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.
Frankly, Savage's hostile tone makes me uncomfortable. I never know when he's going to explode about some minor point, and then I don't know if it's sincere or theatrical. Listening to him reminds me of late-night talk radio and some of the off-the-wall dj's that would say anything to get someone to call in.
A "real intellect" is someone who is able to identify a problem, understand it, assess it, and come up with a range of solutions that might solve it. This is the heavy lifting of leadership and governing a nation.
It is the curse of the post modern world to believe that there are commonsense solutions for complex problems.
Pres. Bush mentioned Islamofascism in his recent speech.
Agreed. In a speech at Osan AB, Korea.
me 3
truth bump
The problem was that as bad as GWB can be, Kerry was far far worse.
Being from Da Bronx myself, there are many things I can relate to with Savage. However, having visited my sister in Indiana for a week, I can see where many outside of NY might not get him.
Hannity is not even tolerable anymore.
So this is why 2000 Americans died and still die today??? To institute a satanic form of government that is 100 percent against freedom of any kind??
We need to get the **ll out of that God forsaken country yesterday if the above quote is true!
Not true, before Thanksgiving Bush gave a hard hitting speech equating radical islamic fundamentalism with the nazis. Go Rush, Go Sean!
But, like I said, when he's coherent he makes a lot of points worth listening to, particularly his lessons on medieval history. Since most schools choose not to teach anything beyond the 20th century I think we need someone who takes the time to give some history lessons, just wish he'd take his meds more often.
Like someone else pointed out, there are things I like and dislike about his show. I do like his humor, life stories and even his comments about food, travel, etc. I do know he is number 3 in the nation of syndicated talk show hosts. His ratings would fall, I believe, if Mark Levin's show on WABC should become nationally syndicated.
The question Limbaugh nor Hennity will ask President Bush:
Mr. President, if the Iraqi elections bring forth a government that is Islamic, anti-American and pro-Iranian in character (60 percent Shiite in Iraq, 80 percent Shiite in Iran), as seems likely, with already in Southern Iraq, Sharia law having been imposed in many parts. How does this correspond with your stated desire to democratize Iraq?
Savage predicted Bush would win 2004 52-48 - only 1 point off.
I think that mike savage is one of the brave men in our society who speaks the truth. I respect and love mike savage.
Ann Wells
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