KARL ROVE AND THE WINGNUTS
By any standards, the presidency of Ronald Reagan was an embarrassing failure. He accomplished nothing in his eight tortuous years in office, except big tax cuts for the rich, the criminal privatization of the nation’s foreign policy (Iran-Contra) and trillions of dollars in deliberate deficits by this supposed spending-cutting deficit hawk, in his cynical attempt to bankrupt the federal government so it could do no more good.. But there is one part of the Reagan legacy that will live forever: In 1987, the Reagan administration eliminated the Fairness Doctrine for the nation’s broadcasters.
The Fairness Doctrine required the holders of precious and limited spots on the broadcasting spectrum for television and radio to give "equal time" to those with opposing views if the station allowed someone to get on the air and make political statements on the issues of the day. And so they did, or, more likely, avoided political discussion altogether.
The Fairness Doctrine was quietly killed by the Reaganites, I believe through rule-making at the FCC. Not coincidentally, the rule was killed at the same time that a certain failed radio disc jockey set up his right-wing shop in Sacramento, California. With the death of the Fairness Doctrine, Rush Limbaugh (and various others with less success) were able to spew all kinds of right-wing lies and loony ideas into the radio, with no fear that their ideas would be challenged or their facts questioned (Limbaugh still has never allowed himself to be seen in a legitimate debate with anyone of substance, anywhere. Bill O’Reilly did lately and got embarrassed by Al Franken.). By the time a great big target by the name of Bill Clinton appeared to successfully champion moderate Democratic principles, right-wingnut radio could be heard in some form or other 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in every media market in the country. When cable news got into the full-time comment-on-the-fly business just in time for the exposure of the Clinton-Lewinsky trysts in 1998, it too was dominated by right wing perspectives and commentary.
The result has been a poisoning of the public political discourse in the US; one that has yet to be understood by Democrats and others who shrug off wingnut radio and cable as harmless "entertainment" for the unwashed (i.e.: angry white male) demographic. More important than the ugly character assassination, lies and unchallenged assumptions of the genre is the fact that the substance, tone and daily message of the "shows" are driven not by the creative efforts and half-full-to-empty heads of the ideologues in front of the microphones, but rather by Karl Rove and the Republican National Committee.
Listen carefully to several wingnuts in one day and you will hear a the same message over and over. Usually, the message of the day has to do with fawning over something "amazing" Bush has done (for instance, the elaborate staged production on the aircraft carrier to celebrate the invasion of Iraq) or attacking and falsely defining opposition voices (for instance, those complaining in the following days about the outrageous staged production on the aircraft carrier to celebrate the invasion of Iraq). Both national and local wingnuts pick up the message of the day from blast-faxes and e-mails from Rove, the RNC or other operatives. Displaying the lock-step discipline the right has shown since they found Junior’s empty suit to be fully compliant to their every whim, they have all stayed on message, every day for the past 11 years – to remarkable effect.
That effect is that the Republicans can push all kinds of bile into the nation’s political discussions – character assassination, lies repeated often enough they are perceived as truth, false definition and ridicule of any Democrat who might challenge them – and the official Republicans in office never have to dirty their hands with it. Since Gingrich bit the dust – and except for the occasional back-room quip from the true face of Republicanism, Exterminator Tom DeLay – the official Republicans have had to make very few real agreements in support of what should be unpopular policies.
They use the wingnuts to set the negative tone and base, and then pretend to take the "high road" as they implement the policies that are based on the lies and the smears. The classic example of this was the ludicrous attempt to impeach Clinton. No one in the House Judiciary or the Senate called him names or smeared his character with the vitriol of the wingnuts. They didn’t have to. But they used that poisoned base to drive through a partisan effort that will be seen by history to be as illegitimate and ridiculous as it was.
Rove and the RNC use the wingnuts to define their opposition. We have to find a way to define them. We will never have the giant megaphone allowed by Clear Channel and other purveyors of wingnut radio and cable. Reasonable discussion and truthful statements are not nearly as "entertaining" as smears, lies and pretended outrage. But we have to define Bush on our terms and then we have to get that definition accepted by a significant segment of the population in order to turn the tide. Defining Bush should be easy, given his record. But getting that definition accepted over the poison din. This will take some creative thinking about how to get a message out without the help of traditional media.
Next column: Defining Bush.
9:01:20 AM 
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