The strongest proof at how screwed up is this country is the fact that while virtually every adult knows who Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are, probably less than 5% of the public knows who Thomas Sowell is.
We know who Dr. Thomas Sowell is because we are consumers of those who write scholarly insightful articles on issues of our time. We value truth-telling and appreciate those who articulate perspectives that resonate truth to us.
Those that haven’t heard of Dr. Sowell are those who ‘choose’ not to seek the truth. Almost everyone today has access to the internet. Very few people have an excuse for not having found such people as Dr. Sowell if they are genuinely interested in political news and views.
Rush Limbaugh recently provided an important insight about conservative media. Conservatives lead all literary and broadcast media conduits in sales and viewers. Where conservatives lag is with the ‘popular culture’, the film and entertainment form of media.
For example in the 1970s Norman Lear’s and Bud Yorkin’s ‘All in the family’ was tremendously entertaining for it reflected the blue collar culture back into America’s living rooms but with the conservative as a bigot and the liberal as a reasonable, enlightened and hopeful prospect for the future. It was more effective at forming opinions and political perspectives than most any other form of ‘news’ broadcasting.
For conservatives to appeal to the blue collar voter they must be entertaining and have the ability to laugh at themselves.
For example, Jackie Mason has the ability laugh at his Jewishness and it is hilarious. It makes us love Jewish people because we can smile at their foibles that are as real as those of non-Jews. Do we have a conservative that can laugh at conservatives and make a large swath of democrats and republicans warm to conservatives?
Imagine a 201X sitcom like ‘All in the Family’ but with the roles reversed where the liberal is a bigot fascist and the ‘Meathead’ is a conservative that merely wants a simple and clear understanding of the American way, where men are rugged and women are feminine, where homosexual marriage is portrayed to be what it is in reality; freakish. Meathead wasn’t funny, Archie Bunker was funny because of his stupidity and his ridiculous circular logic.
The liberals still own the popular culture. Conservatives own the intellectual culture. To attract the middle, conservatives need to be attractive via the popular culture.