Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Savage Nation vs. the Bushbots
www.homestead.com ^ | 7/21/05 | PAUL MULSHINE

Posted on 11/28/2005 5:03:33 PM PST by mastercylinder

Edited on 11/28/2005 5:07:49 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]

Al Franken and the other liberals are probably still wondering why they had such little luck in their efforts to start a talk-radio network to bash George Bush from the left. They didn't consider the obvious explanation. George Bush has his left flank nicely covered. It's on the right that he's weak.

That is the theory of Michael Savage. Savage is the most right-wing of the right-wing talkers on the national airwaves at the moment. He is based in San Francisco, but he can be heard in the New York area on WOR in the evenings. He is a welcome change from those Karl Rove clones Hush Bimbo and Sean Vanity.

"Hush Bimbo" and "Sean Vanity" are the names Savage has pinned on Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity of WABC. In doing so, he has sparked a war between the members of his "Savage Nation" (slogan: "Borders, language, culture") and the so-called "Bushbots," that sizable number of gullible Americans who can be convinced that whatever policy Bush adopts is a conservative policy.

"What makes Bush a conservative?" Savage asked when I got him on the phone the other day. "On the economy, Bush has got more governmental workers than anybody before him. He's ballooned the government."

As regards the so-called "war on terror," Savage points out that you can't win a war when you're afraid even to name the enemy.

"He's never mentioned Islamofascism," said Savage.

No, he hasn't. Even the French have been more willing to defend their borders, language and culture than Bush. He's a multiculturalist and a mushy one at that. Instead of reducing the reach of Islamic fundamentalism, Bush has managed in Iraq to get 1,700 Americans killed in a war that will create yet another Islamic republic. Just yesterday we learned that the new constitution in Iraq will incorporate sharia, Islamic law.

That's why we right-wing commentators believe the Iraq war has been the biggest blunder in America's military history. As for Bimbo and Vanity, if I may employ Savage's labels, they are simply too uneducated to realize that the Iraq war represents a failed liberal exercise in nation-building.

"There is no college in Rush. There is no college in Hannity," said Savage. "He's a high school dropout. It's like listening to an uneducated, unthinking man on the radio."

Savage has a Ph.D. from Berkeley in epidemiology, an extremely challenging field. That makes him a bit overqualified for the verbal pro-wrestling matches that make up talk radio. But it also makes him interesting.

The Bushbots don't think so. On their Web sites, they call Savage a bigot and a racist, two terms the employment of which generally indicate that the speaker is losing an argument. Savage is a hero on those Web sites that attack Bush's open-borders approach to immigration. "Rush Limbaugh is a direct link to his president, El Traitor, Senor Bush," wrote one blogger. "The invasion by illegals has been going on now for a long time."

"You are 100 percent correct," said another of Limbaugh and Hannity. "They are nothing but blind, rubber-stamping followers of El Presidente Bush."

All of this is a lot of fun if you don't take it seriously. I certainly don't. But I do find talk radio to be a good barometer of the nation's mood. And the nation is slowly figuring out that the Bush-neoconservative-Troskyite- internationalist view of foreign affairs has not worked out so swimmingly for the good old U.S. of A.

"Bush is melting down our borders and making us into a polyglot nation in which no one speaks the language," says Savage.

Savage hears a lot from people who say that any criticism of Bush is a mark of disloyalty to conservatism.

"I can't stand listening to people who want me to be a lapdog for Bush," he told me. "We're supposed to be watchdogs, not lapdogs."

As for the rest of the radio talkers, "They may as well work for the Republican Party. There's nothing interesting if you can predict what a man's going to say by just going to the GOP Web site."

He's certainly got that right. Listening to an endless rehash of Karl Rove's talking points, leavened by a few Teddy Kennedy-is-a-drunk jokes, is not very entertaining.

As for the Al Franken approach, how can a nation-building, internationalist multiculturalist get any traction by criticizing another nation-building, internationalist multiculturalist? John Kerry had that problem as well, you might have noticed.

When you attack the Bush-Rove spin from the right, however, you realize that the neocons' grand social experiment has been tried most visibly in Iraq and has failed most visibly there. People are starting to notice. Eventually even the Bushbots may get a clue.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: bush; bushbot; duplicatepost; hehasitright; kook; savage; talkradio; weinerbots
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 81-100101-120121-140 ... 261-277 next last
To: willstayfree
"I don't like insults but Limbaugh and Hannity appear to support the republicans even when their policies are liberal."

It's obvious you don't listen to them.

101 posted on 11/28/2005 6:15:08 PM PST by CWOJackson (michael savage: the white trash alternative to talk radio)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 93 | View Replies]

To: cripplecreek

I've never listened to Savage...But what little I read of him at FR makes pretty good sense...Apparently he's rude and crude, his choice...

Sometimes you have to club someone to get their attention...


102 posted on 11/28/2005 6:15:24 PM PST by Iscool (Start your own revolution by voting for the candidates the media (and gov't) tells you cannot win.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: mastercylinder

A number of outright lies in Mulshines's article about "bushbots". Both Limbaugh and Hannity have been outspoken in their criticism of Bush on a number of matters including spending and illegal immigration. And if having a college degree automatically makes one a genius in talk radio/political logic, then a host of uberliberals like Krugman and Dowd should be in charge of setting policy. From this article I can conclude that Mulshine is hardly a conservative and certainly not a genius. If shouting at your listeners and having an ego the size of Uranus makes Savage the master of talk radio, then I'm sorry, count me out.


103 posted on 11/28/2005 6:16:33 PM PST by driftless ( For life-long happiness, learn how to play the accordion.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Comment #104 Removed by Moderator

To: mastercylinder

Children and immature adults both have great difficulty in differentiating between a person and an argument. The result is name calling and insults replace actual debate.


105 posted on 11/28/2005 6:17:11 PM PST by shrinkermd
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SteveMcKing

Savage is a rabble rouser. He has none of the intelectual draw that he so derides Rush and others for not having. He does more damage for the conservative cause than good.

And as a convservative Republican who was born overseas, speaks 4 languages, and has a multi-cultural background, his views offend and anger me.

He has a right to say what he wants. I have a right to turn the dial or pop in the Disney CD for my kids.


106 posted on 11/28/2005 6:18:29 PM PST by brothers4thID (Do you stand with us, or are you going to just stand in the way?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: mastercylinder
Savage to me is a classic agressive-depressive, if there is such a thing, not unlike Harry Browne. That said, I wish that Bush could have been a bit more ballsy and not so concerned with "feelings". Damn feelings, because in one sense Savage is correct, if we intend to save the Republic, we have to take the gloves off and forget PC. Hard decsions have to be made and hard men have to make them. Whiners, apologists and the MSM have to marginalized. Guys like Savage are useful because they define the edge of the envelope.
107 posted on 11/28/2005 6:18:56 PM PST by alarm rider (Irritating leftists as often as is humanly possible....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: willstayfree
"I don't see that making people aware of their education means that he is denigrating them. He just wants people to know their academic level. Higher education counts for something intellectually. Higher education provides knowledge as well as a development of analytical skills."

Al Gore is highly educated and is an idiot. michael savage is highly educated and couldn't succeed in his degree field, so he's moved on from one money making scheme to another. He couldn't make a million selling herbs but he's succeeded in making a million selling BS.

It's not that he's so intelligent, it's simply he found customers for what he's selling.

108 posted on 11/28/2005 6:20:29 PM PST by CWOJackson (michael savage: the white trash alternative to talk radio)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 104 | View Replies]

Comment #109 Removed by Moderator

To: lwg8tr
1. The way to win in Iraq cause it's an unmitigated disaster for the US worse than Bull Run or Kaserine Pass according to Michael Weiner, is to start bombing Iraqi villages and then send in death squads to mop up the sympathizers.

I can hear his creepy New Yawk accent saying that Iraq is "an unmitigated disasduh".

He's also wrong about it.

110 posted on 11/28/2005 6:23:02 PM PST by FreeReign
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 54 | View Replies]

Comment #111 Removed by Moderator

To: mastercylinder

I like Savage at times but he trots out that college line then says the oil companies need price controls. I guess in all of his studies he never stumbled over economics. I am far from being a Bushbot but even if I had never cracked a economics textbook I am old enough to remember what Jimmy Carter did with his interference into the supply and demand of oil. I waited in several democrat created gaslines of the 70's. Thank god Bush kept his fingers out of the oil companies!

On the Islamics he is dead on. Yes Bush has said that word but what needs done is to put the fear of god into those people. I was over there in the 80's and I know that this kindler gentler war is not going to cut it.


112 posted on 11/28/2005 6:25:33 PM PST by samm1148
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: willstayfree
I've met many a genius who couldn't figure out a bus schedule or debate the rationality of the Constitutional amendments. If Savage is such an intellectual giant I'd like for him to find a way to cull $8B out of the bloated Federal budget he's always bemoaning.
113 posted on 11/28/2005 6:26:42 PM PST by brothers4thID (Do you stand with us, or are you going to just stand in the way?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 111 | View Replies]

To: willstayfree

"support... when their policies are liberal" You obviously don't listen to either Limbaugh or Hannity much. Both have been very critical of Bush on spending and immigration especially Hannity on illegals.


114 posted on 11/28/2005 6:27:24 PM PST by driftless ( For life-long happiness, learn how to play the accordion.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 93 | View Replies]

To: abigkahuna
Savage's 3 hour show is refreshing and hilariously funny. He goes the extra bit from time to time, but it's part of the show. If you listen closely, at the end of some of his trademarked rants you can hear him cracking up at his own tirade. He is in on the joke, I wish more folks could just appreciate the joke, too.

Talk radio has its strengths. Even by casually listening from time to time, the average person will be better informed about votes coming up in congress, presidential antics, and other news stories. It's up to everyone to research them a bit and come up with an informed opinion on them, though.

Just by knowing that stuff, a person is more substantively informed than 96% of the general population, and 98% of the crowd in colleges and graduate schools :-)

I live Savage's stories and tangents. He has a remarkable ability to go off on an anecdote, illustrate it with examples or a personal story, and then distill it to the moral and apply it to the story of the day. Sometimes it's remarkable and does indeed cross over into brilliance.

The stories are mesmerizing, to be sure. One armed Frank, wealthy midgets who have sex with busty models in the back of limos, hairy-armed old timers mixing tuna salad, etc. Classic stuff. You won't hear that kind of Americana (or at least, Americana as filtered through The Savage Mind) anywhere else. It's raw. It's powerful. It's hilariously funny. And it's never boring.

On top of that, I like how he is genuinely open minded and is never a cheerleader for the GOP. The only thing as nauseating as the legion of Clintonistas who kept repeating how brilliant their boy was between 1992 and 200, is a legion of Bushbots repeating how brilliant their boy is between 2000 and today. Savage is no $hill (well, except for himself).

And that's no jive.
115 posted on 11/28/2005 6:27:42 PM PST by HitmanLV (Listen to my demos for Savage Nation contest: http://www.geocities.com/mr_vinnie_vegas/index.html)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 91 | View Replies]

To: HitmanNY

Is Savage currently married?


116 posted on 11/28/2005 6:27:54 PM PST by Dr. Scarpetta
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 61 | View Replies]

To: airborne

I agree. Savage is smart as hell and is well spoken, He may be very tough and politically incorrect, but he is correct about Bush not being a conservative. Bush, like Clinton talked a great game to their base, but governed from the center/ The difference is supreme court justices.
I really believe Bush would be better than his Dad, but did not happen


117 posted on 11/28/2005 6:28:11 PM PST by Pedrobud (Bush- Grow a sack and fight back !!!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: willstayfree

He is emotionally stunted and creepy. He was so proud of that TV gig. Too bad he was too smart for us to understand.

Few people make me ill just listening to their voice.


118 posted on 11/28/2005 6:28:18 PM PST by listenhillary ("Mainstream media" is creating it's own reality~everything sucks)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 111 | View Replies]

To: mastercylinder
Al Franken and the other liberals are probably still wondering why they had such little luck in their efforts to start a talk-radio network to bash George Bush

Because no intelligent person listens to talk radio?

Liberal, Conservative, Libertarian, Commie.. truly.. radio is trash.

119 posted on 11/28/2005 6:29:34 PM PST by humblegunner (If you're gonna die, die with your boots on.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Baynative

SAVAGE!!!!!!!!!!

He gives his fans what they want. That entrance sounds like awesome theater in the round, bordering on camp! I love that kind of stuff! Thanks for sharing! :-)

Like I said, Michael Savage is a character Mike Weiner portrays. And nobody does it better!


120 posted on 11/28/2005 6:29:39 PM PST by HitmanLV (Listen to my demos for Savage Nation contest: http://www.geocities.com/mr_vinnie_vegas/index.html)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 109 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 81-100101-120121-140 ... 261-277 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson