Conservative Talk Radio REALLY Doesn't Get It

One week since Senator Barack Obama became President-Elect Obama and most Americans, especially those who gave him a clear mandate to govern (by six points in the popular vote 52% to 46%) understand the reasons behind their vote. No recount needed here, as Obama blew past John McCain by 190 votes in the electoral college, 364 votes to 174.

In this history-making presidential campaign, the United States of America elected a black man to the highest office in the land. Young voters and minorities - the most disaffected segments of the electorate in recent years - rose up this time. Obama won 95% of the black vote, 66% of the Latino vote, 66% of voters 18-29 and 68% of all first-time voters. That's a movement with marching orders that any causal observer can recognize and take notice of.

Except, apparently, for Conservative Talk Radio, where the news is not good. One week has passed since Election Day and those angry white guys (it's almost always a guy) on AM are really pissed odd. To hear them tell it, an uniformed electorate whipped up by hype and hucksters have set our feet on the road to destruction. It's all over now.

In my home market, Dallas/Fort Worth, the hysteria was almost funny, almost. One host urged his listeners to "join the NRA now, because they're coming to get our guns." Another giggled while ridiculing an Obama supporter because he wasn't able to list specifics of Obama's economic plan, suggesting he had voted out of ignorance.

Ignorance is something Talk Radio knows all too well. Most of the opinions I've heard expressed for the past eight years are consistently unoriginal and dull. There is rarely anything resembling a worthwhile conversation, unless you consider frequent commercial breaks, traffic reports and callers who begin their 15 minutes of fame by telling the host they either love the show and that they agree with them 95% of the time, a riveting exchange of ideas.

Talk Radio is, however, entertaining. It's the New Professional Wrestling, the WWE of the airwaves. Instead of Vince McMahon, Triple H, Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Undertaker, Talk Radio presents its superstar lineup of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, G. Gordon Liddy and Laura Ingraham.

Like professional wrestling, Conservative Talk Radio if not, fake, is scripted. The discussion is predetermined and carefully choreographed. Rush and Company are entertainers, jerks who go up against the good guys, not for championship belts, but for company bonuses and ratings. And ratings are real.

Rating have also been good, especially in a climate where you could wrap yourself in the Flag and blame our country's ills on anyone who disagreed with your particular point of view by calling them freeloaders or unpatriotic. Talk Radio built a loyal and rabid fan base of ringside fans who can draw very clear lines between "us and them." It was easy to recruit when we thought we were getting information that was fair and balanced.

Those days are over, done in by the same big-spending, debt-ridden, fundamentalist, intolerant, incompetent and arrogant conservatism of the past eight years. Take a look around. Conservatives promised smaller government, less intrusion and fewer taxes; and then just borrowed the money and tripled the debt, all the while being praised by Talk Radio as being better than the other side.

It's a New Day and America doesn't have time to waste on Talk Radio's narrow-minded and overbearing shtick. You got it wrong, angry white guys on AM. There's a new message to actually govern this country again and that's what America is tuned into now.