WataugaWatch

We reported a couple of days ago about Erick Erickson's notable mixing of metaphors over at RedState ... in calling for a "purge of the deadwood" in the conservative movement. Erickson intimated that he was personally on the lookout for "fake conservatives" who might be first in line for purging, though he wasn't yet ready to begin naming names.

Michael Medved apparently decided to out himself. Erick Erickson, meet Michael Medved, conservative dead wood. Medved (for the record) is listed as the eighth most influential right-wing radio talker. He used to guest-host for Limbaugh pretty regularly, until he got his own show. Before that he reviewed movies.

In today's USA Today, Medved says that right-wing talk radio is spewing way too much trash to an increasingly small audience and that maybe that isn't the most productive course to take following the disaster of November 4. Figuring out how to rebuild a credible political opposition to deal with Obama constitutes no less than an "existential challenge."

Oooo ... existentialism! We're tingling all over already, mainly because Medved actually gets it. The universe has reoriented itself, and he & Limbaugh & Hanity & O'Reilly & the four & 20 other blackbirds baked in the Talk Radio Pie aren't the masters of this new domain ... because, see, existentialism starts with "a sense of disorientation and confusion in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd world."

For a black socialist (and most liberal senator) with the middle name of Hussein to win the presidency with 365 electoral votes ... well, that's just absurd. What's a right-wing radio talker to say, huh?

Saith Medved: "Depending on responses from leading conservative talkers, this rude, raucous indispensable medium [talk radio] will either rise to new heights of mainstream influence, profit and credibility, or else collapse as a declining vehicle for an increasingly angry and alienated fringe."

Judging from our own local small-potatoes example, "On the Right Side" with Jim Goff and Jim Hastings on WATA, they're going whole hog for the "increasingly angry and alienated fringe," an audience that will comfortably fit, say, in any standard-size SUV. "On the Right Side" has recently reinstated "Tolerate This!" as its on-air theme song. The ditty has lyrics that Medved would blanch at but which the increasingly angry and alienated fringe apparently laps up. For one small, SUV-type example:

Tolerate this! I believe in driving the biggest car I can

We reckon this is what Medved calls cultivating "a niche audience rather than the Republican mainstream," because even the conservative Republicans we know (those who still speak to us) realize that the massive consumption of petroleum is just not a viable societal option any more, let alone a feasible political pitch.

Not that we want the angry white guy act to slack off! Far better to purge the Michael Medveds from the party. You betcha.

Labels: 2008 election results, conservative movement, Erick Erickson, Michael Medved