The talk radio gods just steered the Republicans off a small cliff.
Talk radio is the best tool the think tanks (and Putin) have to attack, intimidate, and obstruct but when Republicans have to govern they have nothing but tax cuts and simplistic free market solutions that don’t work in the real world.
Republican talk radio has been very successful obstructing single payer since Clinton, repeating a variety of lies and exaggerations about Canadian and European single payer systems for 25 years. Long waits and crappy care forced foreigners to stream into the US for life-saving care, etc. Even a Canadian minister had to go to Florida for surgery! Limbaugh and Hannity and the few hundred other radio blowhards who ladled out that BS forgot to mention it was belly-reducing cosmetic surgery.
Then they stopped the Public Option by supplying what became known as the Tea Party with numerous pre-chewed slogans and one liners to scream at Koch brothers-funded mini-rallies and town halls. “Death panels!” they screamed, with the talk radio gods screaming over their shoulders to amplify it into a national truth.
Their ability to blanket the country with unchallenged lies and distortions about the ACA/Obamacare forced compromise. The talk radio gods screamed about web page problems. They screamed that President Obama LIED! intentionally about being able to keep your old provider, and so on. Instead of trying to improve Obamacare the talk radio howlers called those problems evidence of Obama/Democratic failure, even though they were usually the result of compromises they forced with their sabotage.
On more than 1000 radio stations, Fox TV, and all other Republican media, Obamacare was/is a failure. “Repeal it!” screamed Limbaugh and the other talk radio gods — for 7 years.
Those lies and screams got a lot of Republicans elected, in large part because Democratic voters ignored it and blamed their reps for not trying hard enough. The Republicans finally got their total government takeover with a treasonous Putin/Trump coup but when the time came to evaluate Obamacare against increased death, illness, and bankruptcies in order to give the billionaires, insurance, and drug companies bigger tax breaks and profits, Americans seem to have figured it out.
Like with many life and death issues, even though the vast majority of Americans prefer the liberal/progressive/Democratic solutions, a few hundred talk radio blowhards and their made-to-order minority constituencies are as loud or louder when it comes to enabling and intimidating politicians and media.
Unfortunately, as long as Democrats and liberals ignore talk radio the MSM and the corrupt and sycophantic Republicans will keep being able to pretend those constituencies are operating with truth and debatable facts instead of lies and bullshit deserving of at least half the seats at the table.
Now the talk radio gods will try to blame Democrats and a few ‘treasonous’ or incompetent Republican reps for the failure caused by the alternate reality they sold.
Democrats would do well to help Republicans blame the talk radio gods for this. The real failures are a few hundred think tank scripted blowhards on 1000 radio stations. They need to be given the ‘credit’ they deserve. The Party of Lincoln should be renamed the Party of Limbaugh, the only major political party in the world that denies global warming.
Trump is the talk radio president. He even studied talk radio. “I listened to thousands of hours of talk radio, and he (Trump) was getting reports from me.”
His promises are based on years of talk radio lies and bullshit believed by the talk radio/teabag base because Democrats continue to ignore it.
The wall is a Trump ‘solution’ to the immigration problem, a problem magnified and distorted successfully with 1000 coordinated radio stations to sell voter suppression legislation since around 2000. That’s when Karl Rove needed to distract from real election theft and saw another ‘win win win’ opportunity. The Trump claim of “millions of illegal voters” is a reference to claims from the talk radio gods ramping up voter fraud lies last summer. They told the talk radio base that Obama and the Democrats were giving millions of illegal voters drivers licenses so they could vote for Hillary. But the Party of Limbaugh could and would never actually try for real immigration solutions because their big donors still want the cheap labor from the south to keep wages down.
The racist christianist ‘muslim ban’ is another appeal to satisfy the talk radio base, to save the country from ‘radical islamic terrorists’, words that a few hundred radio gods constantly insisted Obama would not use because he was not on ‘our’ side.
Democrats would do well to recognize the small cliff Trump just drove the Republican Party over was a direct result of giving a few hundred ignorant liars on 1000 coordinated radio stations a free speech free ride for 30 years.
But I’ll bet the pundits will blame symptoms again.
Democrats need to help Republicans point their fingers in the right direction. None of this recent Republican failure would be possible without their leaders on the radio.
Before they drag the whole country off a bigger cliff.
Be offensive. Students can amplify protests at state capitols and town halls w/out leaving campus.
How long's Putin been using talk radio? Trump 2014, debt default in 2011, 'Climategate' '09?