, he is no different than any other prosecutor. He might find that certain things are impossible to prove or that Trump can't be indicted while president. But impeachment is a different matter. The Constitution talks about "high crimes and misdemeanors" and that phrase can encompass a lot of ground. When Bill Clinton was facing impeachment, Sen Lindsay Graham argued that Clinton's behavior wasn't illegal, but the immorality and poor judgement he showed meant he should be impeached.

That's an argument to keep in mind when looking at Donald Trump. Whether or not Mueller finds him guilty of criminal behavior, there are things which might fall into the "high crimes and misdemeanors" category. Granted, we're a long way from impeachment and things would have to get much worse before a majority of Senate Republicans would vote for impeachment. But impeachment and the Mueller probe are focusing on two very different types of behavior.


All In With Donald Trump
Sebastian Gorka loves Donald Trump with a passion that makes Mike Gallagher sound like a "Never Trumper." The media are all loathsome liars, the Left are deranged and he seems genetically incapable of believing anyone would have a rational reason for opposing any of the President's policies. Every time I checked into his show today he was ranting about the slanted media coverage that he argues makes it nearly impossible for Trump to get his message of success out there.

While Gorka bangs this drum louder than most, it's a common theme in conservative radio. And what strikes me about this is that it's part of an argument conservatives have been making since the Reagan Administration. If they lose an election, if a policy decision doesn't go their way, the cause isn't reality to the actual policy. It's the fault of the press, the colleges, the media or whatever other nearby scapegoat seems to be nearby. But it's never the policy or their behavior at fault. And at some point, the "world is all against us" argument only manages to remain effective with the hard-core base.

And that is ultimately why Gorka's show is ultimately only effective with the strongest supporters of President Trump. He doesn't offer anything to any of the hapless listeners that stumble across his show and are not rabid supporters of the President. It doesn't help that Gorka sounds like a b-level character from "Rocky & Bullwinkle" or that he argues his talking points with the light touch of a Warsaw Pact bureaucrat. 

On Wednesday's show, he spent a lot of time cackling with glee over the Democratic Party's "implosion" and supposed overreach. He argued they should be less focused on "getting" Trump and more focused on encouraging the moderate voice in their party. I hear this argument a lot from conservatives, many of whom point to Bill Clinton's move towards the center after his impeachment scare. "If they'd only learn from Bill Clinton."

What conservatives don't seem to grasp is that Democrats have learned from Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Clinton wasn't rewarded for trying to move towards the center after the impeachment scare. Republicans saw it as weakness and made him regret that decision every remaining day of his administration. And for all of the hatred of Obama, many of his biggest policies were ones that had recently been introduced by Republicans. But coming from a Democrat, these same ideas were seen as the first step towards socialism. 

There's a great discussion of this on Vox.com with Brad Long, who served as deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury for economic policy in the Clinton administration, who is one of the market-friendly, "neoliberal" Democrats who have dominated the party for the last 20 years. He tells Vox that he believes it's time for younger, more progressive people to lead the Democrats. Primarily, because Republicans have gotten rid of the moderates in their party that Democrats might have been able to work with:




Speaking Of People Who Hate Barack Obama

Sean Hannity really hates Democrats. He loathes Hillary Clinton and even two years after the end of the Obama Administration, he's furious that he was elected President two times. And that anger was fully in view at the opening of his Wednesday show, when Hannity repeatedly tried to talk about Ilhan Omar. But within a minute or two, he was back to ranting about Obama.

He went through his grievances against the former president again and again. Obama wasn't vetted by the press. He was a closet socialist, a believer in all sorts of black primacy theories, a radical and an "avowed community organizer." I'll be honest, I've never understood the community organizer complaint. So...that's a bad thing?

Hannity must have spent at least half of the first 40 minutes of his show ranting about Obama and a lot of time he was just shouting random talking points, with no real context or connection to each other. Acorn! Louis Farakhan! Olinsky! Ayers! Dorn! It was like listening to some anti-Obama version of Mad Libs.

His biggest laughline (at least from me) was when he compared Ilhan Omar comments and the Democratic response to the Republican Party and their public comments. "I don't know of anyone in the Republican Party who is saying anything anti-Islamic in Congress on a somewhat regular basis." Now THAT's a very nuanced disclaimer. "Sure, they may say SOME things that are anti-Islamic..but they don't do it REGULARLY."

Check back in tomorrow.......

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