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

[Servonaut]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x7912508

DCBob  (1000+ posts)      Sat Nov-22-08 12:11 PM
Original message
Mort Kondrake's solution to GOP's woes: fire conservative talk show hosts. 
 Advertisements [?]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!

 
Yeah that's gonna work 

BrklynLiberal  (1000+ posts)        Sat Nov-22-08 12:16 PM
Response to Original message
1. YAY! What an incredibly intelligent and insightful suggestion..... 
 Edited on Sat Nov-22-08 12:18 PM by BrklynLiberal
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...         

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  (1000+ posts)      Sat Nov-22-08 12:17 PM
Response to Reply #1
3. Laura Ingrahm slapped him around on Faux last night.
 It was fun to watch!

BrklynLiberal  (1000+ posts)        Sat Nov-22-08 12:19 PM
Response to Reply #3
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  (1000+ posts)      Sat Nov-22-08 12:21 PM
Response to Reply #3
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.  (700 posts)      Sat Nov-22-08 12:52 PM
Response to Reply #5
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. 

SoCalDem  (1000+ posts)        Sat Nov-22-08 01:08 PM
Response to Reply #1
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..

Man they sure are feeling their oats. 

[Carl]

The thing that will revive the GOP is the left having any control over our countries economics and foreign policy.

Just as children hate the hard hand of mom and dad growing up we all eventually realize that they knew what was best even if it wasn`t the most fun or easiest.

Guess what DUmmies....it is you that will spell your own doom as has happened for the last 40 years.

[AllosaursRus]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x7912508
 
 
Yeah that's gonna work 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Man they sure are feeling their oats. 

As usual, free speech for me, but not for thee!

PRICKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Chris_]

How does one "fire" Rush, Hannity or anyone else with their own syndicated program?

Is anyone stupid enough to think some kind of boycott would work?

And it wasn't too many people listening to Rush and Hannity that caused the coronation of the fuhrer -- it was too few.

[miskie]

The thing that will revive the GOP is the left having any control over our countries economics and foreign policy.

Just as children hate the hard hand of mom and dad growing up we all eventually realize that they knew what was best even if it wasn`t the most fun or easiest.

Guess what DUmmies....it is you that will spell your own doom as has happened for the last 40 years.

Indeed - when the last 8 years are referred to as 'The Good Ole' Days' after we are all forcibly served a heaping helping of liberal, common sense will prevail - remember, all that needs to shift is 3% of voters to reclaim. I suspect in four years losing 3% will be the best case scenario for the Obots.

[Vagabond]

I think the thing that might help the most is not having a Bush in the White House.  Don't get me wrong, for the most part they are a patriotic American family but they keep making the mistake of thinking people will like them if they go with a go along to get along approach.  That won't work with Democrats and just irritates conservatives.

That's not the only problem we have though.  We need to go in with some fromulated ideas to go with the ideals.  We got painted as anti-hispanic for opposing a bill that didn't make english official and allowed criminals to enter and stay.  Republicans painted themselves as anti-business for pursuing a anti-gambling bill that posessed no notable constituency.  Republicans didn't have the spine to make the tax cuts permanent, push capital gains lower, or pursue pro-growth initiatives.  They could have done a lot of things to gain votes and keep their conservative base.

Instead, they grew government.  Most people I talk to don't want larger government.

[Chris_]

republican-leadership.com. The new home of the "My Party Too" RINOs. Screw you, Christie Todd Whitman.

[CC27]

Time to purge the RINOS. 

[Peter3_1]

Mort is cmpletely wrong, it was the "me too" adopting of "compasionate conservatism" and WAY too much seeking of "liberal" acceptance and pissing billions and trillions down the drain that cost the GOP the political advantage.

No, Mort is wrong, we need to reclaim our base. that is government's the problem, not the answer, and the less government has, the less they can take away. 

[NHSparky]

Bingo--Bush's attempts at "reaching across the aisle" got us a long ways towards where we are today.  Yes, Reagan and other great conservatives did compromise too, but they made no bones about taking their case to the people when they felt the liberals were wrong.  The current GOP leadership has NEVER truly taken the Dems to task--not on Iraq, not on the economy, not on the mortgage fiasco, not on health care, NOTHING.

[Wretched Excess]

everyone is conveniently forgetting that mccain lost primarily because he tried to out-obama obama.

[NHSparky]

everyone is conveniently forgetting that mccain lost primarily because he tried to out-obama obama.

We haven't forgotten.  At least I know I haven't.  There wasn't a dime worth of difference between the two on domestic issues, and Obama kept changing his views on foreign policy so much it was hard to tell how much difference there was between them on that.

[Wretched Excess]

We haven't forgotten.  At least I know I haven't.  There wasn't a dime worth of difference between the two on domestic issues, and Obama kept changing his views on foreign policy so much it was hard to tell how much difference there was between them on that.

it turns out that I think romney would have been a better general election candidate.  we didn't know that until "the great depression" ( ) returned, but he wold have at least done better than mccain.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Kondrake is the type that needs to be cut out to fix the GOP, actually...a Conservative only insofar as certain economic issues go, and no further, more interested in being pals with Beltway Liberals than actually standing for anything that involves a moral principle as opposed to enriching himself.  Screw him and everyone like him, allowing 'pragmatists' like that to decide they are the 'intelligentsia' of the GOP can only produce candidates as bad as McCain and an absolutely alienated base that just doesn't see a reason to bother with voting, a certain recipe for an atrophied GOP.

[Wretched Excess]

Kondrake is the type that needs to be cut out to fix the GOP, actually...a Conservative only insofar as certain economic issues go, and no further, more interested in being pals with Beltway Liberals than actually standing for anything that involves a moral principle as opposed to enriching himself.  Screw him and everyone like him, allowing 'pragmatists' like that to decide they are the 'intelligentsia' of the GOP can only produce candidates as bad as McCain and an absolutely alienated base that just doesn't see a reason to bother with voting, a certain recipe for an atrophied GOP.

I remember him from the old mclaughlin group on PBS.  (the only show that I watched on PBS, other than buckley's "firing line).  you are right, he isn't someone that we should listen to.

[Peter3_1]

Most of us backed McCain because the alternative was so incompetent, as he's showing now.

Plus, there was a chance enough conservative pressure could slow McCain's liberal tendancies,where there's no chance in reaching Obama wuith anything resembling sanity.

[formerlurker]

Bingo--Bush's attempts at "reaching across the aisle" got us a long ways towards where we are today.  Yes, Reagan and other great conservatives did compromise too, but they made no bones about taking their case to the people when they felt the liberals were wrong.  The current GOP leadership has NEVER truly taken the Dems to task--not on Iraq, not on the economy, not on the mortgage fiasco, not on health care, NOTHING.

Help me understand how they are suppose to take their case to the people when the media refuses to give them the pulpit to do so? 

[Peter3_1]

Hard work, and getting on every "talk" program that will have them. Then by being outrageous.

[formerlurker]

RINOS. 

The most overused and misused word in politics.  

[formerlurker]

Hard work, and getting on every "talk" program that will have them. Then by being outrageous.

You want the President to sit down with Katie Couric to talk about the war in Iraq? 

[asdf2231]

it turns out that I think romney would have been a better general election candidate.  we didn't know that until "the great depression" ( ) returned, but he wold have at least done better than mccain.

Dude, a 5 year old retarded kid in a crash helmet showing everybody his collection of shiny things at the campaign stops could have done better than McCain.  I swear I never saw a politician do something that helped him surge in the polls and then STOP doing it and apologize for it.  McCain did that about four times.

[Peter3_1]

Rush, Hannity, Levin, Tammy etc etc, people who actually have an audience FIRST.

[Airwolf]

**** Him. When any show Mort is on gets the audience that Talk radio gets then he can tell the GOP or anyone else what he thinks. Fools like him are the reason the GOP is in the mess its in. Far as I'm concerned the GOP can go to hell until they fix this problem.

[NHSparky]

Help me understand how they are suppose to take their case to the people when the media refuses to give them the pulpit to do so? 

25-30 years ago, the MSM was a bit more balanced, or at least pretended to be.  With the advent of the blogosphere, etc., the MSM has abandoned all pretense of fairness or objectivity, and despite the falling viewership and circulation rates, it's pretty apparent they just don't give a shit.

So how do these folks take their case to the people?  Simple--alternative media.  They are in fact the future.  Hit your opponent hard, hit them often, to the point where the MSM can no longer refuse to ignore the situation, and finally, call them out on their own bias.  Hell, we saw DEMOCRATS who are upset over the bias, because they know full well it can/will bite them in the ass between now and 2012.

[USA4ME]

SoCalDem

....... until they are FORCED to equalize message-availability ......

Scratch a liberal, find an authoritarian communist.

.