Garrison Keillor: I don't worry about right-wing radio

[quaoar]

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050523&c=2&s=keillor

I enjoy, in small doses, the over-the-top right-wingers who have leaked into AM radio on all sides in the past twenty years. They are evil, lying, cynical bastards who are out to destroy the country I love and turn it into a banana republic, but hey, nobody's perfect. And now that their man is re-elected and they have nice majorities in the House and Senate, they are hunters in search of diminishing prey. There just aren't many of us liberals worth banging away at, but God bless them, they keep on coming. Just the other day, I heard one foaming and raging about the right to life and about liberals preying on the helpless--I realized he was talking about Terri Schiavo--and then he launched into the judiciary and how they had stood by and done nothing. He held their feet to the fire for a while and then he tore into George McGovern for about five minutes. George McGovern is a kindly, grandfatherly man who lives in Mitchell, South Dakota, and winters in Florida and every year attends his World War II bomber squadron reunion. He ran for President in 1972. His connection to the Florida case is tenuous at best. When you go ballistic over 1972, you are truly desperate to fill time.

The reason you find an army of right-wingers ratcheting on the radio and so few liberals is simple: Republicans are in need of affirmation, they don't feel comfortable in America and they crave listening to people who think like them. Liberals actually enjoy living in a free society; tuning in to hear an echo is not our idea of a good time. I go to church on Sunday morning to be among the like-minded, and we all say the Nicene Creed together and assume nobody has his fingers crossed, but when it comes to radio, I prefer oddity and crankiness. I don't need someone to tell me that George W. Bush is a deceitful, corrupt, clever and destructive man--that's pretty clear on the face of it.

< snip >

I don't worry about the right-wingers on AM radio. They are talking to an audience that is stuck in rush-hour traffic, in whom road rage is mounting, and the talk shows divert their rage from the road to the liberal conspiracy against America. Instead of ramming your rear bumper, they get mad at Harry Reid. Yes, the wingers do harm, but the worst damage is done to their own followers, who are cheated of the sort of genuine experience that enables people to grow up.

< snip >

[snowbear]

1. Gotta love buttermilk bisquits...

and Garrison Keillor! :bounce: :toast:

[Bellamia]

5. And ketchup.........

Don't forget the ketchup!:>)

[Coexist]

21. this message brought to you by the Ketchup Advisory Board

[XemaSab]

9. Made from wheat grown by

Norwegian bachelor farmers, so they're pure mostly!

[Zen Democrat]

11. Powder Mike Biscuits! Yea!

[yellowcanine]

30. It's "POWDER MILK biscuits, not "buttermilk", not "powdermike"

[Love Bug]

34. I like "Be bop a rebop, rhubarb pie" myself!

[snowbear]

40. Yeah... Powdermilk bisquits...

I actually tried to edit that late last night, but the edit time expired.

DOH !! (((( :banghead: )))

Powdermilk Bisquits!! ~~~~ :headbang:

[Felix Mala]

35. Wingnuts keep their kitties on their heads too long instead of their

laps.

[spooky3]

2. a few pretty hard hitting lines in there, from a gentle soul

[flygal]

19. Well said

I've seen PHC live and Garrison truly is a gentle soul. His rendition of Songs My Mother Taught Me made me tear up - it's on PHC site May 18, 2002.

[gumby]

3. Hate Radio has done grave damage to our country.

It has inculcated about 30% of this country into hate and gave them the inspiration and vocabulary to exercise that hate on the rest of the country.

edit: the other 70% now accept the hate "side" as legitimate opposition to "liberals" and Democrats.

[Doctor_J]

4. Probably the single most important factor in the destruction of the US

[yorkiemommie1]

6. yes

the LA TIMES had a long article about long commutes to and from the Inland Empire and how talk radio influenced a lot of them.

it infects everyone because even my devotedly Dem friends mention that they listen to hate radio. like there isn't anything else to listen to? i tell them about AAR every chance i get.

[Democrats_win]

7. Anybody think RW radio Causes road rage?

Otherwise its nice to hear the news from Lake Woebegone.

[HEIL PRESIDENT GOD]

31. Yes

I'm afraid his idea of "redirecting rage" comes from having had no problems with anger in his life. Rage multiplies; it does not flow like water.

[gulliver]

43. Of course, GK didn't say that.

He is saying the wingers turn road rage into rage against liberals. Does that rage feed back into more road rage? Probably.

Liberals are handy, tempting scapegoats. A lot of our sentiment is right in principle but either too nuanced for barely coping winger types or legitimately misguided.

GK is right to feel pity for the dittoheads. It's the kind of pity one has for lepers or criminals, though. We're sorry that they suck so bad, that their minds are so messed up, and that their lives are so intractable and ill-fated. But we also just don't want them around us.

[pie]

8. This man is a national treasure

[beaconess]

10. Yay, Garrison!

I've been wondering myself why the guys who now control everything - the presidency, the courts, both houses of Congress, the media - can still be so angry and put-upon. I guess they just can't function unless they have someone to despise and blame.

Democrats are defined by what they believe in. This crowd is defined by what and whom they hate.

[Mountainman]

12. They have replaced the communists with us. Some of them even call us

communists.
I never in my 59 years thought that I would have to fight my neighbors and my own government just to keep my quality of life.

I always thought that it would be the communists that would come to take away my freedoms but since they are no longer the boogie man I thought I would feel secure in my country. Not to be, the right wing nuts want to shove their religion and political ideology down my throat all the while using 9/11 to take away my freedoms, my social security, Medicaid, Medicare and anything else I thought I could count on when I retire.

[burrowowl]

13. You were naive

are your eyes open now?
The U$ corporate/fasicts have been taking away Mexico's, Central America's, etc. freedoms for a long time .... plus ours, just a small example May Day was American, the fascos changed to to Labor Day and now it is a 3-day advertisement to buy facist/corp!

BTW: I'm 59 and my eyes have been open since I was 10 (being part Mexican helped).

[beaconess]

14. You are so right

They ALWAYS have to have an enemy

Communism worked for decades, but as it wobbled and eventually fell, they had to find new enemies to hate.

So we hated the Ayatollah (and loved Saddam, because he hated the Ayatollah).

Then we hated Noriega.

Then we hated Saddam ("Wait a minute - I thought we LIKED Saddam." "Shut up and get with the program - he's a bloody tyrant.")

Then Clinton was elected and we had a respite from hate being our official policy. Of course, that didn't stop the hate - the party out of power directed their hatred toward Bill and Hillary Clinton.

And then came Bush II. At first he didn't have anybody to hate (Clinton had gotten us out of the habit), so he told us to just hate the "gubmint" for trying to keep "our" money.

But, nine months in, we got a new enemy to hate - Osama bin Laden.

But then we couldn't find him, so we just hated terrists in general.

And then we started hating Saddam again.

And now we've expanded the hatefest to include gays, libruls, judges (even though most of them were either elected by a majority of voters in their districts or were appointed by Reagan or a Bush), anyone who has the temerity to question the junta or who doesn't worship the way we're supposed to.

[NJCher]

17. a history of hate

You recapped it. Somebody should make a song out of it.

Such a good post that I saved it.


Cher

[Tigress DEM]

16. Unimaginative people reusing "good ol' propoganda"

Bush Co recycled some of Hilter's stuff too... Section 102 from HR 418, the immigration bill (Real ID Act) talks about granting the Sec of Homeland Security carte blanche authority with no judicial review... apparently the wording is not only tantamount to martial law but so simular to Hitler's law that enabled them to build prison camps that it's scary.

The whole McCarthy era must have seemed like a Golden Age to people who want to think no one matters but the ones who agree with them all the time.

American Airlines just gave their people the bum rush too. Bailed out on retirement benefits. There's a fund so they will get 50% of it, maybe, if Bush doesn't spend it in Iraq and call it a faulty IOU.

Still since it is finally obvious how unimaginative their party is, we should be able to find some way to get the truth out and get people outraged and turn things around.

[HEIL PRESIDENT GOD]

32. Well, that's simple

They are enraged because America still exists. They are enraged at being checked or balanced. They are MORE enraged than when they had Clinton.

Think of them as a rapist (probably most of them are on some real level). They've finally managed to subdue the girl, they've got her down, and they can't get it up. They're IMPOTENT. The rage of men who are impotent is the scariest rage there is.

IMPOTENT is the correct word because they are in position but unable to do what they want to the rest of us.

This is the stage of the rape, I'm afraid, where it turns into a rape-murder. This is when they take their knife out.

[beaconess]

38. Wow - what a great analogy!

[cobaindrain]

15. nice

This article put a smile on my face :)

[nedbal]

18. I'll be buying more Ketchup now ~!!

[Nothing Without Hope]

20. This is wonderful and very true. Thanks for posting - Recommended.

The next big hate campaign will be against Iran and the "moolahs". I strongly recommend reading this entire thread, including the links in the replies. It's really, really important. And hate radio will play its part. The TV ads are ready to run already.

They want war, possibly next month, possibly with Israel attacking Iran first, possibly with "encouragement" of a bomb in this country. Jerome Corsi clearly likes the idea of it going off in NYC - and of couse the Iranians would be blamed. If Congress doesn't jump to war on Iraq, I wouldn't be surprised. The title of Corsi's horrible TV ad is "Atomic 9/11."

Here's the thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1768708
Thread title: “Is anyone watching Jerome Corsi saying Iran planning to nuclear-bomb{the US, presumably New York?”}

[trof]

22. Dear Garrison,

What do you mean "there's nobody so humorless as a devout atheist"?
I'm an atheist and I'm just funny as hell.
You could ask around.
Anybody who knows me knows I can crack them up with the drop of a double entendre.
The merest hint of the punchline to one of my oft told reminiscences sends them into paroxysms of laughter.
At the very least, they chuckle on their way out to the kitchen to mix another stiff drink.

And what the hell is a "devout" atheist?
Is it possible to be devout in one's cynicism and disbelief?
Maybe so. I am at least as sure of my beliefs as my deist friends seem to be in theirs'.
Actually, we don't talk about it much. When it does come up, we usually just walk out to the kitchen together and fix another stiff drink.

But seriously...
I enjoyed the article, as always.
trof

[Misunderestimator]

23. Garrison.... I wish your voice was louder...

Not like you didn't warn anyone last year...

Garrison Keillor: Fascism Looms Over Lake Wobegon

We¹re Not in Lake Wobegon Anymore

How did the Party of Lincoln and Liberty transmogrify into the party of Newt Gingrich's evil spawn and their Etch-A-Sketch president, a dull and rigid man, whose philosophy is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk?

By Garrison Keillor
August 26, 2004

Something has gone seriously haywire with the Republican Party. Once, it was the party of pragmatic Main Street businessmen in steel-rimmed spectacles who decried profligacy and waste, were devoted to their communities and supported the sort of prosperity that raises all ships. They were good-hearted people who vanquished the gnarlier elements of their party, the paranoid Roosevelt-haters, the flat Earthers and Prohibitionists, the antipapist antiforeigner element. The genial Eisenhower was their man, a genuine American hero of D-Day, who made it OK for reasonable people to vote Republican. He brought the Korean War to a stalemate, produced the Interstate Highway System, declined to rescue the French colonial army in Vietnam, and gave us a period of peace and prosperity, in which (oddly) American arts and letters flourished and higher education burgeoned‹and there was a degree of plain decency in the country. Fifties Republicans were giants compared to today's. Richard Nixon was the last Republican leader to feel a Christian obligation toward the poor.

<snip>
The concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the few is the death knell of democracy. No republic in the history of humanity has survived this. The election of 2004 will say something about what happens to ours. The omens are not good.

more... http://www.organicconsumers.org/corp/keiller.cfm

[quaoar]

37. Richard Nixon was the last Republican leader to feel a Christian obligatio

Actually, Alabama Gov. Bob Riley falls into the category, too.

[demo dutch]

24. What a great read!

[Name removed]

25. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Love Bug]

26. Gotta love Keillor!

Y'all should check out his book, "Homegrown Democrat." It's a great read like the above.

[Doctor_J]

27. Keillor will probably be oneof the first casualties

when the GOP takes over public broadcasting.

[wicket]

28. God bless Garrison Keillor

He's always been a torn in the side of the right, and he doesn't give a damn what they think. He rocks! :kick:

[Felix Mala]

36. If that Savage idiot has anything to say about it.

I thought radio nuts were no threat until a few months ago when Savage was calling for all liberals to be 'interred' until the War Against Terrorism is over because we work so closely with the enemy. Every caller agreed. Any day, their 'minutemen' could start knocking on doors...

Oops, I meant any night...

[Griffy]

29. SUPPORT NEW MEDIA .. The Bradshow is great stuff!

Listen the archives here .. and catch the new show this weekend!

http://bradblog.com/BradShow/


Past guests have included Robert Koehler, Clint Curtis, Andy Stephenson and others....

Brad has Jim Lampley, among others, lined up for this weekend... you saw his article on the stolen election! , if not..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x368344

.. and if you can.. donate a few dollars! it goes along way to inform the sleeping Americans!

[Love Bug]

33. Listen to Prairie Home online through the BBC

BBC radio has a one-hour version of Prairie Home Companion on BBC 7 titled "Garrison Keillor's Radio Show." This week's show features Al Franken.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/

[DerekG]

39. "There's no one so humorless as a devout atheist."

Beautiful. So true, so true...

[reformedrepub]

41. Thanks Garrison

Garrison Keillor's book Homegrown Democrat was one of the reasons, I left the Republican Party.

[Radical Activist]

42. Can we just hand the Dem party over to prairie populists from the midwest?

We would all be better off.

[truthisfreedom]

45. sure! we'll take the baton! 8^)

[0007]

44. Been listening to Garrison Keillor for a long time and I never tire or

or grow weary of his first class act.

[hector459]

46. I love Garriosn. And he is so correct. n/t