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TOM MORGAN'S MONEY TALK
Democrats are searching - yet again - for a liberal radio talk show host. They are pouring money and angst into the effort. To find some host to energize the left the way Rush Limbaugh and others have fired up the right. The search seems a frantic one. Big time Democrat politicians have whined in public that the airwaves have been pirated by the right-wing talk guys. Bill Clinton piled on. So did several party officials. They feel there are no liberal voices "getting our message out". Sadly, these guys are trying to solve the wrong problem. The problem is the message, not the medium. First, the word from the left gets plenty of circulation. It has for years. Countless surveys from news-watching organizations confirm that the beliefs of the left have been presented as if they were mainstream by our national media. For years. The real problem the Democrats miss is that a lot of their message is old stuff. It is joined at the hip to the status-quo. Or it has been recently relegated to an ash heap. Example of the ash heap: What is the left's message on welfare? More money, doled out by more bureaucrats. Yawn. Been there. Done that. Changed that, under protest from the left. Saw vast improvement - in spite of Armageddon-like warnings from the left. So, give us a liberal radio guy who calls for a lot more welfare spending. You will attract zero listeners. People who favor more welfare spending probably will not listen. Because that message played for 50 years. People who seek solutions will not listen for the same reason. And people who are pleased with the welfare reforms that were passed under protest from the left? They will not listen to a guy on the radio pleading for a return to the bad old days. So - no audience. An example of old stuff: What is the left's message on education reform? More money. For more programs. For smaller classes. For more teachers. For more administrators. Yawn. We have all heard this for 50 years. We have all seen this message put into policy, into action, for 50 years. So when a liberal talk show host tries to entice us with this bold new idea, who will want to listen? We have all heard it before. The conservative says "I've heard it and it doesn't work." The liberal says "This is the right message, but I've heard it and preached it a thousand times." The listener in the middle says "Let's hear something new". The conservative talk show hosts have an advantage over the liberals. They can continually point to policies enacted by liberal congresses over many years and cry "They don't work. Let's try something different." They tell us Social Security doesn't work. It is going to crash. Let us try something different. They tell us Amtrak does not work. Let us try something different. They tell us our inner city schools are broken, disgusting battlefields. Let us try something different. Liberal talk show hosts would have to defend a lot of what is. Defending is not nearly as entertaining as attacking is. Entertaining is what guys like Rush Limbaugh do and are. The liberals may spend several million to discover they won't match him. Because they have a less appealing, less entertaining message. As voters have been telling them of late.
From Tom...as in Morgan.
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