Stop Shouting At Me!

I asked span>a few days ago<

I wondered what it would be like to be a new listener, a nonpolitical person, tuning in to Mark Levin’s show for the first time. The ferocious hatred and anger – the shouting at people not present to reply, the self-pitying complaints against a world that does not pay enough respect: it’s an ugly performance. Has Levin ever convinced any listener of anything that listener did not already believe? And of those who come to the show uncertain of what they believe - mustn't the vast majority come away from these rage-filled narcissistic tirades thinking, "If that's conservatism, I want no part of it"?

That comment prompted an email from reader Dylan Zwick:

That hypothetical listener tuning in to conservative talk radio for the first time was me.

When I went off to college ten years ago I considered myself a radical leftist because, looking back, I believed I was much smarter than I really was and thought leftism was cool. However, I did have one thing going for me; I was (and am) a mathematician, so I knew a reasonable argument when I saw it. My freshman year I had the humbling experience of losing debates with conservative classmates because I had to admit they had the better argument, and by my senior year I had become completely convinced that the free market was both moral and practical, and that the United States and its military, or for that matter Western culture, was not the source of all the world's problems, and on balance had done far more good than evil in this world. I wasn't willing to call myself a Republican, because I've never been a "social conservative", but my politics had moved decidedly to the right during college.

I can remember the day my shift to the right stopped. It was the day I first tuned in to Rush Limbaugh. I was of course aware of him, and it was right after his return from rehab, so I was curious as to what he had to say. I tuned in expecting, and even hoping, to be convinced. Instead, I was taken aback. He wasn't trying to convince liberals, or even moderates; he was attacking them, and more often than not using arguments that were obviously weak but emotionally appealing. I've wanted no part of the Republican Party ever since. I still have to constantly tell myself that just because Limbaugh or Coulter or O'Reilly think an idea is good, that doesn't logically mean it isn't. It's hard.

So, while the success of conservative talk radio is manifest, its political impact is debatable, and it may very well do more harm to the conservative cause than good. It definitely turned me away. However, reading you has given me hope that conservatism is not completely lost. Maybe you'll have my vote one day after all.

Reader Dennis Sanders writes:

In regards to your recent post called "Stop Shouting At Me," I wanted to respond to what Dylan Zwick said about how listening to Rush Limbaugh stopped his track towards the right. I started to swing towards conservatism after college. I saw myself in the more moderate mold of the GOP, but for a long time never thought of saying I was a Republican, much less a conservative, because people like Rush Limbaugh. The fact that I am also gay, made it hard to feel that I could ever be a Republican.

Things changed when I found out about a group called Republicans for Environmental Protection. I started to see a group of people who were conservative and cared about the environment. Later on, I also found out about Log Cabin Republicans which I later joined and become involved in.

The fact is, today I can call myself a conservative and a Republican because I found an alternative conservative community that was not like Rush or any other so-called leader of the GOP.

In some way I liken this to church. Having grown up as a Christian, I have found places where I am loved and accepted for who I am as a gay man. Of course, there are many places where I would not be accepted, but people decided to carve a space where there was more tolerance for gays.

I think that this is the route that conservatives should consider. Yes, we need to criticize people like Rush and I am thankful that you are standing up to him and his ilk. But we also need to think in the long run as well and that means creating countercultural conservative institutions and groups that present another view of conservatism and the GOP. We need to do more than complain. We need to set up think tanks and support reform-minded candidates and so forth.

Yes, Limbaugh will continue to do damage to conservatism. But we can't wait until he shuts up to try to repair the damage. We must at some point move beyond Limbaugh and create a new conservatism for today.

I became a conservative because I was able to see a more wholesome kind of conservatism than the one that Limbaugh peddles. It's time that we lift these up to the wider society.