[seatrout]

Conservatism cannot live by radio-talk alone, or so argues Derbyshire.

[KeyLargo]

Derbyshire?

Who is this mope?

[Huck]

Good article.

[MortMan]

Derbyshire has every right to be wrong, as he is in this case.

[rightwingintelligentsia]

Derbyshire—all the more reason to barf.

[Graybeard58]

It is easy to mock the studied gentility, affectless voices, and reflexive liberalism of NPR, but these are very successful radio programs.

Does this mean they don't need my tax dollars anymore?

[Psycho_Bunny]

"It is easy to mock the studied gentility, affectless voices, and reflexive liberalism of NPR, but these are very successful radio programs."

Who is this bozo? NPR isn't the least bit "successful" in any free market sense of the word: it would collapse as quickly as Air America were it not subsidized by the government.

[sickoflibs]

I liked Ron Paul’s comment on MSNBC yesterday “Rush (like Hannity and Levin) worshipped GWB”, although Rush has backed off a bit and doesnt talk about him anymore now.

[Aloysius88]

I am not convinced that Derb is entirely on our side.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Mark Levin smacked this doofus down last night.

[synchron]

Yet another nitwit falls for the left’s propaganda about Rush, feeling that he, the writer, has to distance himself from what the left considers “lowbrow”.
BTW, didn’t the mentioned Chris Buckley vote for the 0? Doesn’t appear that he knew his father all that well. Come to think of it, it doesn’t appear he knows much of anything, save possibly how to spend dad’s money.

[OrioleFan]

Congressional Republicans lost their chance when they were in power by thinking they had to spend like Democrats to maintain power. That only works for Democrats because they have conditioned their base to expect to get Other Peoples Money. If Conservatives in Congress don’t get this message (and they haven’t with 40% of earmarks) then it’s going to take a long time to fix a system that rewards those who don’t deserve it and bankrupts this country.

[LibLieSlayer]

NR and most of those that write for it are liberals... the left owns this hack... is he gay?

LLS

[Sgt_Schultze]

There is a lowbrow liberalism, too, but the Left hasn’t learned how to market it.

Umm, how about...

"Yes we can ... raise taxes on the rich ... hope ... change..."

[conservativemusician]

NPR successful? A weekly radio program subsidized with tax dollars deemed successful by a so-called conservative.........wow. I’ll agree Savage is a jerk. Mark Levin can be harsh, but he is also a brilliant constitutional scholar. Rush is an articulate spokesman for the conservative cause...and a jokester. Hannity is more of the everyman. What this guy forgets is “highbrow” conservatism spent 50 years in the minority. It took a plain spoken Ronald Reagan to get the message to the people. This sort of ripping the conservative talk show hosts does the cause no good.

[LibLieSlayer]

The author is now on my ENEMY OF FREEDOM list... screw him and his left leaning horse!!!

LLS

[TalBlack]

“WFB’s son Christopher retorted, “Rush, I knew William F. Buckley, Jr. William F. Buckley, Jr. was a father of mine. Rush, you’re no William F. Buckley, Jr.””

Dear Christopher: Rush never claimed to be the equal to your father. His opinion of your father seems to be too high for him to comfortably ever make such a claim for himself. And another thing, Christopher: If your father was going to cop a line as a put down from someone else he might have done it with irony or humor enough to make the thought fresh and the reader smile. If you're thinking of being a ‘chip off the ol’ block’, Christopher, OWN your words.

Ah hell, what can you expect from a guy who endorsed Obugger.

[NoGrayZone]

Because of people like this, including christopher, is why I chose NOT to renew my subscription with National Review. They can all bite me.

[pelican001]

“Reason has been overwhelmed by propaganda, ideas by slogans.” Talk radio has contributed mightily to this development...It does so by routinely descending into the ad hominem — (e.g.)Feminazis instead of feminism.”

Calling them feminazis is not “ad hominem.” Look up the Latin, dummy.

[sam_paine]

What’s wrong is the impression fixed in the minds of too many Americans that conservatism is always lowbrow, an impression our enemies gleefully reinforce when the opportunity arises. Thus a liberal like E.J. Dionne can write, “The cause of Edmund Burke, Leo Strauss, Robert Nisbet and William F. Buckley Jr. is now in the hands of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity. … Reason has been overwhelmed by propaganda, ideas by slogans.” Talk radio has contributed mightily to this development.

Hoosier: "Conservative principles are better expressed by other folks at NR, like Ponnoru or Goldberg."

Yes. Ok. True.

-

So why haven't Ponnoru or Goldberg carved out a leading role in conservatism like the intelligent but 'juvenile' Levin or the excruciatingly dimwitted Hannity?

The high-brow elites hated Reagan, too, but they are dwindling now.

One thing for sure, with the universities turning out exclusively leftist intellectuals, Burke and Kirk are carried aloft into the real world by fewer and fewer every May graduation.

If we're going to have a conservative majority, it's going to have to be blue collar folks unpolluted by universities and "erudition."

[r9etb]

Conservatism cannot live by radio-talk alone, or so argues Derbyshire.

He's right, too. Do you really think Sean Hannity is capable of building a solid intellectual base for conservatism? Do you think Rush Limbaugh's show is capable of selling conservatism to the 100+ million people who don't listen to his show?

The problem with talk radio is that it is incredibly shallow -- it's just the nature of the beast. It is not a medium that allows for deep, nuanced debate.