I ♥Derb

Derb takes a swing at low-brow conservatism and connects.

With reasons for gratitude duly noted, are there some downsides to conservative talk radio? Taking the conservative project as a whole—limited government,fiscal prudence, equality under law, personal liberty, patriotism, realism
abroad—has talk radio helped or hurt? All those good things are plainly off the
table for the next four years at least, a prospect that conservatives can only
view with anguish. Did the Limbaughs, Hannitys, Savages, and Ingrahams lead
us to this sorry state of affairs?

They surely did. At the very least, by yoking themselves to the clueless George W. Bush and his free-spending administration, they helped create the great debt bubble that has now burst so spectacularly. The big names, too, were all uncritical of the decade-long (at least) efforts to “build democracy” in noaccount nations with politically primitive populations. Sean Hannity called the Iraq War a “massive success,” and in January 2008 deemed the U.S. economy “phenomenal.”

Much more at the link, but sign up may be required. I would love to hear Derb discuss this article with Limbaugh because I think it would not be acrimonious and would air a lot of dirty laundry that's piled up after 8 years of George W. Bush. In Limbaugh's defense, when he gets serious about an issue he's very close to what I think Derb means when he talks about middle-brow conservatism.