Radio Liar

I'm gonna paraphrase what I heard on the old car radio (it is really old) a couple evenings ago. I've started to learn to enjoy nothing but my own thoughts while I drive (which is kind of scary), without the distracting background of radio chatter, but I still return to old habits far too often, and this was one of those occasions.

I punched my preset talk radio station button, and prepared myself for another semi-entertaining rant from a neocon blowhard pretending to be a small-government conservative.

The first call I heard was from a woman who said she was nervous, then she started sobbing and wailing about how she doesn't believe there is any hope because of the evil Obama and the Communist Democrat Party turning the country into a Marxist dictatorship. Such fears as this insane woman has are exacerbated by right-wing talk radio hosts, who somehow were able to overlook the fact that baby Bush and a Republican Congress had already started us on the road to a fascist dictatorship, but nevertheless the real crisis of a growing Federal Government somehow didn't begin until January 20th 2009.

How did the host handle the hysterical female caller? He told her to look on the bright side and have hope and work to elect more Republicans in the elections this year! He of course named a couple "conservatives" who we should work for in their primary campaigns, but then stated that even if they were defeated, the main goal was still to elect any Republican over any Democrat because the real problem is those damn liberals. Though we had a Republican President and a Republican Congress just a few years ago that failed to magically make big, intrusive, socialistic government go away (and in fact grew it to even vaster proportions), by golly, that's the solution now because again, Obama is an evil Marxist dictator!

Mr. Radio Host offered no other reason to be hopeful for the future to this woman, other than looking to the next election cycle, even though not a single national election this century or the last has had any result but an ever expanding and oppressive Federal tyranny.

He could have given her hope by pointing to things outside of politics, like the growth of the Internet and the subsequent decline of the statist mainstream media. The education on behalf of freedom from things like libertarian websites such as LewRockwell.com and the Ron Paul movement.

He could have said that a collapse of the hideous Federal monster is almost inevitable, given the path to unending debt that our wise Keynesians have taken us down. He could have encouraged her by pointing to the growing secession movement , and the increased liberty that would result from decentralization of government power. He couldn't really go down any of those roads, though, because he is first a Dishonest Abe Lincoln lover (and even promoted a pro-Lincoln book recently on his show) and also a firm believer in the U.S. Empire and its military adventures abroad (how could we invade and occupy and have unlimited military bases in foreign lands without a huge federal government) and, need I add, a hater of libertarians and especially Ron Paul as traitors who side with the "terrorists" because they oppose sending U.S. troops all over the world and are against police state measures to "catch the bad guys" here at home.

No, it was just the same old Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Generic Right-wing Talk Show Host song and dance.

The real hope for that woman and millions of "conservatives" like her will come when mainstream talk radio is looked upon by them as being as laughable and passé as newspapers and cable news are today.