Do Republicans want a one-party state?

Great Debates
21

The most outlandish, outspoken persons always have center stage. Liberal or conservative, their views are the ones the media focuses on. The sensationalism spewed out by these persons makes for good headlines and news stories. The sensationalism doesn’t reflect the average citizen.

There are an equal amount of sensationalist liberals spewing forth their ideals as there are the Rush Limbaughs and Oliver Norths.

The average citizen must sort the chaff from the wheat. I don’t identify with either the republican or democrat parties. I base my vote on what I think the person can or can’t do, not the party they represent.

22

Used to be, such an animal as a “liberal” Republican walked the land. They tended to be conservative in matters of money and federal regulation, but “liberal” in terms of tolerance and equal rights. There was a time when it was “liberal”, left of center, to be opposed to segregation. Thankfully, that time is past. Don’t forget, George Wallace was a Democrat!

As the country moved more left/center, the moderate conservative power base eroded, leaving the Republicans dependent more and more on the loony fringe. (In my Goldwater days, they were referred to as the little old ladys in tennis shoes)

The wings ares still there, the center has moved. YAY!

Hienlien? Huh? A penny a word pulp science fiction writer, not bad for the genre, but a social/political critic? Well, ok, then Steven King is a theologian.

23

If A is true…do you have any examples of B? The most famous hardcore liberal I could think of was Bill Press, and when I lined him up opposite Rush Limbaugh I was accused of being unfair because Bill Press is sane and Limbaugh is a blowhard maniac.

Ok. So I’m seriously curious: who are the Left equivalents to Rush and O’Reilly (no spin zone my ass) and Hannity and North and Dr, Laura and Dennis Prager (whom I actually respect because he tries) and Larry Elder and AL Rantel? I desperately search the airwaves for a radical left wing voice, and apart from Micheal Moore, who I don’t think qualifies since he’s half comedian and his soapbox is on Bravo a dozen nights per year, who is there? What few liberal voices there are are very mild…wimpy, in fact.

Do you get some radio or TV stations that I don’t get? If so, I’m going to have to have a talk with my cable provider…

stoid

24

I’d have to agree with Rugby-Man. The two parties of demos and rebubs are a joke to me…in the end, the ends are the same, and sometimes even the means too. Every cry for “bipartisan” agreement is a cry for a one party state. F that, IMO.

But then again, I hate much of the state as it is, so my opinion is pretty biased and some would say unsupported. OK.

25

It seems that “talk radio” has more than its fair share of ultra right wingers. Perhaps that’s because more of the target audience listens to the radio during the day…? Or perhaps because it’s hard to get viewers with programs like “Saving the Environment.”

As far as the left wing equivalents of Rush Limbaugh, a lot of newspaper columnists are liberals. Geraldo Rivera is pretty liberal, but he’s not as abrasive as Rush or Dr. Laura.

I do think that prime time shows are pretty liberal. They are good for vilifying right wingers, casting them as ignorant buffoons. I can’t recall the last time an anti-abortion character was presented as being thoughtful or something other than an overbearing busybody, for instance. The West Wing is one example of a program that tries to present the “other side” fairly. But shows like that are few and far between.

26

Besides the person opposite North (can’t remember his name offhand), the liberal voices in media are: Dan Rather, Ted Koppel, Tom Brokaw…well, you get the drift! The conservative talk-radio offsets the liberal media bias quite well (too bad they can’t offset each other into nothingness!)

27

If Rush limbaugh is considered the offset to Ted koppel, then I would have to conclude that the OP is pretty close to the truth.

If you look again, my post asked this question because of the assertion that "The most outlandish, outspoken persons always have center stage. " You can’t ** really ** be suggesting that Tom Brokaw fits this description, can you?

stoid

28

Well, any time there is a particularly strong ideological bias in a given medium (the media…and I notice you didn’t try to refute that fact of a liberal bias), there will be a backlash against that bias, hence the conservative talk media. In a way, I like the bombastic nature…after all, one certainly shouldn’t be shy about their beliefs…otherwise it’s not a very strong belief, now is it??

As for the news media, their ratings are more important than their convictions, so they’re not going to jump around and say “free health for all!! free education for all!! guns for criminals only!!!”, now are they?

29

Rugby Man, hope this isn’t one of the first opinions you offer when you go out on a date. :wink:

30

Nope. And I wouldn’t, because that would be refuting the truth. There absolutely is a liberal bias. And I’d tell ya why I think that is, but it would just drive the conservatives insane and they’d turn into a mob, then they’d be lighting torches and chasing me up hills into crumbling castles and the whole thing would just get icky…

Well, it’d be a damn curious thing if I disagreed with this one, now wouldln’t it?

Well, I’m thinkin’ it’s unlikely they’d be jumping around saying those things because no one believes those things…well, maybe one (which is a debate in itself) and two (which we already have…you got a problem with it?) but # 3 is just a silly bit of bombast that Rush might come up with, but which has zero relation to anything like truth. But then, saying that Rush would say it and it’s unrelated to truth is almost redundant, isn’t it?

stoid

31

  1. O’Reilly isn’t a conservative.

  2. Sean Hannity has his counterpart Allen Colmes.

But other than that, I don’t know of any liberal celebrity who isn’t some sort of musician, actor(ess) or what have you.

32

Sure…why not…certainly a good litmus test…if she doesn’t agree with political incorrectness than we’re gonna end up fighting sooner or later anyway!! :slight_smile:

33

O’Reilly * says * he isnt’ a conservative. So far (and I admit my exposure to him began with the election) the only time he’s sounded like someone who is not a conservative is on the topic of global warming. Every other word I’ve heard from him sounded like a conservative to me (and a highly partisan conservative to boot, not to mention an arrogant, self-important ass. Who IS he, anyway?) and I watch at least part of the show nearly every night, I’ll have to tune in after the election is over and see what he has to say.

And Hannity’s counterpart, Colmes, is a perfect example of what I’m talking about. He’s no Hannity! You barely know he’s around on that show…they give him the job of talking to the conservative guests now and again, and he does so meekly. Hannity, on the other hand, is a loudmouth blowhard that let’s his guests speak half a sentence before he’s down their throats. (Colmes is incredibly odd looking. I don’t know what it is, but he’s very strange to look upon. Weirdly compelling, tho, which is why I wish he’d speak up more, so I could examine his face.)

stoid
New Cable TV Freak (I have spent hour after hour the past month flipping from Fox to MSNBC to CNBC to C-SPAN to CNN in a weird trance-like state. It’s really kinda sick and Pump Action Gerbil is feeling pretty beaten down by the whole experience… Every now and again he sorta collapses at his desk and begs me in a quavering voice: “Can we pleeeese turn this off for just an hour?” And I do, controlling my urge to flip on The Edge in the same way I try to control my urge to eat donuts…

34

Ok, first allow me to summarize the above.

-> There are certain high-profile Republican commentators that are pretty virulent. Uncontested so far.

-> Liberal friends of certain posters can be virulent as well. Perhaps they are as virulent as Rush. I can’t argue there, since I don’t know your friends.

-> The Leftish counterparts to Rush, O’Reilly, Hannity, North, Dr. Laura and Dennis Prager are Jesse Jackson and Michael Moore. ::hmmff:: Maybe I could add Noam Chomksy and Jim Hightower. :rolleyes:

-> Well, maybe there are pretty few high profile rock-em, sock-em liberals, but Rush et al are correctives for rampant liberal bias in the media.
Now:

I don’t listen to shout radio and watch very little TV, so I am unequipped to evaluate most of the above. Except for that last part about liberal bias.

Some years ago FAIR, (a liberal group), did a LEXIS/NEXIS analysis of references to think tanks, and rated those think tanks as leftist, rightist and centrist. Their results:

    Conservative.......7792
    Centrist...........6361
    Progressive.......1152

Now, some of you may disagree with their categorization. FAIR calls Brookings a centrist think tank, while many conservatives would probably characterize them as “liberal”. One wonders what they might make of the Economic Policy Institute, never mind an organization like Global Exchange.

Here’s the link for those wishing to challenge the framework:

http://www.fair.org/extra/9605/tank.html

35

Another study that FAIR did was to look at the political beliefs of reporters and the like in the media. (I believe they gave them a survey.) They did find these people to be to the “left” of the average American on “social” issues (abortion, homosexuality, …), but they were to the right of the average American on many economics issues, presumably because they were better-paid than the average American.

There is also a study done every year called “Project Censored” which (from a left wing perspective) talks about the ten most important stories that appeared in the alternative press but did not make it into the mainstream press. You can probably do a search engine search on “Project Censored” if you want to check it out.

36

True enough! (And I might venture sooner rather than later!) :wink: