Failure™ Magazine

Left Turn

One man’s journey from dittohead to Democrat.

Written by Jason Zasky   Filed under Arts & Entertainment

Glenn Beck?
He is what Rush was about 10 years ago. When Glenn is not talking politics he is entertaining. When he is talking politics he sounds just like everybody else. Of all the conservative commentators he’s the one I would consider to be most entertaining, even though I don’t agree with him politically.

Michael Savage?
He’s just bat-shit crazy. If there’s an edge Savage can’t even see it from where he is. That’s how far over the edge he is.

Ann Coulter?
She’s over there with Michael Savage except she doesn’t have the strength of conviction. I think she says what she says because it sells books.

What effect do you think right-wing talk show hosts like Limbaugh have had on political races in the past 15 years?
I think without question Rush was responsible for the Republican revolution of 1994. I think without question the right-wing media was responsible for the election of George W. Bush in 2000 and for the expansion of seats in 2002. At that point it reached its critical mass and has since been contracting a little bit. I know viewership for FOX News and listenership for a lot of these talk shows is down. Rush used to have an audience of 20 million listeners; now he’s down to 12 million. People are getting burned out on the right-wing political debate, and I don’t think it can have the same impact going forward. But it definitely will continue to form the core political beliefs of anywhere from 25 to 30 percent of the electorate.

What goes through your mind when you hear Limbaugh today?
I have been out since February 25, 2004—that was my last day in the [Republican] Party. Ever since then when I listen to Rush I think, “Can you believe this crap? Where is he even getting this?” I hear him harping on one thing that is completely destroyed by the four other things that he fails to mention.

Today I can listen to Rush for about 45 seconds before I have to turn him off. Part of it is that I’m ashamed that I never questioned anything he said and that it should have been obvious to me sooner. It’s uncomfortable for me to go back and realize, “Oh, I totally would have bought that.” But I sometimes feel obligated to listen because I’m the former dittohead guy and people want to know what I think about what he says. A couple of weeks ago he said that Bush’s popularity was waning because everybody knew that we’d won the war in Iraq. Now that’s just laugh-out-loud stupid.

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