There will be a few more pictures of Arizona after I get home, but tonight I am typing this from the road in Yreka, to be exact. I am using a laptop which means the post will be succinct as laptops and I tolerate each other when required. The problem is mainly because I use a wrist-friendly keyboard-- except when traveling.
I had to write something though after spending all these hours on the road because I finally understand how somebody with GW Bush's limited abilities, disastrous decisions, and total non-conservative stance on issues, has maintained 30% approval ratings-- talk radio.
At home I do not listen to talk radio whether liberal or conservative, but on the road, to keep track of what was going on, I thought it'd be good. I tried with Sean Hannity-- I really did but 5 minutes of his smug voice, his talking points, his ... argh, just writing about him puts me in a bad mood.
Then there was the Limbaugh. He lasted longer but his catering to his crowd was irritating especially on things like global warming. Does he really not 'get' it that sustainability is not about concern for whether rocks and scorpions survive on earth? He keeps saying the earth has been around a long time-- like that is some important factor. Do you know anybody who cares if cockroaches continue to flourish? Sustainability-- for anybody who has been having their brains turned to mush by Limbaugh-- is about humans surviving in anywhere near the numbers they currently have.
Whether all of Al Gore's film on global climate change was correct, the issue is whether we are studying it, whether we are preparing for it, and no, I am not worried about whether the wealthy Mr. Limbaugh can survive. It's that the poorer people may face disastrous ends and hard to say for the rest of us. Sustainable is not a liberal word and should even be a conservative one-- but it's not.
Mr Limbaugh also attacked Nancy Pelosi for going to Syria. He played cuts from Bush's press conference where he petulantly complained she was spoiling his game. If I ever heard anything so pathetic in a leader as those chosen clips by Limbaugh who was trying to promote Bush, I don't know what it'd be. Bush has... argh.... never mind. I was not put in a good mood by listening to him and talking about him is just as bad.
Why didn't I listen to liberal talk radio? Mostly because across the states where I drove, there wasn't any. It was one conservative after another and all putting out the same propaganda... except one... And that one shocked me.
Michael Savage. Just the name normally stirs me to some irrational comments of my own; so imagine my shock to hear him make sense about a lot of things. There is no way I'd agree with him on everything or maybe most days on anything but what he said about Pelosi and Limbaugh was rational, thought out, and made me smile a few times-- like that the callers to his show had listened to much to the guy who fried his brain with too much oxygen depletion from riding in his Gulfstream and smoking cigars.
And boy was he right. The callers were hitting on Pelosi for daring to act like a leader. Can you imagine if the president of the country was Hillary Clinton and the Speaker of the House was a republican what they would think of someone said the speaker had no business being a leader? He said that he hoped she would do well and Republicans and Democrats should not automatically decide anything the 'other' side did had to be wrong. Listen to it. Think about it. And hope because as he said most of them are bought and paid for.
So what did I learn from my time? Well that if those who are sticking with Bush would listen to some music or go for a walk, maybe they'd get some ability to reason back. Almost every caller I heard was very worrisome for anybody who hopes for some reason to come back into our country. And dang, amazing that Micheal Savage would actually make sense.... I might have been on the road too long :)
(I don't know why but somehow posting comments got blocked for this blog-- right wing plot possibly... *s* Anyway I am back in Oregon and after being told about the problem from a friend (ingineer), I got it straightened out-- for the moment.)
5 comments:
You made me laugh. Right wing plot. Did you forget that you were actually listening to and agreeing with Michael Savage. He is the biggest nut job on the radio. It was probably someone from the DNC thought they might be losing one of their biggest supporters and tried to shut you down. How is that for a left wing conspiracy. :-)
PS I am in such a great mood nothing political can touch it. Don't take anything I just said seriously. The flowers are blooming, the birds are singing and love is in the air.
I would not always agree with Savage, didn't agree with all that he said but I am not one who defends only one partyline-- like Limbaugh or Hannity. Savage isn't a right-winger. He's in a category of his own. What he said last night on his program was that Pelosi had a right to go, that she is a leader in this country, that he would wait and judge what she did later, but that his listeners were not thinking. He also said that when something is good that is done, we should see it as good and not deny it just because it's one party or the other. Extremists on either side don't think.
I should write on this maybe but what I think is many people don't want to think. They don't want to sort out what is right to do on an individual, case-by-case basis; so they settle for fundamentalism which can be party line or religion. Then they no longer have to think. They just believe whoever leads their group. They see it as simpler. Savage was thinking and whether he's normally too extreme or not (which I have heard him when he was) last night he was making sense.
I really wanted to listen to what the right wing was saying. I couldn't do it with hannity because he's just a bush bot (term used by savage) but I did try. I thought it'd be informative and it kind of was-- especially with how little there is out there on radio that espouses anything other than right wing propaganda.
as far as love in the air-- bah humbug lol (just kidding.. okay, not really. I just got off an over 2000 mile trip where most of my time when I was in Tucson was taken up with fixing things or errands to fix things and I am tired. Some vacation!) I'm happy for all who feel that love is working for them ... honestly... sure I am :)
I am glad that you were looking for information on what the other side is talking about. Kind of like when I tell people that I read and comment on a left wing blog. In my limited experience with Savage he does have a different viewpoint than the others that you mention. He has to try and set himself apart so he can compete for airtime. If he was just a Rush clone people would not tune in near as much. And he has never been a big fan of W. He thinks W is too soft and not conservative enough. If most Savage fans had their way we would have nuked Bagdad and Faluja. It might have saved US military lives in Iraq if we would have.
I really only listen to a guy from Sacto on the radio and maybe a few minutes of Rush every few days. The Sacto guy is a fiscal conservative and a social moderate, like me. And I like what he has to say most of the time. He has filled in for Rush a few times.
I listened to Hannity a few times for a few minutes just because it was on and I quickly change it to music every time.
I think you are right that many people listen to what the "leaders" are saying and almost blindly follow. It could be said for many groups...dems and reps or blacks or hispanics or evangelical christians. But there are always a few in each group that buck the system and then are called uncle Toms or whatever may fit to be discredited.
Back when I was still working I often listened to talk radio but learned to enjoy local shows better than the national ones. National shows always seemed to be on the same subject, how bad or good the President was doing, depending on the side they were coming from. I have learned there is little I can do about national things so why get frustrated or angry about them. Don Quixote I do not want to be. But one voice can mean a lot more on local issues.
I too have listened to right wing talk shows on radio when I was a captive in my car driving to neignboring communities in the Willamette Valley here in Oregon. I marveled at how different my thinking is and I listened trying to understand how intelligent people can hold these points of view. I tried to forget my opinions and follow their trail. And I saw people can easily follow.
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