Are people really watching Sean Hannity or Glen Beck because they agree with these nut-bars or are they tuning in because it's the equivalent of watching a schizo on the street flail and rant at imaginary demons?
I'm astounded that no TV or radio station can find a real conservative willing to talk on the air who is: 1) Truly in favor of small government, including on his pet projects like the military. 2) Able to talk positively about the republicans without using hyperbole and disingenuous discrediting techniques on the democrats. 3) Might believe in God, but recognizes that there's a separation between church and state. 4) Doesn't provide any kind words for the poisonous rhetoric of the neo-conservative rabid right.
I would so listen to that guy every single day. Oddly, I used to think Glenn Beck, in his talk radio show, was reasonably close to those ideals... and then we know what happened.
I think Andrew Sullivan fits those parameters (mostly). Maybe someone like David Weigel too (he used to write for Reason magazine, now works for The Washington Independent). Probably a few others I can think of later, but they are definitely marginalized by their side.
Andrew Sullivan has mostly been rejected by the republicans as far as I can tell. By being willing to say kind words towards Obama and the democrats, he has isolated himself from his party. I'm not familiar with Weigel, but I'll look him up.
I dream of a world where the passage of every congressional bill isn't a culture war. Where each bill is debating on its merits, voted for or against, and when the next bill is debated, it's not about the old bill. Where skirmishes are won and lost without people making each concession to the other side into a traitorous endeavor.
Charles Krauthammer, Peter Huber, David Brooks, George Will, Dinesh D'Souza, and possibly Camille Paglia all spring to mind. They don't speak in soundbites though.
David Brooks is the only one in that list who might meet the qualifications that weswilson set here (http://community.livejournal.com/politicartoons/1234545.html?thread=24534385#t24534385)... maybe Paglia too.
Krauthammer is a hardcore neocon, and was one of the big cheerleaders/architects of the Iraq war (so he definitely doesn't meet #1, or #4 either), D'Souza has written some crazy stuff over the years. George Will is way farther to the right than most people think (for instance, I can remember a column he wrote in 2007 in which he insisted the minimum wage was basically an affront to America and capitalism). Compared to Limbaugh or Beck or Hannity, etc, yea they seem more polite and less crazy, but that doesn't make them thoughtful or intelligent.
Also Thomas Sowell. And that's just pop culture knowledge. I'm not mentioning Jonah Goldberg on purpose here.
The trick is, and I'd have to refer to dead guys like William F Buckley and Barry Goldwater here, we have to tease apart our radical disagreement with the messages and techniques of these people from the methods they use.
Faux News is most appealing whn the host starts yelling at the guest within 5 minutes. Its journalism as wrestling. If you're looking for conservatives who don't work that way, you just have to get the hell away from the TV.
describeing 10 weeks of obama as the desent in to fasicem isnt makeing fun, its redcluses hyperbole, and godwinded to boot.
stewart takes the piss out of obama, but fox news provides are far juicer target becous thay are far more insain, and shit shouting, then anybody else.
I know you know this already, but there's a difference between making jokes about Obama, as Stewart does in the very clip above (all the crazy collector plates and stupid shit like that) and on a regular basis (look up clip archives on their site (http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/videos.jhtml)... tons of Obama mockery), as I do on my blog (http://blueduck37.livejournal.com/339643.html) , etc..... and insisting America has devolved into fascism and that we need to arm up and start a revolution before his secret army puts us in FEMA concentration camps, as some disturbing lunatics (examples here (http://washingtonindependent.com/37360/scenes-from-the-real-america) and here (http://reality-hammer.livejournal.com/917673.html) have insisted).
Once again you're purposely misrepresenting (http://community.livejournal.com/politicartoons/1232997.html?thread=24493669#t24493669) the issue to avoid debating it.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2009-04-08 02:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-08 03:45 pm (UTC)Where are they hiding???
oh, wait, maybe they support Obama so they've been sent to their rooms.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-08 04:33 pm (UTC)1) Truly in favor of small government, including on his pet projects like the military.
2) Able to talk positively about the republicans without using hyperbole and disingenuous discrediting techniques on the democrats.
3) Might believe in God, but recognizes that there's a separation between church and state.
4) Doesn't provide any kind words for the poisonous rhetoric of the neo-conservative rabid right.
I would so listen to that guy every single day. Oddly, I used to think Glenn Beck, in his talk radio show, was reasonably close to those ideals... and then we know what happened.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-08 04:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-08 05:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-08 05:34 pm (UTC)http://washingtonindependent.com/author/weigel/
no subject
Date: 2009-04-08 05:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-08 05:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-09 12:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-08 09:58 pm (UTC)*runs away*
no subject
Date: 2009-04-08 10:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-09 02:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-09 02:39 am (UTC)Krauthammer is a hardcore neocon, and was one of the big cheerleaders/architects of the Iraq war (so he definitely doesn't meet #1, or #4 either), D'Souza has written some crazy stuff over the years. George Will is way farther to the right than most people think (for instance, I can remember a column he wrote in 2007 in which he insisted the minimum wage was basically an affront to America and capitalism). Compared to Limbaugh or Beck or Hannity, etc, yea they seem more polite and less crazy, but that doesn't make them thoughtful or intelligent.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-09 09:12 am (UTC)The trick is, and I'd have to refer to dead guys like William F Buckley and Barry Goldwater here, we have to tease apart our radical disagreement with the messages and techniques of these people from the methods they use.
Faux News is most appealing whn the host starts yelling at the guest within 5 minutes. Its journalism as wrestling. If you're looking for conservatives who don't work that way, you just have to get the hell away from the TV.
That's some serious butthurt
Date: 2009-04-09 08:18 am (UTC)Re: That's some serious butthurt
Date: 2009-04-09 01:12 pm (UTC)stewart takes the piss out of obama, but fox news provides are far juicer target becous thay are far more insain, and shit shouting, then anybody else.
Your butt hurts? That's why you ask your boyfriend to use lube! I could've told you that.
Date: 2009-04-09 02:19 pm (UTC)Once again you're purposely misrepresenting (http://community.livejournal.com/politicartoons/1232997.html?thread=24493669#t24493669) the issue to avoid debating it.