May 27 2009
Mark Levin: Class A Idiot
When it comes to attracting support for conservatives, few exemplify what is wrong with the ‘true conservatives’ like the mental midget Mark Levin:
LEVIN: Yeah, sure, he can do whatever he wants. Let me ask you a question. Why do you hate this country?
CALLER: No, I love this country.
LEVIN: (angrily shouting) I SAID WHY DO YOU HATE MY COUNTRY? WHY DO YOU HATE MY CONSTITUTION? WHY DO YOU HATE MY DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE? You just said it. He can blow off Congress. He can do whatever he wants, right?
CALLER: Well, he seems to, he just moved (inaudible).
LEVIN: Answer me this, are you a married woman? Yes or no?
CALLER: Yes.
LEVIN: Well I don’t know why your husband doesn’t put a gun to his temple. Get the hell out of here.Â
That seems to be Levin’s answer to hard questions or reasonable points, put a gun to their head. What a moron. I am so glad I don’t have to be associated with someone like this anymore. If this is the voice of the Reagan conservatives, the movement should die off.
Levin writes well. I can’t stand listening to him, though. And now that I have listened to him, every time I read his stuff, I “hear” it in his voice.
I did hear an interview with him once where he spoke in a normal voice and it was actually interesting to listen to but the way he speaks on his radio show is an absolute turn-off to me. He often does raise a good point and has a valid insight on things. But the signal to noise ratio makes it too tedious to listen to.
talk radio is political porn.
Levin is a very smart guy when he is not on talk radio. Like crosspatch I can listen to him for about 5 minutes less then I can Hanity.
AJ, you musn’t listen to him often nor read his books. He is a a very, very bright guy. The comments you attribute to him are of course over the top and it is not the only time he gets crazy but it is an unjustice to paint him with one color. I think this entry says more about your anti-Conservative bias than it does about Levin’s staged lunancy. Talk about a broad brush!!
Another quick comment if I may: Can you detect any reduction in hits to your website since you started beating up on Conservatives?? From my own experience I find it harder and harder to visit your site.
It seems like every time I come to your site you are bashing guys like me. Cherry picking the most fringe statements from Conservative Pundits and then taking out the broad brush to chatise ALL Conservatives.
mikedido58,
I have the same problem but I usually avoid the anti-conservative rants. I’ll read the comments sometimes but often skip the post.
Visiting this site like eating in a restaurant, just avoid the foods that give you gas and enjoy the ones that do not.
Still a good site and I appreciate AJ’s insight on other topics as well as the comments.
alert 1201,
I’m glad to hear from you and I agree in full with your comments.
I wonder how many other visitors to AJ feel the same way as we do??
I’m of the same opinion, but have hope of persuading AJ to leave the Intolerant Moderate faction.
Mikedido58
I have listened to him as much as I can tolerate. I have the benefit of having many people in my immediate family who are judges, work for the DoJ, who were in congress and who work in politics. Therefore in my world you have to be able to do more than make a good point once in a while (many of which are obvious to all), and you have to be able to lead.
Levin is not a leader, he is a buffoon. He is no smarter or more insightful than thousands of others who can at least relate their views in a mature and thoughtful manner. He is ten times more a minus than his occasional stopped-watch ruminations.
He really is a big nothing.
Mike M,
To get the independents back is simple (as I have stated time and time again). The conservative movement needs to mea culpa on the stupidity of insulting centrists, with a promise to respect their views (as valued, concerned Americans) while purging the conservative coalition of loud mouthed hot heads. They need to also allow centrists lead voices and positions in any new coalition.
Once the right realigns itself from the brink, the natural opposition to liberalism that dominates the American center will create the needed political ground swell to dump the left.
Until then, we stay out of the fringes and elect centrists. The poison flowing through the right will be purged.
Com’on AJ! Levin makes no pretense as to what he is! He is an author and a talk show host! Why criticize him for not being a leader! He makes no claim to be so. That includes all the other talk show hosts you deride.
I get the sense that you believe that any one who listens to Conservative talk radio must be small minded and stupid. I think most of talk radio listeners are smart enough to pick through the shtick and hyperbole of the host(s). Do you?? There’s one thing you cant get away from AJ, no matter how hard you push. That is many people listen to talk radio not because they are gullible and easily lead. Its because they AGREE with the hosts!! Not with all the hooplah and over the top stuff, but in the basic Conservative message they espouse.
Why not focus the leadership question to where it belongs? Where are the Republican leaders?? Who are they? Shouldn’t they be the object of your scorn and derision? It is their failures
that have brought the GOP to their knees not the population they portend to lead.
I know too many people who listen to talk radio and treat every word these people say as the absolute truth of the situation. They act they are reading the bible and if you don’t believe what they say then you are stupid. Now this is not everyone who listens to talk radio, but it is a lot of people. My office manager being a prime example. She thinks Levin walks on water. And why can’t we expect the talk radio hosts to be able to better present the conservative message. They are the ones with the voices out there. And in that aspect they are leaders. They may not be the ones elected to office who have to make the big decisions but they are definitely the major outlet of the conservative message. And when they rant and say stupid things it does make all conservatives look bad. And its not AJ who uses a broad brush, its this entire society. Thats why we have broad stereotypes and prejudices against people we have never met or talked to.
Well said DJ. The mistake I think you make is that talk radio must garner ratings. It must entertain! People will not tune in and listen to dry, monotone description as one might hear in a lecture hall. They want to get mad, laugh and hear what they believe in, on the air! If they get that they will listen. Why has liberal talk radio failed so badly, even with public funding? It boring and depressing even if factually accurate.
Leading must be left to politicians, clergy and other public officials.
Not talk show hosts. People do not expect talking heads to lead.
They expect their elected officials to do so. The GOP is a perfect example as to what happens when elected officials refuse to lead.
Bottom line is that a radio show is designed to attract listeners to advertising. It is a business.
Levin is a sort of political shock jock, he is about getting listeners and that has a lot to do with putting on a show. That works for people who already agree with his point of view, but it really does turn off most people.
I got this lecture recently too. A relative told me that the centrists were the ones that were divisive. I said not really, most centrists are people that can be persuaded with an intelligent argument, they are not fanatics. However, the relative giving me this lecture on divisiveness was screaming at me at the time. He failed to see the irony.
Talk radio became the only outlet for those who could not take the main stream media with the start of Rush’s program.
With all the success that these talking heads have, are we to believe that people in the center are repulsed by them, I don’t think so.
Air America, MSNBC, CNN, N.Y. Times and etc. are all basically in the toilet, while the likes of Fox has skyrocketing ratings infact since Alan Colmes left Hannity, Hannity’s ratings has increased and is pushing towards O’Reilly’s Numbers.
Most of the talking heads also have had remarkable success with their book sales.
Personally I very rarely listen to talk radio I find most hosts to be to shrill for my taste I guess thats why Howard Johnson makes 28 flavors.
mike:
That is true, but treating this caller like crap really does not make Levin look good, it makes him look like a bully.
ama:
Yeah, but in many ways, Olbermann is the flip side of Levin. Only Levin is a lot smarter. The truth is most people are kind of turned off by them both. The center and the right are natural allies in most respects, if only the right would stop going out of their way to attack moderates. I still vote Republican in spite of these people not because of them.
Agree with ama055131. I don’t listen to talk radio but do try to keep up with some TV and all the reading. I understand it’s about money but thank God for talk radio (even the ones I don’t like). Without them, it would be total Silence.
I keep reading that something will make this scandal or that scandal and it will be so big that the public will not stand for it, blah, blah, blah. WRONG. Has no one else noticed that several very scandalous things have already happened? The public will never hear of it and if they do, will ignore because they did not hear through what they consider to be legit sources.
I have ranted that it has to be our Congressmen discovering a spine, a pointing finger, a loud mouth and a face on TV to help their own cause. I want to add something that could sure kick start a brand new MSM.
The GOP should put out ads attacking MSM. Put your money into it. Do a Cheney. Enough of this whining and silence on our part. Attack who is really running this show. It will NOT matter if the Dems shut down every Pug dealership in the USA. By decree from on High, if the everyday person does not ‘get it’, it won’t matter. How did Obama get here? Who failed in their highly rated jobs? I don’t even know if he is a real citizen, much less anything else. He gets caught in a racist church and he lectures on race. He goes to Notre Dame and lectures on abortion. How dare he even think he can get by with this? WHY? MSM. MSM. MSM.
GOP should at least make the MSM fight them in the open. At least show up at the fight. That is what Cheney did to Obama.
Yeah, you’re right owl, if it weren’t for talk radio and a few on TV nobody would have a clue that Republicans or conservatives even exist.
Before we condemn them, we need to think carefully what it would be like without them. Or with only bland boring types with minimal audiences.
The reason the focus falls on Levin & Co is because we have zero leadership in Washington, but hopefully that will change within the next couple years.
I appreciate much of Levin’s show, he’s very informative, but I also wish he would show a little more restraint at times. But maybe we can work toward having the best of both worlds — why not email him with praise of the good parts and polite constructive criticism of the bad?
I think that would be more productive than attacking him, cuz he’s probably not going anywhere anytime soon.
On the topic of talk radio there are many that are very informative without being shrill like Levin or Savage.
I think WWS has it wrong – there are talk shows that could be considered talk porn but many are not. Micheal Medvid, Hugh Hewitte, Dennis Prager and many many local talk show hosts are very polite and respectful of others opinions as well as being extremely informative. I think of the three I mentioned above they have very good interviews of both liberals as well as conservatives and you always get the feeling that no matter who the guest is they always leave the show wanting to come back. There is no other medium – cable, print, network news – that provides the content that talk radio does. Try listening to Hewitte for three hours and see the depth and breadth of topics he covers, I doubt in year a network news channel would cover so much material. Sure there are the shrill voices, just ignore them and listen to those you like and turn off the ones you do not like, but to not use the extremes to paint the whole group.