Talk Radio and Frum Jews - Part I
In a previous posting called Frum Jews and Republicans a healthy debate about frum Jews and talk radio began which I would like to expand upon. This first posting will be a response to my dear and loyal dissenting poster 'CM's comments to my posting.
Talk Radio has made, in my opinion, many people conservative instead of liberal. While it's a regrettable situation, I would rather that these people be conservative than liberal. Therefore, I like talk radio because without it people would not suddenly begin to think clearly about issues or debate them. Rather they would simply buy into the opposing view who uses the same tactic.
IMHO this is not correct. What talk radio did is make politics into a team sport. Conservative and Liberal where no longer ideologies but rather 'teams'. Talk radio created a 'team' and turned a large segment of the country into members of the this Conservative/Republican team. Like any 'team', or like color war in camp, you have to build the enthusiasm. This is done by feeding the team the same message over and over ("the liberal have in the past, are currently, and will in the future destroy this country!") building up their anger against "the liberals" - so even know that Cons/Repub control the White House, the Senate the Congress, the Supreme Court and the majority of the Governorships, talk radio still continues to preach that "liberals" are ruining this country - as if Conservatives are still in the opposition!
So you are correct when you said earlier in your post that we have become a sound bite nation and not having red hot talk radio won't cause people to suddenly think clearly. But there is an alternative that you might not have thought of - that they will keep an open mind and not blindly apply the conservative solution to every problem in every time and every place. And more importantly, they might keep an open mind about the honesty and integrity of Cons/Rep office holders and hold ALL office holders to the same standard - regardless of their ideology. None of these can happen in the current climate. Because since they are on the 'team', they must support the team all the time always (with one exception - if a 'team' member G-d forbid compromises with a liberal, oy vey!, or if a 'team' member G-d forbid pushes a liberal idea as being a solution in some exceptional circumstance, then "read my lips".
More later.
Talk Radio has made, in my opinion, many people conservative instead of liberal. While it's a regrettable situation, I would rather that these people be conservative than liberal. Therefore, I like talk radio because without it people would not suddenly begin to think clearly about issues or debate them. Rather they would simply buy into the opposing view who uses the same tactic.
IMHO this is not correct. What talk radio did is make politics into a team sport. Conservative and Liberal where no longer ideologies but rather 'teams'. Talk radio created a 'team' and turned a large segment of the country into members of the this Conservative/Republican team. Like any 'team', or like color war in camp, you have to build the enthusiasm. This is done by feeding the team the same message over and over ("the liberal have in the past, are currently, and will in the future destroy this country!") building up their anger against "the liberals" - so even know that Cons/Repub control the White House, the Senate the Congress, the Supreme Court and the majority of the Governorships, talk radio still continues to preach that "liberals" are ruining this country - as if Conservatives are still in the opposition!
So you are correct when you said earlier in your post that we have become a sound bite nation and not having red hot talk radio won't cause people to suddenly think clearly. But there is an alternative that you might not have thought of - that they will keep an open mind and not blindly apply the conservative solution to every problem in every time and every place. And more importantly, they might keep an open mind about the honesty and integrity of Cons/Rep office holders and hold ALL office holders to the same standard - regardless of their ideology. None of these can happen in the current climate. Because since they are on the 'team', they must support the team all the time always (with one exception - if a 'team' member G-d forbid compromises with a liberal, oy vey!, or if a 'team' member G-d forbid pushes a liberal idea as being a solution in some exceptional circumstance, then "read my lips".
More later.
posted by J @ 9:25 PM
3 Comments:
At 12/25/2005 1:53 AM,
Anonymous said…
"What talk radio did is make politics into a team sport."
Lo sisgodedu - lo saasu agudos agudos !
At 12/25/2005 7:17 PM,
J said…
George Washington was vary wary of political parties, but i guess it is part of human nature.
But the citizens should mostly remain independent so as to judge objectively how their 'servants, the public servants, are performing.
At 1/10/2006 8:05 PM,
J said…
I don't quite follow your argument. What you are arguing for is why the political parties play this game.
Your point is that you understand that its a game but who cares as long as Conservative ideals get propogated.
But that misses my point. My point is that as Citizens and in your case as an intelligent citizen, you should realize that the goal should not be propogating Conservative ideals nor liberal ideals - as what is more important than both is supporting competence and honesty amongst elected officials. If talk radio would push that as the goal, instead of a particular 'weltanshaang', wouldn't that be better? Shouldn't that be your goal? Shouldn't you support candidates based on that scale? Won't we all be better off?
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