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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
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To: willstayfree
Oh- and for you and your fellows, the Congress controls the Federal Budget and the size of the Federal government. I know that pesky separation of powers can be hard to keep track of, but try to stay up. If we're going to be blaming people for the size of the Federal government lets place blame where it belongs.

I guess that makes us.. Congress bots? Warbots? Anti-terrorism bots fighting a two front war without home-front mobilization of price control bots? Oh, damn that's just too wordy. Let's sum it up and use "realpolitik Republicans."
121 posted on 11/28/2005 6:30:05 PM PST by brothers4thID (Do you stand with us, or are you going to just stand in the way?)
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Comment #122 Removed by Moderator

To: willstayfree

There are a host of uberliberals like Krugman and Dowd with college degrees. Should we respect their analytical ability? I've got a college degree, but I'll bow to Limbaugh on a host of topics especially economics. I'll pick Rush's ability to analyze over just about anybody's.


123 posted on 11/28/2005 6:31:05 PM PST by driftless ( For life-long happiness, learn how to play the accordion.)
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To: willstayfree
You throw words around like idiot. Savage has a documented IQ of 175. That my friend is well above the genius level

Whatever, wienerbot.

124 posted on 11/28/2005 6:32:13 PM PST by Dane ( anyone who believes hillary would do something to stop illegal immigration is believing gibberish)
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To: willstayfree
"You throw words around like idiot. Savage has a documented IQ of 175. That my friend is well above the genius level."

You don't need a genius IQ to sell magic beans to the gullible. savage is obviously an underachiever.

125 posted on 11/28/2005 6:32:13 PM PST by CWOJackson (michael savage: the white trash alternative to talk radio)
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Comment #126 Removed by Moderator

To: B.O. Plenty
This whole thing is very disturbing to me. I hate the fact that Savage has decided to trash Rush, Levin and Hannity. There is no call for it. I think that all are basically on the same side, and what is happening is kind of like pitting brother against brother, IMHO.

I agree. It's not the disagreeing, it's the trashing that makes me suspicious.

First let me preface this by saying that sometimes I agree with Savage, sometimes I wonder who hid his meds. I understand why people like him, and find him refreshing, although I can only take him in small doses.

That said, I DO NOT trust him, and there have been days when he has been very sly in moving opinion in a way that is fundamentally NOT conservative and very carefully obscured by using conservative phraseology and buzz words.

There is something about him that makes me suspicious that he does not believe in what he says, but is using the success of right leaning talk radio to make money, which he worships. He is able to hide that by the intensity of his language and tone which appeals to our innate frustration with authority.

When the money stops rolling in, I fear that he will turn on the right with such viciousness and intelligence (he is amazingly smart, both book and street smart) that it will be incredibly painful to us. Honestly, the very skeptical part of me believes that he is playing us and will relish it when the time comes to expose that fact, allowing him to make money off a whole new group of people.

I want to repeat that my cynicism is not aimed at his listeners as much as his own motives. I hope I am wrong.

127 posted on 11/28/2005 6:33:29 PM PST by pollyannaish
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To: willstayfree
"His listener ratings are rising. You will be hearing more of him."

Just as we did Morton Downey and Jerry Springer.

128 posted on 11/28/2005 6:33:57 PM PST by CWOJackson (michael savage: the white trash alternative to talk radio)
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To: Dr. Scarpetta
Yes. I have been listening to Savage faithfully for 4 or so years now. He used to very rarely mention his wife on the show, and I figured he was either divorced or a widower, only because a person's spouse tends to come up in conversation and she never did.

I recall one caller maybe two years ago who point blank asked him if he was married, and that seemed to catch him off guard for a second and he said yes. Even that didn't settle it, since I know more than a few oldschool men who consider themselves married even if divorced or if their spouse passed on A bit odd, but I've seen it before.

The last couple of years, though, he peppers his rap with casual, but infrequent, references to Mrs. Savage. A few weeks ago, for example, she and his son (a successful businessman) accompanied him to a Halloween party in Hollywood. He mentions he takes her out on the boat sometimes, for example. So I am pretty sure he is married.
129 posted on 11/28/2005 6:34:11 PM PST by HitmanLV (Listen to my demos for Savage Nation contest: http://www.geocities.com/mr_vinnie_vegas/index.html)
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Comment #130 Removed by Moderator

To: mastercylinder
Old news (July!). IIRC, sharia was dropped from the Iraqi constitution, and it is not an "islamic Republic."
131 posted on 11/28/2005 6:34:32 PM PST by cookcounty (Army Vet, Army Dad.)
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Comment #132 Removed by Moderator

To: TheHound
"You are Quoting "New Republic".

Ooops. I didn't realize that was a liberal commie rag!
133 posted on 11/28/2005 6:38:00 PM PST by jdm
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To: the gillman@blacklagoon.com

Oh, please. Savage caters to the type of people who think that Rush Limbaugh is a liberal.


134 posted on 11/28/2005 6:38:17 PM PST by WestVirginiaRebel (The Democratic Party-Jackass symbol, jackass leaders, jackass supporters.)
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To: CWOJackson

I'm an underachiver, too. It's not so bad, really.

I always had difficulty doing well in heirarchical business environments, for example, and blossomed when I quit and started my own business. I think Savage has the same deficiency - he isn't a team player, doesn't play well with others, etc., so he had to cut his own path.

He is remarkably sucessful. Give credit where credit is due.


135 posted on 11/28/2005 6:39:59 PM PST by HitmanLV (Listen to my demos for Savage Nation contest: http://www.geocities.com/mr_vinnie_vegas/index.html)
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To: willstayfree
"He is smarter than both of them put together!"

I don't know, Jerry Springer is kind of bright...but Jerry never made a living selling herbs and vitamins. Well, then again savage didn't do that great at it either.

136 posted on 11/28/2005 6:40:27 PM PST by CWOJackson (michael savage: the white trash alternative to talk radio)
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To: HitmanNY
"He is remarkably sucessful. Give credit where credit is due."

But I do; read my posts. He's tapped into a nitch market that hadn't be developed before...white trash talk radio.

137 posted on 11/28/2005 6:41:54 PM PST by CWOJackson (michael savage: the white trash alternative to talk radio)
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To: mastercylinder
I can't stand listening to Savage sometimes.

I love listening to Savage sometimes.

138 posted on 11/28/2005 6:43:29 PM PST by isthisnickcool (Eternity? Smoking or nonsmoking?)
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To: Exton1
What is anything with to say about a KOOK like Savage. Arguing with this man or about him is an insult for any person with an IQ over 60.
139 posted on 11/28/2005 6:45:35 PM PST by jveritas (The Axis of Defeatism: Left wing liberals, Buchananites, and third party voters.)
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To: Dont_Tread_On_Me_888

We're supposed to be watchdogs, not lapdogs."


Best quote in the article! I am utterly disgusted with GWB and hopes he just stops the bleeding at this point. He has lost all credibility on border and sepnding issues. Iraq seems to be an issue still playing out.

I think he will go down as a mixed bag at best.


140 posted on 11/28/2005 6:48:47 PM PST by chris1 ("Make the other guy die for his country" - George S. Patton)
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