Allowing the destruction of the Bush-McKennedy “Grand Compromise” (that pig bill that we call “The Great American Sellout”) to sit for a few days, I’ve had a chance to contemplate the lessons to be extracted from the experience. What did Talk Radio and Bloggers learn from the battle to kill the bill?

We learned that when back door deals are being hustled through Congress, the American people need to know as-soon-as-possible and we are the ones who must keep up the fight. America has political ADHD and those in Congress who propose these back door deals rely on that. If the people are not reminded of the danger of an impending piece of legislation it will pass. However if they are reminded day after day, the American people have the muscle to defeat these dangerous bills.

We learned that talk radio and the conservative blogosphere work well together. Bloggers are passionate people. We can recognize dangerous aspects of pending legislation then pick it apart. Talk radio has the power of its audience. When a talk radio show host can grab hold of the research done by the conservative blogosphere and take that information to his/her audience, wondrous democratic forces take hold. The people are empowered. It makes them think. It makes them read. Most of all it makes them want to talk about what they like about what’s going on. But more importantly it makes them talk about what they don’t like about what’s going on. And that’s what happened with the death of Bush-McKennedy.

Talk radio audiences are some of the most well informed people in the country. They look to talk radio not for news, but rather to confirm that they are not alone in their opposition or support for a particular item. Sometimes they don’t know what to think about an issue and tune in to see what others think. Ultimately, talk radio audiences make up their own minds. This is why shows like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingram, Mike Gallagher, Michael Medved, and the countless others succeed and Air America failed.

Talk radio audiences read the leftist dominated dead tree media and they watch the leftist dominated MSM. These people think, unlike the mindless robots that listened to Air America before its bankruptcy and NOW its impending demise. If you ever notice there will be two differing opinions between Conservative hosts as opposed to the mindless parroting of the leftists. Doom and Gloom will always lose out to optimism and hope.

(Cartoon drawn by Paul Nowak.)

In the past few days there has been the grumblings of resurrecting the “Fairness Doctrine” being heard on The Hill. Why? Because their precious bill failed. The American people didn’t want anything to do with that bill. So talk radio got blamed because the people were informed.

Because talk radio is dominated by conservatives, liberals in Congress want to silence the dissent. Forget that the dead tree media and network tv news is dominated by liberal thinking and bias. Forget that talk radio IS the balance to an unbalanced media. “We must balance talk radio in order to make things fair,” is the message that Diane Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi are speaking of when they talk about resurrecting the “Fairness Doctrine”. They have no interest in being fair. They want leftist indoctrinating propaganda being pushed by the New York Times, broadcast networks, CNN, and MSNBC to be the only source of information available in order to contaminate the voter pool which is dominated by political apathy. They know that if theirs is the only message being put out, that keeps them in power. 

What better example of the power of democracy do we have than the events leading up to the demise of the “Great American Sellout”? The bill died because the people wanted it to die. Talk radio and the blogosphere have given the people a voice. And that voice has put politicians of both parties on notice. “We’re watching you” is the message of that voice and they don’t like it.