The comparison of audience size is misleading. Rush reaches 14 mil DAILY. Whereas NPR’s shows are WEEKLY.
Hannity never claims to be an intellectual.
Besides, the conservative message has to be in plain english. If you are going to win national elections, the average american MUST understand your positions and what you represent.
Buckley was a great conservative thinker and writer, but the average joe needed a dictionary to understand what he was saying. “Highbrow” conservative discourse and hyper-intellectual conservative theory goes right over the head of the people who spend most of their time working their asses off to pay the bills and take care of their kids.
Conservatives need to influence the working american. Not just the intellectual.
Not true. They're both daily shows -- played during morning and evening commutes. As a result they actually have far better audience access than Limbaugh does.
Hannity never claims to be an intellectual.
Agreed -- which is why we don't want him trying to build intellectual foundations for conservatism.
Besides, the conservative message has to be in plain english. If you are going to win national elections, the average american MUST understand your positions and what you represent.
Yeah -- it has to be more than noise and bluster and GOP cheerleading, too. Unfortunately, that's what conservative talk radio tends to do; it certainly doesn't provide the intellectual depth necessary to foster real understanding. Conservative talk radio depends primarily on an essentially emotional appeal.
Buckley was a great conservative thinker and writer, but the average joe needed a dictionary to understand what he was saying. “Highbrow” conservative discourse....
As Mr. Derbyshire conceded. His point is that NPR is quite ably serving the "Middlebrow" liberal audience; whereas conservative talk radio is essentially "lowbrow." We have no comparable "Middlebrow" offerings -- which is where the conservative message really needs to be spread, if we want to have broad intellectual support.