So the angry white male is ok, but not angry black male or angry latino male? I fail see what purpose this man serves. What is he angry about? He is a successful radio host. Conservatives love tossing the words "entitled" "entitlement' or "establishment" not understanding as far as those outside of them, they are the "entitled" and the "establishment". He simply perpetuates what he believes black and white or in reality, white vs black, brown, etc, etc.!
8
Jim McGreevey, John Edwards, Edwin Edwards, Gary Hart, Bill Clinton, Eliot Spitzer, Ray Nagin, Sharpe James, Sheldon Silver, Vito Lopez, Anthony Weiner, Kwame Kilpatrick, and the mayors of Trenton, Passaic, Camden, Atlantic City, and Charlotte NC, along with many long-forgotten Democrat perps sure have given conservative radio hosts a lot to talk about in the past 20 years!
2
Can we blame Steve Deace for the wacky racialists at the Univ. of Misery -- Missouri -- and at liberal icon Yale University too?
At the former the Black Separatists -- many of them from Ferguson, no surprise! -- demand a campus free of anyone saying anything verboten at any time, to anyone. Verboten words change daily as well, based on total subjectivity. Sounds like an epidemic of concussion-itis is has seized the football team, never ones for verbal acuity on their best day.
At Yale the African-Americans are especially frightened of.... Halloween costumes. Oh, my, the poor dears. Apparently someone was seen costumed as an Affirmative Action Baby.
I'd say the GOP candidates are getting massive amounts of Free PR from both universities -- especially Dr. Carson. Thank you, Democrat students!
At the former the Black Separatists -- many of them from Ferguson, no surprise! -- demand a campus free of anyone saying anything verboten at any time, to anyone. Verboten words change daily as well, based on total subjectivity. Sounds like an epidemic of concussion-itis is has seized the football team, never ones for verbal acuity on their best day.
At Yale the African-Americans are especially frightened of.... Halloween costumes. Oh, my, the poor dears. Apparently someone was seen costumed as an Affirmative Action Baby.
I'd say the GOP candidates are getting massive amounts of Free PR from both universities -- especially Dr. Carson. Thank you, Democrat students!
4
The NY Times has been a mouthpiece for Hillary for the past 20 years and yet we're supposed to be cowering in our boots because of the alleged undue influence of some bumpkin in IOWA?
3
A grifter. Listen at your peril.
2
Man, this article is hilarious! Way to go, Steve Deace! You bet the base is mad, when Republicans are voting to send millions to Planned Parenthood, and billions to terrorist Iran! Ted Cruz 2016 or bust!
Is anyone else disturbed by the spread of radio stations that seek to spread venom, hatred, and anger? Deace's biography suggests a painful childhood from "the triple crown of dysfunction", which may be a source for channeling anger experienced by listeners who are middle-aged white males.
In the past 20 years, profound economic changes have led to stagnant wages, the decline of manufacturing jobs in the U.S., and the growing necessity of a college-level education and social skills to obtain service jobs in education and health care. Yelling and blaming external scapegoats can be lucrative for radio hosts, but it diminishes the vital role of community and building bridges with others to seek solutions. Voters filled with rage and fear may be tempted to elect despotic and/or narcissist rulers (i.e., Trump) who seek to restore the glory of the past, rather than embrace a new vision for the future.
In the past 20 years, profound economic changes have led to stagnant wages, the decline of manufacturing jobs in the U.S., and the growing necessity of a college-level education and social skills to obtain service jobs in education and health care. Yelling and blaming external scapegoats can be lucrative for radio hosts, but it diminishes the vital role of community and building bridges with others to seek solutions. Voters filled with rage and fear may be tempted to elect despotic and/or narcissist rulers (i.e., Trump) who seek to restore the glory of the past, rather than embrace a new vision for the future.
2
Liberals got all excited when they thought Dan Rather, political consultant to the Democrats, had nailed ''W'' about his military service that didn't look exciting enough. They were fooled, and Rather instead blew up his career pretending lies and hatchet jobs served as information.
Now comes Deace who gets conservatives more or less excited with his own brand of political consultancy, but he IS honest enough never to refer to himself as any sort of hack-job journalist like the dozens working at the Times since the 1980's.
Would the right-wing politicos work under journalistic cover if there were news outlets willing to hire them? Would any J-school graduate-editor or publisher hire them with the owner's blessing, or a corporate board's? I guess we'll never know. I obviously omit both political sides' blogs like WND and MediaMatters, KOS, and HuffPo which are uselessly biased to the point of silliness.
Now comes Deace who gets conservatives more or less excited with his own brand of political consultancy, but he IS honest enough never to refer to himself as any sort of hack-job journalist like the dozens working at the Times since the 1980's.
Would the right-wing politicos work under journalistic cover if there were news outlets willing to hire them? Would any J-school graduate-editor or publisher hire them with the owner's blessing, or a corporate board's? I guess we'll never know. I obviously omit both political sides' blogs like WND and MediaMatters, KOS, and HuffPo which are uselessly biased to the point of silliness.
1
in the print version of the NY Times magazine one comes upon this article right after the heartbreaking one on displaced children. The contrast (probably intentional) is startling. What on earth does this "angry Republican" have to be angry about?" It is a fluke totally out of his control that he was lucky to be born white, male and in the USA. That this buffoon puts that advantage to such ridiculous and destructive use is shameful.
4
Lots of angry "progressives" posting here. I think they see the writing on the wall, no way after Obama will the country elect a "progressive" in the next election. Especially when they see the contrast between whatever octogenarian wins the democrat primary, and the relatively youthful energetic republican candidate.
1
The rise of these reactionary intellectual lightweights (Limbaugh, Hannity, and now this creep) is the worst thing that has happened to this country in the last 20 years. Not a single one of these bomb throwing malcontents has the stamina or intelligence to actually DO something in public service, so they sit on the sidelines where they can safely pose as "patriots" when actually they are not even fit to call plays in a college football game. These are the Ted Cruz people--male, white, insulated, and very very full of themselves and their resentments. UGH.
14
I think their hyper-rigid views are very much connected to their evangelism : belief will not accept compromise or facts. And Deace was a young man who stumbled badly at one point, later had an epiphany, then straightened out his life. Similar to some addicts who, after having kicked alcohol, soon believe that *no one* should be drinking and that alcohol should be outlawed. Belief morphs into zealotry. As Latham was pointing out that conservative zealots will not accept 80% - it's 100% of what they want or nothing. I remember Rush Limbaugh defining bi-partisanship as "when we get all of what we want and the opposition gets nothing." This rigid, unyielding, fascistic zealotry is pretty damn disturbing. Disturbing enough to fear a second civil war is awaiting us sometime in the decades ahead....
4
R, the biased media created the entire reason we HAVE Limbaugh and the others.
You aren't CBS, NBC, etc. who lecture reporters on taking it easy on Democrat office-holders and regularly kill stories simply because of the political damage too much truth would create.
And you didn't order CBS News not to say the name ''Lewinski'' for months after it was a household item. But THAT is where Limbaugh and all the others came from. Ergo, ''the worst thing that has happened to this country in the last 20 years'' was the refusal of the established old, corrupted media to be FAIR.
The media can cheat and play favorites all it wants, but the MARKET decides whether alternative voices will arise. Thank God they did.
This also explains why some outlets prosper and others have to be sold off just go away.
You aren't CBS, NBC, etc. who lecture reporters on taking it easy on Democrat office-holders and regularly kill stories simply because of the political damage too much truth would create.
And you didn't order CBS News not to say the name ''Lewinski'' for months after it was a household item. But THAT is where Limbaugh and all the others came from. Ergo, ''the worst thing that has happened to this country in the last 20 years'' was the refusal of the established old, corrupted media to be FAIR.
The media can cheat and play favorites all it wants, but the MARKET decides whether alternative voices will arise. Thank God they did.
This also explains why some outlets prosper and others have to be sold off just go away.
1
Yes, it was Hannity and Limbaugh's fault that a recent 2X Democrat presidential candidate slept with his adulterous "videographer" at home during a weekend as his wife, Elizabeth Edwards, was dying of breast cancer. And then pretty John-boy Edwards, big shot Democrat, denied the resulting love child was his! A vast right-wing conspiracy to hide his paternity then began. LOL. Now he's a disbarred felon. Wow, talk radio is sure powerful to gin up something that ripe!
2
"Fear God. Tell the Truth. Make Money." Mr. Deace's motto tells me everything I need to know about him. It also hilariously crystalizes the cognitive dissonance of the reactionary right.
10
You would prescribe ignoring God &/or the truth in the U.S. instead? Obviously
AMinNC has never run a business facing any sort of competition. Not there's anything wrong wit dat.
AMinNC has never run a business facing any sort of competition. Not there's anything wrong wit dat.
1
"It depends what 'Truth' is," a perjured President said, who now expects to be re-elected. "The thought of Bill Clinton roaming the corridors of power with too much time on his hands must give one pause," as George Will said recently.
2
He is a "radio host" that is it, why do we care or give him any notice as per this article.
6
Why, for the same reason a million or more Philadelphians tune in the radio dial to hear Michael Smerconish, I would think.
2
I do find it kind of interesting that rebuplicans are accused of being too far right wing when democrats are never referred to as too far left wing. But we have a double standard in politics that just can't be seen by the left no matter how hard they look.
7
W.S., notice that today's Left NEVER ever discusses the Democratic Party of the 1950's through the 1980's. Those Dems were sent away, shut out, and became Tea Partiers. Kennedy & Humphrey would each be a Boehner if not a Cruz.
2
Here's your chance. Provide some factual examples of being too far left.
2
That picture of him standing in his dilapidated house wearing cheap cargo shorts tells you a lot. It's almost like he was going for the stereotype of the modern day conservative as this obese uneducated and broke white guy standing around in his living room blaming all his failures on the government and immigrants.
9
His finances are in worse shape than Marco Rubio's, I bet. And Steve has more speeding tickets, too, prob'ly.
1
This "gentleman," as is the case with nearly every far right wing pundit and every current Republican presidential candidate, is just another belligerent paper patriot who couldn't be bothered with (read: was terrified by) even the idea of two or three years of military service, let alone gathering up enough man parts to actually walk into a recruiting office.
16
None of this is conservative. It's radical. And we should call it that.
22
This guy only reinforces the massive gap in American between fairly well educated urban/suburban people in metropolitan areas and low information, low income people who live in rural America--many of who are older white people who are religious and easily frightened by multiculturalism, urbanity, taxes and secularism. So I'm not really impressed that there is yet another portly conservative radio guy who appeals to evangelicals in rural Iowa with his various irrational rants. If Iowa wasn't the first test for the nomination, this guy would be a well-deserved radio nobody.
18
Progressives underestimate the power and influence of this right wing extremism on FlyOverAmerica and the South. We are a Balkanized country: only on the coasts do people think the that extremist conservatives are fast becoming the Republican majority. Their aim to govern America by minority---the John Birch Society in power--- is well within reach. First, primary from the right any Republican not in ideological purity at the fringe to become the new Party, bring your motivated voters to the polls, and watch Democrats and everyone else who is appalled and baffled to stay home on election day. America, this could happen. It's already happening at local and State levels, witness Kentucky's new Governor. The Presidency is in reach, the House is theirs, the Senate likely. And it all depends on whether reasonable people will make the time to vote and run for office. America, you are losing the plot and these guys know it.
16
there is no need to worry about this trash, it will burn itself out and the country will pay a price.
they are not in reach of the presidency, no more then the last two elections, when cons thought Mitty was winning at the end and he got CRUSHED. you cannot gerrymander the presidency!
they are not in reach of the presidency, no more then the last two elections, when cons thought Mitty was winning at the end and he got CRUSHED. you cannot gerrymander the presidency!
5
The AM radio band is filled with hustlers like Steve Deace, some pretending to be America's Last Hope, some pretending to be raising money for Jesus, mostly with very similar talking points but all with the same theme: Follow us or face eternal damnation, in the form of the Devil or an elected Democrat.
Deace offers nothing that isn't identical to all of the other con games performed constantly on the AM radio band. He is neither original, insightful nor unique in any way.
Deace offers nothing that isn't identical to all of the other con games performed constantly on the AM radio band. He is neither original, insightful nor unique in any way.
11
Absolutely fascinating story. It's amazing to see what just showing up to vote means to the direction a party takes. I hope this November election has awoken both parties to the importance of getting the majority to show up and vote if we hope to ever see a return to any incremental progress that has seemed dead on arrival since 2010.
I would love to see both conservative and liberal solutions to problems, and the interesting compromises that can be reached. I voted, did you?
I would love to see both conservative and liberal solutions to problems, and the interesting compromises that can be reached. I voted, did you?
4
I hope this November election has awoken both parties to the importance of getting the majority to show up
---------------------------
"Both parties"? Direct your energies to the Democrats, whose "voting preferences" -- staying at home, as seen once again in Kentucky last week -- enabled the GOP's biggest Midterm wins since 1945, and 1932 respectively, in 2010 and 2014. The GOP's Fifth Column = Democrats.
---------------------------
"Both parties"? Direct your energies to the Democrats, whose "voting preferences" -- staying at home, as seen once again in Kentucky last week -- enabled the GOP's biggest Midterm wins since 1945, and 1932 respectively, in 2010 and 2014. The GOP's Fifth Column = Democrats.
1
It's strange that the angry right-wing fringe insists on calling itself "conservative." Their hostility to government and willingness to default on the country's debt obligations over a funding dispute for clinics are not the hallmarks of conservatism. That's radicalism.
Likewise their insistence on an ideological purity that by their own admission keeps moving rightward. Only a small percentage of the population endorses their worldview or accepts their policy ideas, yet this faction still wants to impose their rule on everyone. Again, that's not conservative. It's frighteningly radical.
Likewise their insistence on an ideological purity that by their own admission keeps moving rightward. Only a small percentage of the population endorses their worldview or accepts their policy ideas, yet this faction still wants to impose their rule on everyone. Again, that's not conservative. It's frighteningly radical.
11
"Conservatism" in this country, at least as it's being defined by Deace and his ilk, seems to me more like a cult for haters than a political stance. These people are seething because they harken to a time when white males were virtually unchallenged by minorities. Yes, great. Now, what? As much as they're trying to with their infection into the Republican Party, we can't go back to the 1950's. Too many minds have already been changed, and these conservatives have ruled out adapting as an option. It's 100% or bust. They've effectively strapped a bomb to their chest and started the counter. The only question is, will they succeed in taking down the rest of America with them?
12
Actually, Mr. Deace, you're no big deal and what you do is no big deal. Considering your audience, it's simply easy pickings.
12
Hate is quite a calling in America. Steve Deace practices free speech in spades for those who don't get out much. The future of hate is always more hate. And, as other commenters have so aptly stated, follow the money. Interview his happy family in twenty years. Radio will be gone. The Freedom Caucus are his believers, and look at the Grand Old Party now. Obama single-handedly, destroyed the Republican Party, in a mere eight years. They will never recover on a national scale, not like this.
7
Your comment seems absurdly myopic given that Republicans control the House as well as the majority of governorships and state legistatures in the U.S. All Obama has been able to do for the last four years is veto legislation and pass executive orders than can be reversed by the next president.
How does this add up to the destruction of the Republican party. You need to leave the East Coast every once in a while.
How does this add up to the destruction of the Republican party. You need to leave the East Coast every once in a while.
2
he's really got that "rush" thing going and he's is just as attractive!
4
The sad part of this whole scenario is that the Tea Party was originally ginned up by the likes of the Koch Brothers. My concern is that, the basement beliefs, the core of the Tea Party is operating off of beliefs that were hand fed to them by the Koch/G"OPP". They are operating off of an image that is so distorted that it isn't surprising that David Brat was able to come forward with little to no effort. The old, “Obamacare is going to take your guns and put the whole nation out of work, bla, bla, bla”. Those thoughts, those pictures, are still driving the party. Right now, the Tea Party's beliefs see the world as being occupied by the Devil, scripted by the Koch Brothers, the GOP and a group of PhDs that know how to manipulate the masses.
Google: " Final Proof The Tea Party Was Founded As A Bogus AstroTurf Movement"
YouTube: The Billionaires' Tea Party
Today, the religious right is yesterdays Tea Party. Lead like lemmings by the GOP.
Google: " Final Proof The Tea Party Was Founded As A Bogus AstroTurf Movement"
YouTube: The Billionaires' Tea Party
Today, the religious right is yesterdays Tea Party. Lead like lemmings by the GOP.
5
There's nothing new or useful about reactionary politics. You get mad at immigrants. You deport them. The price of apples goes up. You repeal Obamacare. Then you develop a pre-existing condition, can't afford private insurance premiums, get sick and die. You and/or your parents lose their Medicare and Social Security. Socialism is dead but you're all living in your beater van. I can't wait.
12
The jokes on you America. While you've allowed the Steve Deace's of radio to convince you to war against gay marriage, abortion and an uncompromising stance on social issues the corporations, who bought and paid for Steve Deace's misguided message, have eroded your wages, increased your debt and made sure you'll blame a politician instead of them. Stupid was never so alive and well as it is in America now.
15
This wrecked creature of media empowerment appeals to the disheveled tribe of white, defensive, alienated, frightened, rage-filled, resentful, nomadic wanderers in search of an Aryan utopia. This vacant-stare of a "radio host," much like those who swim in the sewer at Fox and Friends and pollute the airwaves like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Laura Ingraham, think they can change America in much the same way John Wilkes Booth attempted to arrest a turning wheel. That they are deeply revered and held up as shining exemplars of Christianity and moral uprightness says much about the shabby cloth that we've decided becomes us before the world. America is becoming a sterile, empty vessel when 40% of the electorate do the heavy lifting for them.
7
Right-wing hate radio has been around for awhile, apparently still profitable. I do have relatives who have bought the entire propaganda programme hook, line and sinker. The exploitation of white males continues.
5
When all you do is attack anyone who isn't as pure as you, you'll wake up one morning to discover that there's no one left, not even your friends, wife, or children.
6
I don't think it's a coincidence that the polarization of our country has grown as right wing media has grown. The rhetoric is anger and they (right wing media) fuel that. Some do it because they know they can make a lot of money doing it, others because they truly believe what they say.
We don't live in the 19th century any more. We are a diverse nation of 330 million people. If the goal of conservatives is to get everyone to bend to their way of thinking or belief system, they will remain angry for a very long time. And that's the part that scares me. Unabated anger, at some point, will manifest itself in something tragic I fear.
We don't live in the 19th century any more. We are a diverse nation of 330 million people. If the goal of conservatives is to get everyone to bend to their way of thinking or belief system, they will remain angry for a very long time. And that's the part that scares me. Unabated anger, at some point, will manifest itself in something tragic I fear.
18
Sadly, "unabated anger," fear, and anti-government paranoia has already manifest itself. Remember Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City bombing? At its worst, that's the kind of behavior the ideology of extremist, right-wing libertarianism can fuel.
7
Wow, I didn't think it was possible for any media outlet to be to the right of Fox News.
5
You have not watched the OAN network, obviously.
The two key words in this article are "no choice." That what it's always about, with them, isn't it?
6
Yes, which is why the GOP slate only has 2, or is it 3? presidential candidates, 1 of whom is being investigated by the FBI, and the other who is about 75 yrs old., while the Democrats have over 15 candidates.... Because of the Democrats' love of "Choice."
You people are in for a real shock come November 2016. You have no clue how people think and live in "flyover" country. I used to be a liberal, but the Left has gone all out socialism and moral degradation. JFK would be a conservative if he were alive today. Get ready for some massive pushback from the folks.
6
No kidding.
2
JFK WAS a conservative and so are today's Democrats. As far as the left, it's great to see Bernie Sanders representing us and actually getting a little attention from the corporate media. The people I've met in rural areas are, as you say, very right-wing, which represents the Fox News victory brought on by many years of relentless propaganda. It's very smart of the media corporations to exploit the fears of Caucasians. Too bad they chose evil and greed over actually helping 'flyover country'.
2
Fanatics always have their day. Just drum up enough hate and fear and presto - Nazi Germany. It's happening right now all over the Middle East. Please don't besmirch JFK's name with your nonsense.
4
This would be a good piece if it weren't in such a one-sided, politically aligned newspaper. Are there any articles today on the RNC's calls for an investigation of the Clinton's "Not for Profit?" Anything about the President stooping and criticizing Republican presidential candidates?
3
Surely you can find what you're shopping for at Brightbart, PJ, or Fox, or just tune into Mr. Oxycotin himself.
8
Work from home! All you need is a microphone and a podcast. Say any crazy thought that pops into your mind. Don't forget to sprinkle in some racism, homophobia and religion. You too can make money as a RIGHT-WING ZEALOT! No experience necessary but those with an education, a willingness to compromise or a sense of morals need not apply.
31
Walter Elias Disney taught us all most of what we know about the Tea Parties of 240 and 150 years ago. Those of us who read history and enjoy literature know that wanting to be associated with Tea Parties is to be comfortable with Corporate control in he colonies (being taxed by the East India Company) and Loonies in Wonderland.
The Tea Party movement which is ostensibly anti government is really based on an event where the crown ceded taxation powers to a powerful corporation. If Americans knew history we might have had Bernie Sanders' Tea Party.
Lewis Carroll's Tea Party seems much more in line with America's Tea Party Patriots. Wonderland's Tea Party is hosted by the March Hare and the Mad Hatter and although many of us are familiar with the expression Mad as a Hatter and its derivation it was the March Hare who took lunacy to a new level and to be called completely bonkers in 19th England was to be referred to as a March Hare.
The Tea Party movement which is ostensibly anti government is really based on an event where the crown ceded taxation powers to a powerful corporation. If Americans knew history we might have had Bernie Sanders' Tea Party.
Lewis Carroll's Tea Party seems much more in line with America's Tea Party Patriots. Wonderland's Tea Party is hosted by the March Hare and the Mad Hatter and although many of us are familiar with the expression Mad as a Hatter and its derivation it was the March Hare who took lunacy to a new level and to be called completely bonkers in 19th England was to be referred to as a March Hare.
11
What I am saying is that the Boston Tea Party took place because the government was too weak and the corporation The East India Company was too big to fail. The Tea Party took place because the Republicans were in charge and George III was too weak to fight the big political donors. Even in 1775 people believed the government represented the needs of the people in opposition to the corporate oligarchs.That wasn't government tea dumped into the harbour.
The revolution came about because the government was too far away and couldn't defend colonists from the rapacious corporations.
The revolution came about because the government was too far away and couldn't defend colonists from the rapacious corporations.
5
Phew! I'm glad we have the Republican Party to vote for, Moe. Not sure what you do in Canada.
At the end of the day, this is all for the good. Democracy only works well when people wake up and realize that their votes can make a difference. This is true on both ends of the spectrum.
8
What people need to understand is that there is no one praying more for a Democratic Presidential victory than Rush Limbaugh, whose contract negotiations next year -- he currently gets $50 million/year -- depends on ratings, which depend on not having the Republicans control all branches of government. Elect a Republican President, and you deny Limbaugh, Deace, and their cohort of the meat and potatoes of their trade, blaming the Democrats for everything from ISIS to Aunt Martha's psoriasis.
Stop taking Deace and his ilk so seriously. It's all scripted entertainment. The vast majority of people listen because the talk shows reinforce their outlook in life. They are not converted by the mouths.
I listen to a bunch of these guys -- and occasional gal -- and their "the Dems and official Reps are pretty much the same" mantra is a collective party line. Think of right-wing talk radio as a cartel that sets the message collectively, the better to stir up fear and controversy, which is what keeps the ratings up.
Forget the psychoanalyzing of these characters. Just follow how they make the money.
Stop taking Deace and his ilk so seriously. It's all scripted entertainment. The vast majority of people listen because the talk shows reinforce their outlook in life. They are not converted by the mouths.
I listen to a bunch of these guys -- and occasional gal -- and their "the Dems and official Reps are pretty much the same" mantra is a collective party line. Think of right-wing talk radio as a cartel that sets the message collectively, the better to stir up fear and controversy, which is what keeps the ratings up.
Forget the psychoanalyzing of these characters. Just follow how they make the money.
15
"...punctuated by his stepfather’s drinking and beatings." So we see the fatherless victim identify with the aggressor, the alpha male of his childhood. His political "purity" is little more than the sad reenactment of abuse and dysfunction.
15
Barack Obama had a dysfunctional childhood also, abandoned by his Indonesian mother and shipped out to Hawaii to be raised by his grandparents. Hence the famous photo of him smoking the big marijuana blunt there. Mahalo!
Furthermore, no postwar president had a more dysfunctional childhood than Bill Clinton, and the large appetites it produced in him.
Furthermore, no postwar president had a more dysfunctional childhood than Bill Clinton, and the large appetites it produced in him.
3
Obama's mother was born in Kansas. And Michael's point wasn't that Deace's upbringing was dysfunctional, it's that he decided to identify with the aggressor - the people who punch down. Punching down is exactly what separates hard-line conservatives from everybody else.
4
Factually wrong. His mother was not Indonesian. If you can't get the facts right, why should we consider the rest of what you say?
2
Wow. So sad, really.
5
Could there be anything more pathetic than a supposed "alpha male" reduced to dissing other's private parts or their lack of them to make political points? I wish that Mr. Deace would remember what "M" said to James Bond about the advantage of not having the"pair" he refers to - " at least I don't have to think with them."
12
Taking into consideration that Obama is one of them, that any democrat from Iowa finds a radio talk show host embarrassing is just plain hyperbole.
1
You're not fooling anyone, Marshal Beta. You're infatuated with him.
2
This was spellbinding reading, to hear the formation and thinking of an influencer of the extremist Republican right, like the Freedom Caucus. A holy war, a jihad within the party itself, with Cruz and dad, Kochs and funding.
Sad, appalling and somewhat terrifying to realize nothing could change this guy's worldview.
Sad, appalling and somewhat terrifying to realize nothing could change this guy's worldview.
9
I highly doubt Steve Deace is concerned about your feelings.
4
"On his least favorite candidate: ‘'Is Jeb Bush running for president or America’s Hispanic fertility czar?'’’
Great line!
Great line!
4
As Malcolm Gladwell noted of Steve Sailer: "Sailer, for the uninitiated, is a California blogger with a marketing background who is best known for his belief that black people are intellectually inferior to white people."
http://gladwell.typepad.com/gladwellcom/2009/11/pinker-on-what-the-dog-s...
http://gladwell.typepad.com/gladwellcom/2009/11/pinker-on-what-the-dog-s...
1
As a listener and fan of Steve's, I am sure that like me, he reads these comments as another confirmation that the Biblical world-view is correct and that the tolerance mantra of the left is really just for their own (condescending) viewpoints. Most conservatives have been liberals, but outgrew that or, like Steve, were changed miraculously by Jesus Christ. It gives a broader perspective, albeit a less gelatinous one. Fear God, tell the truth, make money. Love it!
3
Yes, Mr. Santiago, the flak in these comments confirm that Mr. Deace is flying right over target.
2
Where's the proof to back up your assertion? Most conservatives can never provide facts or data.
8
"Fear God, tell the truth, make money".
Am I the only one who sees anything wrong with that statement? Like maybe the last one is far far more important than the firts 2 to these talking head blowhard types?
The Biblical worldview? What worlldview would that be? Do you bathe in the River Jordan on a regular basis? Sacrifice fatted sheep? Don't wear blended fibers? Or how about living in tolerance, love, forgiveness, being meek and trying to understand those who may be different than you? I'm trying to figure out what part of the typical "conservative mantra" of hatred and intolerance has anything to do with the Bible and teachings of Jesus that I know.
"Fear God" - Whatever deity I follow would not be one that wants me to feel fear of them. "Tell the truth" What truth? The one I just told? "make money?" Ahhh, and that's what we're looking at. That's the one I cant refute. As long as people like you eat up this hate and intolerance, the money will keep rollin' in.
Am I the only one who sees anything wrong with that statement? Like maybe the last one is far far more important than the firts 2 to these talking head blowhard types?
The Biblical worldview? What worlldview would that be? Do you bathe in the River Jordan on a regular basis? Sacrifice fatted sheep? Don't wear blended fibers? Or how about living in tolerance, love, forgiveness, being meek and trying to understand those who may be different than you? I'm trying to figure out what part of the typical "conservative mantra" of hatred and intolerance has anything to do with the Bible and teachings of Jesus that I know.
"Fear God" - Whatever deity I follow would not be one that wants me to feel fear of them. "Tell the truth" What truth? The one I just told? "make money?" Ahhh, and that's what we're looking at. That's the one I cant refute. As long as people like you eat up this hate and intolerance, the money will keep rollin' in.
18
The memo sent out from the Republican National Committee after the big failure of the 2012 election is instructive when you read this story. It reads, in part:
The Republican Party needs to stop talking to itself. We have become expert in how to provide ideological reinforcement to like-minded people, but devastatingly we have lost the ability to be persuasive with, or welcoming to, those who do not agree with us on every issue."
Steve Deace provides wonderful ideological reinforcement to like-minded people...which in other days would have been called "breathing your own exhaust."
Great work, Steve - educated, normal, caring, decent, reality-based people everywhere thank you for disarming the enemies of all that is educated, normal, caring, decent, and based in reality.
The Republican Party needs to stop talking to itself. We have become expert in how to provide ideological reinforcement to like-minded people, but devastatingly we have lost the ability to be persuasive with, or welcoming to, those who do not agree with us on every issue."
Steve Deace provides wonderful ideological reinforcement to like-minded people...which in other days would have been called "breathing your own exhaust."
Great work, Steve - educated, normal, caring, decent, reality-based people everywhere thank you for disarming the enemies of all that is educated, normal, caring, decent, and based in reality.
6
after all, being politically incorrect has become a conservative badge of honor in 2015.
------------------------
Oh come on. It's been a badge of honor since the Reagan presidencies.
------------------------
Oh come on. It's been a badge of honor since the Reagan presidencies.
5
Steve Deace and his minions make me ill for a number of reasons, but here's a big one the article doesn't touch: THE STATE OF IOWA IS ON THE DOLE. Iowa has the richest soil on earth. You can grow anything there. Why do they grow corn? Because it's subsidized by you, the taxpayers of the United States. Whether it's a bumper year or a bad year for corn, the farmers of Iowa get a check from the federal government because they put corn in the ground. So let's give the conservatives what they want: make the government presence in Iowa smaller by pulling the corn subsidy. Say goodbye to the low unemployment rate and stable economy they've enjoyed since the Nixon administration started this policy. Iowa is like Reagan's mythical welfare queen, driving a Cadillac and buying steak with food stamps--but with the twist of idiotically ranting against the government that provides all the sugar. Can't get any more stupid than that.
46
True, but remember the Iowa Republican Party took four 1950's and went right to the millennia. No longer Progressives but a Party that coalesced around some very unpopular abortion-related decisions and purged anybody in the center.
As for re-writing history....right does it all the time and Mr. Deace does it every day.
OK...enough words...enough said.
As for re-writing history....right does it all the time and Mr. Deace does it every day.
OK...enough words...enough said.
1
What a clown. This guy is about ten years away from overbearing, pontificating fat uncle status. He reminds me of the chubby mamas boys you would see walking in parades with assault weapons after Barack Obama was elected president.
20
Because of this guy and other pundits like Sean Hannity, the Republicans will never win the White House again:
http://mankabros.com/blogs/onmedea/2012/02/13/because-of-sean-hannity-re...
http://mankabros.com/blogs/onmedea/2012/02/13/because-of-sean-hannity-re...
9
Deace and his ilk do not belong in any decent American political party, and Republican politicians who suck up to them are merely debasing themselves. Let these white nationalists form their own neofascist underground and have done with it.
10
Articles like this frustrate me so much, because it confirms what I suspect: whoever's willing to fight dirtiest wins. Democrats keep trying to make intellectual appeals, to win with the facts, not exaggerations, not stoking up emotions like fear, hate, suspicion.
But here is what they don't seem to get: Your candidate cannot win over anyone unless you get them to switch parties first. You can be a great person, experienced, brilliant, etc. but it won't matter. A Republican voter cannot vote for that candidate without feeling like he's cheating on his party. You have to get them to understand that the Republican party itself has changed. It isn't the same team you've been rooting for all these years. They've abandoned the average American, and it's time they were abandoned too.
I'm sorry Democrats aren't challenging the myths harder. They just concede the airwaves to these "conservative" fearmongering types.
Does anyone else see the irony of "Fear God" and "Make money" in the same motto? Because Jesus didn't make money, he threw money changers out of the temple, and he often condemned the rich for their greed and cold hearts and indifference toward the poor. How do they square cutting aid to the poor with their own Bibles? I don't get it.
But here is what they don't seem to get: Your candidate cannot win over anyone unless you get them to switch parties first. You can be a great person, experienced, brilliant, etc. but it won't matter. A Republican voter cannot vote for that candidate without feeling like he's cheating on his party. You have to get them to understand that the Republican party itself has changed. It isn't the same team you've been rooting for all these years. They've abandoned the average American, and it's time they were abandoned too.
I'm sorry Democrats aren't challenging the myths harder. They just concede the airwaves to these "conservative" fearmongering types.
Does anyone else see the irony of "Fear God" and "Make money" in the same motto? Because Jesus didn't make money, he threw money changers out of the temple, and he often condemned the rich for their greed and cold hearts and indifference toward the poor. How do they square cutting aid to the poor with their own Bibles? I don't get it.
12
Liberals who have spent 50 years promoting their agenda by importing new voters and by creating aggrieved groups to champion have only themselves to blame for Deace and his ilk. Public schools were created to educate the local population, a mission all but abandoned. Now they’d sooner admit a Mexican who crossed the border 5 minutes ago than to take a chance on someone whose family has been contributing to the U.S. economy for generations but isn’t viewed as “diverse”. Then the NYT snidely reports that Deace couldn’t get into the University of Michigan and for extra measure notes he is overweight and doesn't eat at Per Se. Is this supposed to make him more agreeable to enlightened liberal orthodoxy?
President Obama rightly noted these people are clinging to God and guns because their futures are bleak. Yet he has done nothing to address this problem. Politicians in both parties offer the same failed economic "fixes": trade deals and more immigrants. Why should these people be agreeable?
What has that ever got them?
Ornery conservatives’ biggest sin appears to be they want to stand up for themselves. If they laid down and shut up, the poverty and diversity profiteers would happily “help” them. Since they don’t, they are openly mocked -- called fat and pasty and stupid -- and ignored as the University of Michigan continues to search for that perfectly exotic pansexual to complete its diverse student body.
President Obama rightly noted these people are clinging to God and guns because their futures are bleak. Yet he has done nothing to address this problem. Politicians in both parties offer the same failed economic "fixes": trade deals and more immigrants. Why should these people be agreeable?
What has that ever got them?
Ornery conservatives’ biggest sin appears to be they want to stand up for themselves. If they laid down and shut up, the poverty and diversity profiteers would happily “help” them. Since they don’t, they are openly mocked -- called fat and pasty and stupid -- and ignored as the University of Michigan continues to search for that perfectly exotic pansexual to complete its diverse student body.
4
Geez, so sorry that you missed the great recession brought to us by G.W. Bush and the recovery brought to us by President Obama. You might want to read some economic news some time. While you're at it, try reading about the years of Republican obstruction that President Obama has had to put up with.
10
This would be funny if it wasn't so sad. The conservatives you speak of are usually the first ones with their hands out for government funds.
11
David, unless you're last name is something like "White Cloud" I'd suggest that a willingness of this country to admit a diverse population of immigrants is why you live here today.
Apologies to Native Americans and shame on you for such an unwise immigration policy!
Apologies to Native Americans and shame on you for such an unwise immigration policy!
3
A super majority of these folks would fail a reasonably thorough objective mental evaluation, not to mention some basic literacy test at (international) GED level.
God help us.. and it doesn't look like their God is in any helping mood if their current rung in the ladder is any indication.
3
This split within the Republican party bodes ill for the party itself, and for this country as a whole. Let's call it what it is: extremism, a kind of shrill cry for getting one's way by deciding not to participate in mainstream politics, or mainstream media.
I suppose it is inevitable that since the time of Ronald Reagan, on to the Republican takeover of the House in 1994 under Newt Gingrich, to now, the only choice for the anti-tax, libertarian flank of the party was to go hardcore, and become like an end-times, survivalist cult holed up in the mountains of Idaho somewhere.
That political performers like Deace keep pace by themselves becoming more extreme is a given. If he wants to grow his audience of kooks, this is what he needs to do. At some point, this whole creepy "revolution" will implode upon itself and gradually disintegrate as a few influential voices turn against what is being voiced and promulgated by its supposedly unified members. But, until that time, the rest of us can only sit back and watch as our nation decays due to those who believe the best way to get what they want to act like sociopathic children who hold their parents hostage with their extreme behaviors. I'm talking about the 40 or so members of the Congressional Freedom Caucus here. Let's vote these people out of office, and replace them with those willing to participate in reasonable political choices.
7
If it's any consolation, this rise of extremism and spiralling ever further to the right has absolutely been noted externally, with the international media - and thus, by default, ordinary people in other countries - noting how the Republican Party has been hijacked by extremists and lunatics, while a range of pretty awful, awful people now represent the new leadership and direction of that party.
It's very disturbing to note how they're now just moving, but running backwards on a wide range of societal issues, now that the 'genius' idea of people clinging to their 'rights' has been sized upon as a core pillar to cling to with all kinds of petty bigotries and hatreds. So much so that while, say, the Irish people voted en masse for gay marriage here, There we see a surge in homophobic obstructionism while people (and their equally horrid supporters) shout that their 'religious freedom' is under threat.
The same principle applies to al kinds of things in America now, we note: that there are an awful lot of people who want to loudly *hate* all kinds of people with different skin, faiths, genders, orientations and so on, and will loudly shout that their Freeeedommmmmmm and Rights are threatened if they can't do so. Ghastly, cowardly and divisive outlooks, all, but yes, we're watching from afar.
A house divided cannot stand, but there've never been so many crazies swinging at the walls with hammers as we see in America lately...
It's very disturbing to note how they're now just moving, but running backwards on a wide range of societal issues, now that the 'genius' idea of people clinging to their 'rights' has been sized upon as a core pillar to cling to with all kinds of petty bigotries and hatreds. So much so that while, say, the Irish people voted en masse for gay marriage here, There we see a surge in homophobic obstructionism while people (and their equally horrid supporters) shout that their 'religious freedom' is under threat.
The same principle applies to al kinds of things in America now, we note: that there are an awful lot of people who want to loudly *hate* all kinds of people with different skin, faiths, genders, orientations and so on, and will loudly shout that their Freeeedommmmmmm and Rights are threatened if they can't do so. Ghastly, cowardly and divisive outlooks, all, but yes, we're watching from afar.
A house divided cannot stand, but there've never been so many crazies swinging at the walls with hammers as we see in America lately...
4
Unbelievable this salmon-palmed desk jockey with no clue about risk or physical labor deigns to classify people the way he does. The temptation is to say something very non-PC about him.
9
If it ever was one, Conservatism no longer exists as a school of thought. Now it's just a mob acting on visceral unreasoning, exploited every day by the likes of this malignant carny barker.
13
As a Californian, I find it beyond strange that Iowa is the "first" in anything affecting the politics and polices of the US. The inhabitants of a largely white, mostly rural, aggressively Christian, and lightly populated state have as much in common with California as we here do with Martians. California, Florida and New York, for example have populations and problems that are representative of the US.
6
Yeah, and I'm not too sure about Florida. BTW, New Hampshire is also totally unrepresentative, yet look at the attention it receives.
2
How long do you think it would take Donald J Trump to fire this pathetic individual. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily life is just a fantasy.
63rd of 100, lowered the alpha bar some haven't we.
63rd of 100, lowered the alpha bar some haven't we.
2
Another cowardly buffoon who hides behind a microphone and says all kinds of nasty stuff he would never have the courage to say directly to a person's face, one-on-one.
Another big mouth who can spout all kinds of rubbish about what kind of policies and laws legislators and executives should be enacting, but never has to go to a capital and do some legislating himself.
Why do we allow these clowns to dictate public policy? Can no one think for themselves in this country any more?
Another big mouth who can spout all kinds of rubbish about what kind of policies and laws legislators and executives should be enacting, but never has to go to a capital and do some legislating himself.
Why do we allow these clowns to dictate public policy? Can no one think for themselves in this country any more?
9
Not like you though? Keyboard warrior.
1
"Bespectacled, baby-faced Deace" with a "round torso swathed in a maize-and-blue sweatshirt of the University of Michigan, the beloved school he could not get into" screams alpha male only in conservative Iowa Republican bubble. Anywhere else their carnival barker Trump would denote him as "a loser."
12
Here's what bothers me: for years, Iowa was known for the quality of its education from K through college. It enjoyed an unparalleled reputation as a place where rural and urban dwellers, professional and hourly, the children of immigrants and generations of Iowa families may disagree on some issues, but were united in believing that a rock solid education was a societal imperative.
What's happened? What's changed in Iowa that enables a man cave dweller to become the voice of the delusional estranged? Why has earth-wise Midwest wisdom been replaced by mindless demagoguery?
The answer to these questions, in Iowa and North Carolina and Arizona and Kansas may help us understand what we have lost as a polity.
What's happened? What's changed in Iowa that enables a man cave dweller to become the voice of the delusional estranged? Why has earth-wise Midwest wisdom been replaced by mindless demagoguery?
The answer to these questions, in Iowa and North Carolina and Arizona and Kansas may help us understand what we have lost as a polity.
7
Why is it that 99% of these "grow a pair" macho-men radio and TV jocks avoid serving their country in the military? Maybe they're afraid of the reality that would show in the shower?
12
Take ignorance, add in a massive inferiority complex, mix in a good dose of self-righteous anger and you've got a guy like this. He's the new big, bad sheriff in town. He's got his posse of other alpha males and they're gonna open a can of wup ^$&^ and straighten us all out. Sheesh.
All kidding aside, there's something really wrong with these folks that goes beyond religious and/or political differences. I used to think they were just people with big egos wanting attention, pandering to the rubes for money. I used to just laugh at them, but it's not funny anymore. I'm glad this guy is in Iowa, a place I will never, ever visit, because if I found myself in an elevator with him... Oh no, now I'm gonna have nightmares, never mind....
All kidding aside, there's something really wrong with these folks that goes beyond religious and/or political differences. I used to think they were just people with big egos wanting attention, pandering to the rubes for money. I used to just laugh at them, but it's not funny anymore. I'm glad this guy is in Iowa, a place I will never, ever visit, because if I found myself in an elevator with him... Oh no, now I'm gonna have nightmares, never mind....
5
Isn't he cute, striking that fake thoughtful pose!
4
I could only read half of this article. What terribly disgusting people.
He wears the colors of Michigan--a university he couldn’t get in? These are the people who actually believe they are the ones electing the leader of the free world just because they have the first caucus??
It’s time that this “first in the nation” caucus was simply taken away. But then most people..most SANE people don’t give a dang about Iowa.
He wears the colors of Michigan--a university he couldn’t get in? These are the people who actually believe they are the ones electing the leader of the free world just because they have the first caucus??
It’s time that this “first in the nation” caucus was simply taken away. But then most people..most SANE people don’t give a dang about Iowa.
8
This sorry situation reminds me of the plot to "Blade II". Blade discovers that the vampires he has been hunting, are now being hunted by a deadlier species of vampires. This was the creation of the head vampire who wanted to create the perfect vampire and rule the earth.
The leadership of the republican party in their quest for complete domination spawned these Anarchists, and now they're being hunted. As others have said, their actions have only one purpose, to destroy this government in favor of corporate domination.
Unfortunately the democratic party is interested only in proposing solutions, not fighting for them like their friends across the aisle. They are being paid very well not to.
The leadership of the republican party in their quest for complete domination spawned these Anarchists, and now they're being hunted. As others have said, their actions have only one purpose, to destroy this government in favor of corporate domination.
Unfortunately the democratic party is interested only in proposing solutions, not fighting for them like their friends across the aisle. They are being paid very well not to.
Jackie, thanks for spewing your bias all over this piece with one simple false assertion.
"Over time, conservatism has veered rightward."
I'm sure it might look that way to a liberal so pickled in anti-American leftism that there seems nothing noteworthy in the dramatic leftward "veer" of political discourse in this country.
But no, that's simply not true.
Conservatism is right where it has been all along, while the ostensible "center" has been drawn to the left by an ever more extreme leftist new generation of Democrats, so much so that onetime moderate Democrats like Bob Casey or Daniel Patrick Moynihan would be beyond the rightward margins of today's Dems while the conservative Democrats of yore like Zell Miller or... oh... Ronald Reagan, would be drummed out of the party altogether.
But of course a liberal doesn't see that.
And that's who we're supposed to trust for objective analysis of a conservative voice like Deace.
Welcome to the print/web version of the CNBC debates.
"Over time, conservatism has veered rightward."
I'm sure it might look that way to a liberal so pickled in anti-American leftism that there seems nothing noteworthy in the dramatic leftward "veer" of political discourse in this country.
But no, that's simply not true.
Conservatism is right where it has been all along, while the ostensible "center" has been drawn to the left by an ever more extreme leftist new generation of Democrats, so much so that onetime moderate Democrats like Bob Casey or Daniel Patrick Moynihan would be beyond the rightward margins of today's Dems while the conservative Democrats of yore like Zell Miller or... oh... Ronald Reagan, would be drummed out of the party altogether.
But of course a liberal doesn't see that.
And that's who we're supposed to trust for objective analysis of a conservative voice like Deace.
Welcome to the print/web version of the CNBC debates.
1
This is incorrect. Ronald Reagan himself would not have the slightest chance of gaining the nomination in today's GOP. If the GOP and conservatism were still the same, that would not be the case. Instead, the John Birch Society inmates have taken over the asylum.
7
Oh Lord! Another right-wing opportunist co-opting Tea Party nuttiness for personal gain and celebrity status.
4
And you see how well the formula works, don't you, from the election results in Ohio, Kentucky, and Houston? Read, and weep, Democrats.
I don't think it's a coincidence that Deace looks so comfortable in his basement, I mean, "man cave". It probably hasn't been too long since he left his mother's basement. Nice posters (sarc). And of course he would be holding a video game controller at 42 years of age. Finally, is it just me or it a job requirement for right wing radio hosts to be fat, have receding hairlines, and appear as though one jumping jack would literally kill them.
8
It is an intriguing strategy. Conflating right wing near-fascism, xenophobia, and homophobia with masculinity. The more conservative, says Deace, the more manly. I wonder how many of Deace's radio listeners have seen a picture of their odd-looking, chubby leader? Perhaps that is the point. The men who spend excessive amounts of time evaluating masculinity are pugilists, prisoners, and poltroons.
7
Too bad he couldn't get into U of M -- a good education might have saved him from his current embarrassment.
8
So he could join 25 million others of the overeducated-unemployed on line for extended unemployment benefits? Smart boy, to avoid that farrago.
Anyone who scans the American socio-political landscape and doesn't come away with the impression that conservatives are downright scary must be...well...a conservative.
4
Oh, c'mon, it's all scripted. I listen to a bunch of these guys and their "the Dems and official Reps are pretty much the same" mantra is a collective party line. Think of right-wing talk radio as a cartel that sets the message collectively, the better to stir up fear and controversy, which is what keeps the ratings up.
What people need to understand is that there is no one praying more for a Democratic Presidential victory than Rush Limbaugh, whose contract negotiations next year -- he currently gets $50 million/year -- depends on ratings, which depend on not having the Republicans control all branches of government. Elect a Republican President, and you deny Limbaugh, Deace, and their cohort of the meat and potatoes of their trade, blaming the Democrats for everything from ISIS to Aunt Martha's psoriasis.
Forget the psychoanalyzing of these characters. Just follow how they make the money. Oh, yes, and let's not forget that the rich and famous attract the sexual groupies.
What people need to understand is that there is no one praying more for a Democratic Presidential victory than Rush Limbaugh, whose contract negotiations next year -- he currently gets $50 million/year -- depends on ratings, which depend on not having the Republicans control all branches of government. Elect a Republican President, and you deny Limbaugh, Deace, and their cohort of the meat and potatoes of their trade, blaming the Democrats for everything from ISIS to Aunt Martha's psoriasis.
Forget the psychoanalyzing of these characters. Just follow how they make the money. Oh, yes, and let's not forget that the rich and famous attract the sexual groupies.
2
Today's assignment—Parse this combination: ‘Fear God. Tell the truth. Make money.’’ That Jesus, pure Beta: "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven."
2
you forgot the next two verses (which are kind of, you know, important):
"When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”
26Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Man cannot save himself. Only God.
"When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”
26Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Man cannot save himself. Only God.
1
There was an article just yesterday in the Times about how middle-aged whites in rural (mainly republican states) are dying off faster than the general population and the trend is only accelerating.
If that segment of the society is the same as the segment of the society profiled in this article, I for one cannot wait for the trend to reach its logical conclusion quickly enough.
6
So-called, self-styled, "alpha males" are probably males just a little in shorter other departments. How tall is he?
1
Just another guy (alpha, indeed) who could not get laid in a Nevada brothel with thousand dollar bills hanging out of his pocket.
"I'm so glad I"m a Beta, Alphas have to work so hard ... " -- paraphrased from "Brave New World"
"I'm so glad I"m a Beta, Alphas have to work so hard ... " -- paraphrased from "Brave New World"
2
Reading through the comments it is refreshing to note that there is no notable defense of Steve Deace, alpha vs beta males, or any of the hostile tripe that these pandering propagandists are trying to pass off as intelligent political discussion. I agree with the other commenters that this delusional brand of GOP ideology is insuring Hilary will be our next president.
As a liberal democrat I don't believe Hilary Clinton is the best choice - or at least, I had hoped it would be a more competitive race for democratic nominee. Still, I'm thankful none of the current field of Republican bozos have really any shot of winning a national election. Thank God - this of the terror that's been avoided by letting the Repubs sink their own boat now rather then later. Keep talking Donald, Ben, Cruz and Rubio - your unhinged version of reality will keep America safely out of your alpha male paws!
As a liberal democrat I don't believe Hilary Clinton is the best choice - or at least, I had hoped it would be a more competitive race for democratic nominee. Still, I'm thankful none of the current field of Republican bozos have really any shot of winning a national election. Thank God - this of the terror that's been avoided by letting the Repubs sink their own boat now rather then later. Keep talking Donald, Ben, Cruz and Rubio - your unhinged version of reality will keep America safely out of your alpha male paws!
4
"fled a threatening bookie back to his grandmother’s house in Des Moines."
Alpha male?
Alpha male?
6
Anyone for Celebrity Death Match: Limbaugh vs. Deace?
3
This all makes perfect sense if you couple the stories about shorter life spans for middle-aged white Americans with the description of the venom that this man spews. These folks are angry about their lot in life and want to destroy those whom they blame for their positions. Deace and others are giving voice to this anger. Unfortunately, this unbridled rage doesn't only hamstring the Republican Party, it hampers reasonable governance. We all suffer.
2
I suspect a trip through contemporary Russia would introduce us to many counterparts of Steve Deace and his listeners, people who cheer a muscular Vladimir Putin as he demonstrates how real Russians deal with uppity vassals in the Ukraine or disobedient Syrians. And they would nod in sympathy with those Europeans objecting to an influx of Middle East refugees bringing a different culture and religion, or Israeli settlers bent on chasing Palestinians from ancestral communities. All share a sense of vulnerability and displacement. Americans rail at immigrants, legal or not, who "take our jobs", ignoring the reality that no-one takes a job but instead are hired by employers. The employer not the worker does the displacement but it is easier, more satisfying, and safer to blame the latter. The late Waylon Jennings and others sang "Everybody's Got to Have Somebody to Look Down On" and many of Deace's followers resent the nagging feeling they are at the bottom. And someone should pay for their sense of grievance and vulnerability. The danger is that filling the hall closet with guns and calling talk shows is an inadequate release for some, and much of the base resentment lies in the belief that someone....immigrants, gays, Democrats, even establishment Republicans are to blame. And you do not compromise with those who are sinking you and the country. Acknowledging their own leaders, employers, and neighbors are the true threat is beyond comprehension. Real men are like Vladimir.
15
Just got back from London where Rupert Murdoch news outlets are poisoning the atmosphere against immigrants. Maybe we should give him a taste of his own medicine and deport him out of the USA.
15
An excellent idea. Most American have no idea the destruction this one Australian has brought to out political system................all in the name of profit.
4
What is the point of describing a far-right media personality and his bubble enclosed audience of Christian ideologues in a rural state that will use a caucus system designed to amplify his audience's passions? What can we learn about Iowa and its voters other than that they live in a world that views Fox as not conservative enough?
17
Such a proper noun deserves a capital. Saint Francis notwithstanding, if the Gratians campaigned along the coast of your bay area today then much of what is unattractive would be cleansed to sterile soil and replaced with Christianity as a dominant force in the region.
There does seem to be a downside to "free speech"!
6
Thank you for such a clear description of what the "know-nothing" whacko fringe of the Republican Party is today.
With any luck these jerks will in fact split the Republican Party into two insignificant peices, both of which will be irrelivant.
Go for it guys. America will be far better off for it.
With any luck these jerks will in fact split the Republican Party into two insignificant peices, both of which will be irrelivant.
Go for it guys. America will be far better off for it.
24
Joe must be really puzzled by the landslide accorded the Republicans from America's voters just 12 months ago. All signs point to a repeat in Nov. 2016.
2
Charles - You thought Romney was going to win. You don't have a very good track record.
2
Landslide 12 months ago??? Not sure that's what happened, and furthermore the Repubs have done quite well in off-cycle elections. When the angry, white, oldies come out in force. It doesn't look at all like that for Nov. 16.
Someone should enlighten Mr. Deace that alpha males don't go into politics. The things they would have to do to be the top of the heap would be unacceptable.
His ilk should just focus on not being omegas. That would be a great enough challenge.
His ilk should just focus on not being omegas. That would be a great enough challenge.
10
Its not complicated Deace provides a media product that sells well in that part of the country. Pushers sell heroin, pimps sell women. Just because you can sell it doesn't make for an honorable pursuit.
The right wing media has intimidated the Dems for quite some time, now they turn their focus to the moderate republicans. What happens to all this angst when it is rejected (once again) in a general election - Oklahoma City? We need some courage here
The right wing media has intimidated the Dems for quite some time, now they turn their focus to the moderate republicans. What happens to all this angst when it is rejected (once again) in a general election - Oklahoma City? We need some courage here
10
Middle-aged American white men are not having a good week on this website.
8
You can draw a direct line between this man's work and the rising white middle class death rates and rising rural suicide rates the Times just documented.
He and his ilk have blood on their hands--not that they would ever care.
He and his ilk have blood on their hands--not that they would ever care.
16
Clinton matches that death rate without her own radio show.
1
That was something that occurred to me as well. If you watch Fox News, listen to Rush Limbaugh, Breitbart, Drudge Report, etc., it's pretty grim. There is no hope, only cynicism. Everything is dark. Everyone is angry and impotent.
Daily doses of all of that toxicity would be fatal.
Daily doses of all of that toxicity would be fatal.
1
As a Democrat, I say more power to Mr. Deace and his ilk. The more the Republican party slavishly follows the dictates of AM talk radio, Fox News, and an increasingly unhinged right-wing web presence, the more they paint themselves into a corner that average Americans find distasteful.
It works for them on a local level and with greatly gerrymandered House districts, but on a national level there is a reason the GOP has lost the popular vote in 5 of the last 6 Presidential elections. These strident voices are a big part of it.
It works for them on a local level and with greatly gerrymandered House districts, but on a national level there is a reason the GOP has lost the popular vote in 5 of the last 6 Presidential elections. These strident voices are a big part of it.
12
Uh, hello? The reason Republicans can't stand Hillary Clinton is that she isthe epitome of an Alpha Male. So go ahead, elect Deace;s best version of the Alpha male out there.
16
Finally, some perspicacity. And as Democrats whine, "Hillary's a warmonger" too. Very alpha.
Steve Deace is just another Republican grifter that has recreated their shtick. In the 1990's, he was a wretched sports talk radio host in Des Moines who tried to be a copy of Jim Rome and failed miserably. His sign off line was "Fat people are harder to kidnap". While I don't doubt his conversion to Christianity, he very quickly created a personality designed to take advantage of a very conservative audience in Iowa. I doubt very much if he believes what he says -- he is creating an audience that he can monetize and use for his own personal gain. He's just another blatherskite in the world of talk radio who uses outrage as his preferred communications mode. He shouldn't be taken seriously -- those that do take him seriously are the same people who believe Steve King to be a genius and that we are all destined to be in POW camps in the US.
49
"Those who take him seriously" just upset the Democrat apple cart big time in Kentucky, Houston, and Ohio. My condolences, LP.
So to achieve your "no compromise" policies at the national level, you need 60 votes in the senate, 218 in congress, and the presidency.
Does it look like you will have that anytime soon? If not, you won't even get half a loaf.
There are about 1.5 million people that voted in Iowa in 2012. Obama won handily. Exactly what do you think you can accomplish by being even more conservative than the severely conservative Romney?
Does it look like you will have that anytime soon? If not, you won't even get half a loaf.
There are about 1.5 million people that voted in Iowa in 2012. Obama won handily. Exactly what do you think you can accomplish by being even more conservative than the severely conservative Romney?
25
Romney was hardly "severely conservative." He was a Rockefeller Republican, just like Christie Whitman, Millicent Fenwick, and Tom Kean.
In 400 BCE Athenian Xenophon described 3 forms of government: democracy, oligarchy and dictatorship. The Republican base rejected democracy when Obama took office, by refusing to compromise or even admitting he had a right to be President, they rejected oligarchy after the Party hierarchy gave them the losers McCain and Romney, following the catastrophic reign of GWB. Now The Base seeks a demagogue, who denies reality, and promises the impossible. A dictator who would force their views on the majority and destroy both the rule of law, which they do not believe in, and the nation's institutions.
55
A demagogue AND a dictator. Phew!
Once upon a time, I would have eschewed this talk of "alpha males." Then I started noticing how the leaders in both parties were behaving. There were the voting shenanigans, the punishment for not toeing the party line, the secret deals, the favors and a general disrespect for the voters, who seemed to have disappeared from the equation altogether.
Now when I hear people interested in shaking the establishment up, I think, "Well, they need it." I'm less put off by their provocative comments than I am about the way the political elite have defaulted on their responsibilities to their voters.
Shake 'em up. They need it.
Now when I hear people interested in shaking the establishment up, I think, "Well, they need it." I'm less put off by their provocative comments than I am about the way the political elite have defaulted on their responsibilities to their voters.
Shake 'em up. They need it.
2
With the exception of a few, in Sacramento Californians are lead by betty-males. The identification with which appears to be a litmus test for democrat support.
2
@AACNY
I had trouble following your comment. Just who is the “establishment” or “they” as in “Well they need it.” They need what?
Who in your mind is the “political elite?” You say “Shake ‘em up. They need it.” Who is ‘em and “they.”
Your vague comment fits right in with a Deace radio show. It makes absolutely no sense.
This guy Deace used to be a sports commentator--a guy who could never play sports but ridicules those who do play. And now he stands on the sidelines of our real world, of real people’s lives, and continues to ridicule anyone who tries to serve our country.
If the first in the nation caucus was taken away from Iowa Deace would be nothing.
I had trouble following your comment. Just who is the “establishment” or “they” as in “Well they need it.” They need what?
Who in your mind is the “political elite?” You say “Shake ‘em up. They need it.” Who is ‘em and “they.”
Your vague comment fits right in with a Deace radio show. It makes absolutely no sense.
This guy Deace used to be a sports commentator--a guy who could never play sports but ridicules those who do play. And now he stands on the sidelines of our real world, of real people’s lives, and continues to ridicule anyone who tries to serve our country.
If the first in the nation caucus was taken away from Iowa Deace would be nothing.
3
Well, Air Marshall, this comment has just revealed your inner beliefs that lead to your outward absurdities.
2
Republicans, please keep marching rightward. Your numbers (as a proportion of the population) continue to decline.
27
Then how did they manage to win so many Governor's offices, and most of the US government in the 2010 Midterms and in the 2014 Midterms? What do the voters know that you don't?
2
It's called gerrymandering. And you should wind down the angry rhetoric...you're going to give yourself a heart attack.
2
If Wm. F. Buckley were alive today, he would kill himself and then role over in his grave rather than face what the Republican intelligentsia has become.
63
Rick,
William F Buckley Sr and Jr were fascists and financial and literary backers of Joseph Raymond McCarthy. Buckley's homage to McCarthy Redhunter and his tome McCarhy and his Enemies should more than dispel any fear of Buckley rolling over in his grave. This is Bill Buckley's Republican Party this is Bill Buckley's dream of Franco's Spain.
Buckley's only surprise might be power of Charles and David Koch whose father Buckley removed from the American conservative movement because the John Birch Society was so anti-Catholic. Bill Buckley's brother James Lane Buckley was the godfather of Citizens United which opened the door to all those pillars of society who would not enjoy a seat at a Buckley table but now dictate Republican policy.
It's Buckley's party and you can cry if you want to.
William F Buckley Sr and Jr were fascists and financial and literary backers of Joseph Raymond McCarthy. Buckley's homage to McCarthy Redhunter and his tome McCarhy and his Enemies should more than dispel any fear of Buckley rolling over in his grave. This is Bill Buckley's Republican Party this is Bill Buckley's dream of Franco's Spain.
Buckley's only surprise might be power of Charles and David Koch whose father Buckley removed from the American conservative movement because the John Birch Society was so anti-Catholic. Bill Buckley's brother James Lane Buckley was the godfather of Citizens United which opened the door to all those pillars of society who would not enjoy a seat at a Buckley table but now dictate Republican policy.
It's Buckley's party and you can cry if you want to.
5
"Intelligentsia" is not quite the right term for these people . . . .
4
If he were alive today, he'd remind you that he'd rather be governed by the first 500 names in the Boston phone book than by the Harvard faculty, as he often said.
P.S.: William F. Buckley, Jr.
P.S.: William F. Buckley, Jr.
2
I smell desperation. They are bubble dwellers who think they are the majority, that they are the ones who own the true secret to the exceptional America. They believe it so fervently that they see nothing wrong with forcing their views on the rest of us, by any means necessary. Alpha-males now, guns when the Alphas fail,which they most certainly will?
We live in interesting times!
We live in interesting times!
41
Some people are left behind because they deserve to be.
24
What a laboratory for defense mechanisms:
Projection: The blatant denial of a moral or psychological deficiency, which is perceived as a deficiency in another individual or group. The weak and pudgy target other “beta-males”
Delusional projection: Delusions about external reality, usually of a persecutory nature.
Reaction formation. That is why so many of these guys target groups, then later on they are found to actually be a member of such a group.
These are profoundly unhappy people, spreading their vitriol around like bigoted pixie-dust.
From the JAMA in 1911:, …literally hundreds of cults—essentially psychopathic epidemics—in the United States that are thus dominated. It is unpleasant indeed to observe in them how often the abnormal, the insane even, have exerted, and now exert, noxious influence on people…The demagogue in charge of each cult—its nostrum-vender-in-chief-insists incessantly and blatantly that its tenets are the only true ones; and its devotees will as insistently, and much more blindly, back him up.
Projection: The blatant denial of a moral or psychological deficiency, which is perceived as a deficiency in another individual or group. The weak and pudgy target other “beta-males”
Delusional projection: Delusions about external reality, usually of a persecutory nature.
Reaction formation. That is why so many of these guys target groups, then later on they are found to actually be a member of such a group.
These are profoundly unhappy people, spreading their vitriol around like bigoted pixie-dust.
From the JAMA in 1911:, …literally hundreds of cults—essentially psychopathic epidemics—in the United States that are thus dominated. It is unpleasant indeed to observe in them how often the abnormal, the insane even, have exerted, and now exert, noxious influence on people…The demagogue in charge of each cult—its nostrum-vender-in-chief-insists incessantly and blatantly that its tenets are the only true ones; and its devotees will as insistently, and much more blindly, back him up.
23
SEIU comes to mind.
1
"....the 2016 candidates have no choice but to listen." That proposition is absurd on its face. No one has listen to hate-mongers, and no one has to validate them by even acknowledging that they exist. If I were running for office and a voter asked me, "What do you think about what Steve Deace said about [X]," I'd say, "I don't listen to Steve Deace. Do you have a question for me?" I've been responding to questions people have posed asking me about Rush Limbaugh's opinions just that way for 20 years. It's not that hard.
60
Here's what many republicans in Iowa are angry about: California, New York, uppity blacks, uppity hispanics, uppity women, uppity jews, the entire LGBT community and their 'agenda', medical marijuana, entitlements (unless they're the recipients, of course), the ACA (even though it's the first time many have had insurance), and every other thing that isn't a Reagan movie of the '50's vision of small town America that never actually existed.
Every man is an alpha when hiding in a radio studio behind a microphone, Steve, including you.
If Deace is the best alpha the Republicans have to offer, Hillary is going to wipe the floor with him and the other pasty, chubby racist misogynistic white guys attempting to lead the charge. I'm looking at you, 'Yes, I'm a drug addict' Limbaugh and 'I barely made it out of high school' Hannity.
But just think, Steve - you pretty much have a job guarantee for eight years when Hillary is President. You have no purpose if a Republican gets in.
Every man is an alpha when hiding in a radio studio behind a microphone, Steve, including you.
If Deace is the best alpha the Republicans have to offer, Hillary is going to wipe the floor with him and the other pasty, chubby racist misogynistic white guys attempting to lead the charge. I'm looking at you, 'Yes, I'm a drug addict' Limbaugh and 'I barely made it out of high school' Hannity.
But just think, Steve - you pretty much have a job guarantee for eight years when Hillary is President. You have no purpose if a Republican gets in.
107
Is "white guys" now officially a pejorative? Is poking fun of someone's weight and skin tone now acceptable?
1
Some overweight white woman on "The View" got her comeuppance after mocking Carly Fiorina's smile. The woman never watched Nancy Pelosi in action. Her smile never wanes.
As long as the white guys keep paying onerous taxes to the Democrats to fund their Social Engineering schemes, they will be indispensable.
"Jackie Calmes ... studied conservative media this year as a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy." And had to interview this repulsive troll on top of that? Yikes, I kinda feel sorry for Ms. Calmes, unless she believes any of this tripe.
20
She studied conservative media, and this is who she finds compelling enough to write about. She should get a refund.
6
So this Dude couldn't get into Michigan, and he is now somehow regarded as a Midwest Republican media high brow of sorts?
For real?
Deuce is just another propagandista wrapped up in a political ideology that gives him a false sense of belonging.
Dude, the joke is on you!
Your political masters, the real alpha dogs, couldn't give a toss about any of your trickle down Fox News evangelical talking points. They only care about augmenting and maintaining the wealth and power of the .1%ers.
Who guess what? Have exactly zero in common with you and your angry Iowan listeners!
You're just a propaganda lap dog to them.
Yap on, Dude. After all, it's your job.
For real?
Deuce is just another propagandista wrapped up in a political ideology that gives him a false sense of belonging.
Dude, the joke is on you!
Your political masters, the real alpha dogs, couldn't give a toss about any of your trickle down Fox News evangelical talking points. They only care about augmenting and maintaining the wealth and power of the .1%ers.
Who guess what? Have exactly zero in common with you and your angry Iowan listeners!
You're just a propaganda lap dog to them.
Yap on, Dude. After all, it's your job.
72
What puzzles me is why he's built his mancave as a shrine to an institution that wanted no part of him. Dude's got issues.
17
In one of the great ironies, The University of Michigan(my alma mater) is one of the most liberal schools in the country and was home to the Weather Underground among other things.
I can't help but wonder had he been accepted, if he would still be the miserable little hate monger he is today. I'm quite sure he would have come away with the understanding he was in no way an alpha male.
I can't help but wonder had he been accepted, if he would still be the miserable little hate monger he is today. I'm quite sure he would have come away with the understanding he was in no way an alpha male.
(When I later asked Deace where all this alpha-male talk leaves women in general, and in particular Carly Fiorina, the only woman in the populous Republican presidential field, he told me that alpha male ‘‘is a state of being. It’s not about what’s between your legs.’’)
It's also, evidently, not about what's between your ears.
It's also, evidently, not about what's between your ears.
134
An alpha male? Really? He looks and sounds like Walter Mitty to me. Can't imagine that many women are beating down the doors for a loudmouth like him. As for being an alpha in the world of conservative radio, you are talking about Iowa for crying out loud.
42
There are folks stirring it up on both sides of the spectrum in this ugly, polarized environment. Sad state of affairs, but let's not pretend there isn't hate and hyperbole among progressives and socialists.
4
Go ahead, provide some examples.
27
Such as? Who? What?
5
Love it. Guys like this, and the audience they pander to, make it increasingly difficult for the Republican Party to win at the polls. Governance is mostly about compromising to get your half of a loaf. Old time Republicans knew this, and they knew that half a loaf was infinitely better than no loaf at all. I think it telling that this Deace fellow failed to obtain a college degree, along with several other right-wing demagogues - like Rush Limbaugh, who dropped out of a community college. I think them incapable of discerning the chaff from the grain. And Cruz? How can you call yourself a conservative and support a guy who was the root cause of the previous government shut-down, at a cost of $24 billion to U.S. taxpayers?
37
As a native of Iowa, I'm appalled that a minority of voters (Republican caucus attendees) in a small, non-representative state have achieved so much influence on the national stage. They don't deserve it.
They're narrow-minded, listen only to one another, and assume that America will always be Number One--no matter whom they elect and how destructive their agenda is.
They're narrow-minded, listen only to one another, and assume that America will always be Number One--no matter whom they elect and how destructive their agenda is.
57
Giving them a voice is the only way to keep them invested in the political process. Remember that they're pissed, irrational, and armed.
As the last two centuries show, America has been and will continue to "always be Number One." Otherwise, who would have rescued the Europeans from their internecine wars? And 25 similar examples, from the Marshall Plan to the Berlin Airlift to the Reagan-driven collapse of the Berlin Wall and the Evil Empire. Your cankered viewpoint is what animates Trump voters to reject totally your defeatism.
Not that it is a prerequisite for wisdom (Ben Carson being a pretty good example of the opposite), but I do still find it instructive that Rush, Hannity and Deace (and Rove, for that matter) are all college drop-outs.
69
Smart fellows, to skip Lit Crit 101 and Homecoming to get right into the upper tax brackets. Don't it rankle, Ivy Leaguers?
Nope not all...he looks miserable to me. I thought about a Batman poster once, then realized I wasn't 12.
1
Yeah, it does...the fact that it requires so little skill to kill the culture, history and traditions that make the United States a great country is really disconcerting.
To do something really important in this nation still requires smarts, even for Conservatives.
Boehner...COME BACK NOW!!!!
To do something really important in this nation still requires smarts, even for Conservatives.
Boehner...COME BACK NOW!!!!
Deace feeds the anguished need to reaffirm the old ways. Radical concepts like gender equality and ethical consumption frighten conservative business interests to the bone. Desperately preserving the old patriarchal power and money structure is the basis of Deace's activism, as is the foundation of all of today's conservatism. True "adults" will not step back into this Republican party maelstrom to "save" it; they will be converted to the other side. We can only expect more extremism to come from Deace and his listeners.
18
"Like his peers, Deace has nudged himself continuously to the right just to keep up with his audience. He once supported George W. Bush’s plans for a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, before being persuaded otherwise by his listeners."
Wait, I thought he was a "true conservative" with deeply-rooted beliefs? I thought he was on the side of principle, not compromise? I thought he didn't pander, told it like it is?
Pathetic.
Wait, I thought he was a "true conservative" with deeply-rooted beliefs? I thought he was on the side of principle, not compromise? I thought he didn't pander, told it like it is?
Pathetic.
31
Deace would be fine in Iowa in 1800, but not in 2015. He has no idea of life in modern times. We have to cooperate with others to have a society that is viable. Apparently he is against this. In his world it would be winner take all. Is he really such a true alpha male, or does he just talk like one? He seems to be a misfit in the world of today. That he talks for a living instead of trying out his own ideas seems to be the mark of a delusional fool or borderline insanity.
11
Toom: Probably pretty much describes the people who listen to him also!
5
ALPHA MALES VS BETA MALES Is the comparison valid for competitors in the political arena? I have serious doubts. The terms originated in the study of animals' social behavior, where the leader's distinctive style differed from the style of the supporters of the leader. Or competitor, as the case may be.
What are we talking about? A band of jungle primates? Gorillas in the mist? A bunch of wild dogs? Wolfpacks in the Arctic. Such romantic images! So evocative! Makes great reading and viewing for travel brochures and those interested in the social interaction of animals.
But I'd distinguish the animal behavior from the actions of political leaders and aspirants. Unless you think that the dumbing down of the US has sunk to the level of monkeys and dogs, that is. There's the slight matter of the human brain and its unique capabilities.
The simplistic, concrete and childish use of such metaphors in referring to political aspirants is, beyond degrading, an indication of the caliber of the intellects of the commentators.
Is there really anyone out there who thinks that the throng of GOP hopefuls are anything but a bunch of losers? More frightening than that, does any thoughtful voter truly believe that hiring someone without training or experience for the most difficult job in the world is logical, leave alone intelligent or safe.
The conversation needs to be elevated beyond the male gonads among aspirants, with focus on what's between the ears. Brains!
What are we talking about? A band of jungle primates? Gorillas in the mist? A bunch of wild dogs? Wolfpacks in the Arctic. Such romantic images! So evocative! Makes great reading and viewing for travel brochures and those interested in the social interaction of animals.
But I'd distinguish the animal behavior from the actions of political leaders and aspirants. Unless you think that the dumbing down of the US has sunk to the level of monkeys and dogs, that is. There's the slight matter of the human brain and its unique capabilities.
The simplistic, concrete and childish use of such metaphors in referring to political aspirants is, beyond degrading, an indication of the caliber of the intellects of the commentators.
Is there really anyone out there who thinks that the throng of GOP hopefuls are anything but a bunch of losers? More frightening than that, does any thoughtful voter truly believe that hiring someone without training or experience for the most difficult job in the world is logical, leave alone intelligent or safe.
The conversation needs to be elevated beyond the male gonads among aspirants, with focus on what's between the ears. Brains!
19
D.H. Agreed! You wrote "childish use of such metaphors....is beyond degrading, an indication of the caliber of the intellects of the commentators"!! Exactly so, and the intellects of his listeners!
3
Is there really anyone out there who thinks that the throng of GOP hopefuls are anything but a bunch of losers?
-----------------------
Is there really anyone out there who thinks that the lack of Democrat candidates does not show the Party of Dependency can only put up one tired grandmother from an Ozark Dynasty? Ignore Trump's poll numbers at your peril.
-----------------------
Is there really anyone out there who thinks that the lack of Democrat candidates does not show the Party of Dependency can only put up one tired grandmother from an Ozark Dynasty? Ignore Trump's poll numbers at your peril.
2
It must be very lonely for him, being so socially backward and aggressive about it.
26
yet another "angry" conservative commentator that the party "elite" need to listen to? How many of these are there? Could this be the reason the party is in the condition it is in?
17
Just 12 months ago "the condition" brought the GOP its largest Midterm win since.... 1932. Watch what happens in the next 12 months as Donald & Doc eviscerate the Democrats' lunacies, while Carly makes mincemeat of Mrs. Milhous.
When I submitted the above comment yesterday, the election results in Kentucky, Ohio, and Houston had not come in yet. It's nice to be prescient.
Wanna bet????? I'll even give you good odds on Trump or Carson!
1
It's funny they describe themselves as "‘more conservative, less Republican,’ and yet still use the term RINO. As if being a "real" Republican means not being a Republican at all.
We're waiting. What does this far right movement cut itself loose from the party it has contempt for and form its own?
Are they addicted to family melodrama? Do they prefer complaint to action? They talk so much macho claptrap yet they can't even bring themselves to move out of their political parent's house.
Until we actually see them form their own political party, they'll remain the fantasists they are, dreaming on their sagging sofas of some rightwing utopia and cursing the Republicans they serve.
We're waiting. What does this far right movement cut itself loose from the party it has contempt for and form its own?
Are they addicted to family melodrama? Do they prefer complaint to action? They talk so much macho claptrap yet they can't even bring themselves to move out of their political parent's house.
Until we actually see them form their own political party, they'll remain the fantasists they are, dreaming on their sagging sofas of some rightwing utopia and cursing the Republicans they serve.
14
Check the biographies of his fellow travelers on the AM dial: typically, college drop-outs; many job changes, often including radio DJ positions; obese, sometimes to a morbid extent; multiple divorces; no military (or other) national service, but extremely hawkish. Oh, yeah: and white male.
Hmm, am I better served listening to them or to a previous president of the Harvard Law Review?
Hmm, am I better served listening to them or to a previous president of the Harvard Law Review?
126
At least these boys were born in 'Merca! Tell you whut.
1
I feel like we're being taken in this article to the zoo to look at the weird conservative radio host and his followers with the views that are so far out that even his mother doesn't cotton to them.
Another symptom: mortality for poorly educated, middle class whites is skyrocketing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/03/health/death-rates-rising-for-middle-a...
A 1997 study by the US National ACademy of Sciences (NAS) found that from 1979-95 high school non-completers saw a 30% reduction in income.
Half of the decline was due to having an oversupply of cheap labor due to mass immigration, according to NAS. Immigrants continue to flood the US. Yet the Democratic Party, traditionally the party of working people, has thrown its base under the bus, most recently voting unanimously against a bill that would have taken funds away from sanctuary cities, despite the fact that they have protected criminals from being deported who then killed 121 Americans.
The de facto Democratic immigration policy is open borders, and it is taboo to even ask whether a New York State population equivalent of immigrants per decade is too much, or what numbers would be beneficial to the US. So of course working class whites who have job insecurity due to mass immigration are angry.
The Democratic Party needs to take Steve Deace and his constituency seriously if it wants to win in '16. Poor whites are the new blacks.
Another symptom: mortality for poorly educated, middle class whites is skyrocketing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/03/health/death-rates-rising-for-middle-a...
A 1997 study by the US National ACademy of Sciences (NAS) found that from 1979-95 high school non-completers saw a 30% reduction in income.
Half of the decline was due to having an oversupply of cheap labor due to mass immigration, according to NAS. Immigrants continue to flood the US. Yet the Democratic Party, traditionally the party of working people, has thrown its base under the bus, most recently voting unanimously against a bill that would have taken funds away from sanctuary cities, despite the fact that they have protected criminals from being deported who then killed 121 Americans.
The de facto Democratic immigration policy is open borders, and it is taboo to even ask whether a New York State population equivalent of immigrants per decade is too much, or what numbers would be beneficial to the US. So of course working class whites who have job insecurity due to mass immigration are angry.
The Democratic Party needs to take Steve Deace and his constituency seriously if it wants to win in '16. Poor whites are the new blacks.
5
Conservative radio should have to run a disclaimer before each show that states that it is for entertainment purposes only and that any information stated as a "fact" may or may not actually be accurate and that the producers of the show have no obligation to vet any information presented as factual.
9
Brian Williams and Dan Rather should've done the same. Dan's still spinning wheels in his new labored hagiography, "Truth". Producer Robert Redford was not sure the movie conveyed veracity, so he simply made it the title. Crafty, eh? And poor NBC, now being shunned from its long-sought GOP debate for the puerility of its underlings at CNBC. Tsk tsk.
To be completely honest, this interview gives me the same scary feeling I got when I first say 'Mississippi Burning' as a new potential immigrant being introduced to the South. I am Indian (as in, from India). I saw similar hostilities and silent hatred everywhere I looked when I was in East Texas, Georgia and Missouri in 1989. What scares me even more is that the opinions I heard then, from the Republican crowd that I had to mix with (due to my professional assignments) are now mainstream voices! The feelings then were blatantly racist. I heard many a racist joke, and also felt it when I visited the bar or even the bank that I worked at. The undertone of right wing hatred of everything not white, has now been translated, thanks to Fox News and Karl Rove and innumerable corporate fundings, into a nation wide scourge.
What renders me helpless is that this fissure that has cleft the United States, is growing ever deeper.
It is also why I have an apartment in Mumbai - and I will never sell it. I will always be reminded of the treatment that the Japanese got during WWII after Pearl Harbor, and the treatment that brown skins get even today after 9/11.
What renders me helpless is that this fissure that has cleft the United States, is growing ever deeper.
It is also why I have an apartment in Mumbai - and I will never sell it. I will always be reminded of the treatment that the Japanese got during WWII after Pearl Harbor, and the treatment that brown skins get even today after 9/11.
48
Sorry. I have multiple conservative colleagues who claim Obama has set back race relations a huge amount. I can't figure out why. But I assume they are getting this information from hate radio. They can never produce evidence, so I'm assuming that it's something the hosts say, the audience nods, and they move on to the next topic.
11
David Taylor:
Perhaps you've failed to notice the riots. We now have not only "hate" radio but also "hate" movements.
Perhaps you've failed to notice the riots. We now have not only "hate" radio but also "hate" movements.
1
What do you mean you can't figure out why? He was elected.
"...before being persuaded otherwise by his listeners; ‘‘Steve has grown,’’ " - I don't think so. Steve has sold his soul to the devil to keep his ratings and his job. Like all of the right wingnuts occupying the air waves, they are smart and good at inciting people but they do not care about anything other shaping and responding to their audience. That's what is so complex about their relationship with the public, they simultaneously manipulate shamelessly as they slavishly follow the extreme fringes of what they themselves incite their audience to believe. We approach a critical mass of lunacy and it will be a feedback catastrophe for the nation - and all the while these guys and gals are laughing all the way to the bank.
33
I hope things work out better for him than they did for Andrew Breitbart, killed by hate exactly one month after his 43rd birthday.
9
Thank you for this article that really sets out the intolerant, treasonous, fascist nature of the "extreme right." They are not of the American political system, and the public and the media have all been naive to talk about them in a benign political way.
They are scary and obviously do NOT believe in the constitution or even in the role of any other branch of the government. What would they have happen to the rest of us if they get their way? Disenfranshise us all? Imprison us all so they can build walls around the country? Then what? The world has seen this kind of fanaticism before and it is not okay in America.
Just who does this ignorant chubby baby think he is and I wonder if he has the sense to wonder why the powerful fanatics with the money support him. Not because he is a smart, independent thinker, that is for sure.
I think the rest of the populace needs to wake up and vote in primaries and in the general election. The ideological purists of both parties are a problem, and the people need to turn out in vast numbers to put this country back on track.
They are scary and obviously do NOT believe in the constitution or even in the role of any other branch of the government. What would they have happen to the rest of us if they get their way? Disenfranshise us all? Imprison us all so they can build walls around the country? Then what? The world has seen this kind of fanaticism before and it is not okay in America.
Just who does this ignorant chubby baby think he is and I wonder if he has the sense to wonder why the powerful fanatics with the money support him. Not because he is a smart, independent thinker, that is for sure.
I think the rest of the populace needs to wake up and vote in primaries and in the general election. The ideological purists of both parties are a problem, and the people need to turn out in vast numbers to put this country back on track.
21
Deace proves that, for a boy, it's never too late to be 14 years old.
35
Like Sidney Blumenthal, lovesick for Hill? "The Sorrows of Young Sidney."
Maybe these guys should spend more time reading their Bibles like the Sermon on the Mount or the Beatitudes. They are CINOs Christians in Name Only.
26
Total BS. Have you heard of the sponsors of these types of shows? Silver Eagle coins, retirement annuity and reverse mortgage pitches, loads of in--house promotions for other right wing shows and PSAs. Who are these "thousands" of people listening?
39
CBS News and NBC Nightly News favor hi-toned, lengthy commercials about erectile dysfunction, and vaginal mesh slings, during their broadcasts. I'll trade that for silver coin come-ons any day of the week.
I suggest that to not acknowledge this phenomenon, and I mean nationwide, since Deace is representative of Conservative talk shows in most states, is a mistake.
This faction of the U.S. electorate is a large minority of voters who feel disenfranchised because their own circumstances, our ever changing culture and society, and the economy make them feel alienated.
And they are alienated. They'd be left behind in Russia or Norway or Mexico. Groups just like them in those nations and others are similarly being left behind, and feeling about it exactly the same way that Deace, as a representative of the mindset, feels about it.
And they act out in pretty much the same way. ISIL's members are "looking for alpha males," too. And selecting and advancing them.
This is not a new phenomenon. The psychology is well known and understood.
So, get over it. I don't find Deace scary at all. But I am puzzled by those who do. And I'm puzzled by those who don't see the phenomenon for what it is, take it seriously, design a response, and act.
Ironically, the Deace mindset ultimately has to bond with some leader in the Conservative cause and, invariably, those leaders are much more savvy about how an entire society necessarily must work than are the Deace mindsets. Other than reactionary denial in the end it comes down to compromise inside the Republican Party, or, if not, they'll concede to Independents, Progressives and Democrats who outnumber them nationwide.
They won't do that.
.
This faction of the U.S. electorate is a large minority of voters who feel disenfranchised because their own circumstances, our ever changing culture and society, and the economy make them feel alienated.
And they are alienated. They'd be left behind in Russia or Norway or Mexico. Groups just like them in those nations and others are similarly being left behind, and feeling about it exactly the same way that Deace, as a representative of the mindset, feels about it.
And they act out in pretty much the same way. ISIL's members are "looking for alpha males," too. And selecting and advancing them.
This is not a new phenomenon. The psychology is well known and understood.
So, get over it. I don't find Deace scary at all. But I am puzzled by those who do. And I'm puzzled by those who don't see the phenomenon for what it is, take it seriously, design a response, and act.
Ironically, the Deace mindset ultimately has to bond with some leader in the Conservative cause and, invariably, those leaders are much more savvy about how an entire society necessarily must work than are the Deace mindsets. Other than reactionary denial in the end it comes down to compromise inside the Republican Party, or, if not, they'll concede to Independents, Progressives and Democrats who outnumber them nationwide.
They won't do that.
.
20
This is a great post, but I find it interesting that you don't think Deace and his ilk are scary, these are the people that put people like Cruz, Walker, Bush etc. into place with the end result being wars, financial catastrophe and misery for millions of Americans. How is that not scary?
15
DR New England
Look, ultimately many of us have the potential to be scary. I don't find Deace and this group scary because they are simply talking on the radio, blogging, interacting in echo chambers and cyber cascades, etc. There thoughts are very, very different from mine, and I disagree with them, in most ways, radically.
But I grew up with people who can, and do think this way, or in ways similarly.
Scary is converting an entire society to your thinking, as Mussolini and Hitler and the militarists in Japan did. Some populations are more prone to being controlled because of cultural history.
For the most part ours isn't. There are problematic situations. Scary is Florida expanding the Stand Your Ground legislation to such an extent that the courts may have a difficult time determining that they can prosecute even criminal activity. Why can't I murder my neighbor for being on my lawn and claim that I was in fear of my life? In most western societies that's unthinkable.
In a Deace world, inacted as a standard, yes, it would be scary.
But Deace and Coulter and Limbaugh and Beck aren't in charge, even with the minority in the House, they aren't. And in this country, with journalism like this, and most people enfranchised by culture, society and economics they aren't likely to be.
Scary is not these thoughts being expressed over the airwaves or printed or typed.
Scary is having Pinochet running your nation.
.
Look, ultimately many of us have the potential to be scary. I don't find Deace and this group scary because they are simply talking on the radio, blogging, interacting in echo chambers and cyber cascades, etc. There thoughts are very, very different from mine, and I disagree with them, in most ways, radically.
But I grew up with people who can, and do think this way, or in ways similarly.
Scary is converting an entire society to your thinking, as Mussolini and Hitler and the militarists in Japan did. Some populations are more prone to being controlled because of cultural history.
For the most part ours isn't. There are problematic situations. Scary is Florida expanding the Stand Your Ground legislation to such an extent that the courts may have a difficult time determining that they can prosecute even criminal activity. Why can't I murder my neighbor for being on my lawn and claim that I was in fear of my life? In most western societies that's unthinkable.
In a Deace world, inacted as a standard, yes, it would be scary.
But Deace and Coulter and Limbaugh and Beck aren't in charge, even with the minority in the House, they aren't. And in this country, with journalism like this, and most people enfranchised by culture, society and economics they aren't likely to be.
Scary is not these thoughts being expressed over the airwaves or printed or typed.
Scary is having Pinochet running your nation.
.
9
John F. McBride - Thank you for the thoughtful, well written response.
I remain frightened and I don't think I'm alone. Deace and his ilk helped put those Stand Your Ground Laws in place.
It is encouraging to know that there are smart, thoughtful people like you out there. Best wishes.
I remain frightened and I don't think I'm alone. Deace and his ilk helped put those Stand Your Ground Laws in place.
It is encouraging to know that there are smart, thoughtful people like you out there. Best wishes.
5
What a load of self serving hokum. Deace is delusional. His tiny little fraction of the total American spectrum of opinion is actually in decline owing to its aging demographic. The NYT is stooping low to do a favorable, sympathetic piece of doggerel like this.
116
'doggerel' could be replaced by a better word, but otherwise, I agree.
6
The scary part is that thousands of people listen to this fanaticism and agree with it. The GOP has only itself to blame as it encouraged this behavior thinking that they could control it. It seems that no one was smart enough to understand that you cannot ride the tiger. Until the adults can take charge of the party again, the U.S. will suffer.
130
What is more scary is that redistricting has built a challenger proof legislature that continues to send people to Congress who represent, at best, a minority of Americans.
So it's not that "thousands of people" represents that many Americans and his a profound impact. It 's the fact that the "thousands" are having a profound impact on hundreds of thousands of Americans.
So it's not that "thousands of people" represents that many Americans and his a profound impact. It 's the fact that the "thousands" are having a profound impact on hundreds of thousands of Americans.
3
That this doughy-looking nerd is talking about masculinity so much....priceless! For several years I've seen some evidence that the current Tea Party fervor is at its base a bunch of white weakling males, making up for getting pounded in High School.
188
I was wondering if anyone else had noticed that the right wing seems to be led by chubby, pasty, unattractive, angry little men.
33
I disagree. They probably did the pounding themselves but no longer can. Hence they are not disgruntled and disillusioned with the world.
As an Iowan, I find Deace an embarrassment to the state, and I find it appalling that the New York Times would waste print space on the pathetic clown.
12
THE SIMPLE MAY BE RIGHT TO BE ANGRY BUT LACK UNDERSTANADING
OF THE TRUE ROOTS OF THEIR PROBLEMS . . .
So Rush, and their friends at fox and talk radio give simplistic answers which happen to coincide with the interests the Koch bro's, the mega corporations, big energy and the huge pharmaceuticals, Wall Street and the banks. They blame the wrong people and entities.
They have become unwashed as our public educational system has been watered down ... so they believe the rhetoric of the players ... all who love Aynrandism as a rationalization for greed ... as the super rich behave as though they are immortal ... so they keep on accumulating capital.
Jefferson knew that a democratic republic could only function with an enlightened electorate ... so the more ignorant the proletariat is ... the better for the continuing accumulation of unneeded wealth.
As excessive money and power will evolve into an autocracy ... the right wing media can continue to blame the wrong system ... and, the uneducated believe them.
All in the land of guns and Bibles and no insight via basic knowledge of civics and history.
OF THE TRUE ROOTS OF THEIR PROBLEMS . . .
So Rush, and their friends at fox and talk radio give simplistic answers which happen to coincide with the interests the Koch bro's, the mega corporations, big energy and the huge pharmaceuticals, Wall Street and the banks. They blame the wrong people and entities.
They have become unwashed as our public educational system has been watered down ... so they believe the rhetoric of the players ... all who love Aynrandism as a rationalization for greed ... as the super rich behave as though they are immortal ... so they keep on accumulating capital.
Jefferson knew that a democratic republic could only function with an enlightened electorate ... so the more ignorant the proletariat is ... the better for the continuing accumulation of unneeded wealth.
As excessive money and power will evolve into an autocracy ... the right wing media can continue to blame the wrong system ... and, the uneducated believe them.
All in the land of guns and Bibles and no insight via basic knowledge of civics and history.
90
I have 20 years of schooling. You think I am an ignorant. I think you are an immoral fool.
Answer: Bloviated Echo Chamber
Question: What is the New York Times comments section
Answer: Bloviated Echo Chamber
Question: What is the New York Times comments section
1
Ah, then why do you spend so much time at it?
3
What a narrow minded bunch! Why would anyone care if the President is Christian? Does being Christian automatically make that person somehow better qualified to lead?
96
From the looks and sounds of THESE "Christians", give me a non-Christian please.
19
Of course it makes them better qualified to lead, John. How could it be otherwise? Just look at what irreligious Bill Clinton did in office. How seamy.
Charles - Bill Clinton's affair didn't deprive anyone of health care, wages, life or limb. G.W.'s so called Christianity brought us two wars and the great recession.
8