John Derbyshire on the negative consequences (he notes there were positives as well) of the Rush Limbaugh radio revolution:
“Did the Limbaughs, Hannitys, Savages, and Ingrahams lead us to this sorry state of affairs?
They surely did. At the very least, by yoking themselves to the clueless George W. Bush and his free-spending administration, they helped create the great debt bubble that has now burst so spectacularly. The big names, too, were all uncritical of the decade-long (at least) efforts to ‘build democracy’ in no-account nations with politically primitive populations. Sean Hannity called the Iraq War a ‘massive success,’ and in January 2008 deemed the U.S. economy ‘phenomenal.’
Much as their blind loyalty discredited the Right, perhaps the worst effect of Limbaugh et al. has been their draining away of political energy from what might have been a much more worthwhile project: the fostering of a middlebrow conservatism.”
