I am getting an impression about Air America. Maybe some other folks could let me know if I am dreaming.
(I'd call and ask the hosts if they think it's true, but A. I can't ever get in and B. I am terrified of being put on the air.)
Anyway, I get the impression that wingnuts are calling much more frequently, obsessively, and defensively than they did before.
I know. Wingnuts are always obsessive and defensive.
But I THINK I detect a difference. In the first months A A was on, the wingers who called in were smug and all knowing. They'd make snide remarks and send audible winks to the other wingers.
To take this a step further, I had the impression that the wingers who came on were veterans. They seemed to be Rush-ites who came over to twit the rookies.
Of late, I feel I am hearing a different sort of caller. Take one example.
Sam (I think it was Sam subbing for Springer) had a woman call in who had to be in her 60s. Her whole schtick was that Sam had no business criticizing the Prez 'cause he wasn't in on all the decoder ring meetings. ('Course, Bush doesn't attend in any meaningful sense either.)
Sam hit the softball pitch as we all would. He asked her if she had criticized Clinton. Her response was priceless: "Well, yes, but that's because I considered him an idiot." She actually said that.
But here's my thing: what was that woman doing calling Sam? I mean, why is she listening to A A in the first place? And what got her worried enough to go on the air?
Well, maybe she fooled me. Maybe my prejudices are such that I am nutso in thinking that she isn't the type to be a veteran of Rush's dutiful phoners in.
And yet I really felt that I was hearing two things in this woman:
- Inexperience on air.
- Worry.
I got the impression that she just HAD to call to reassure herself.
And I feel like I am hearing this note in more and more callers. Even the younger, slick wingnuts who sound as if they are veterans of a score of Rush calls some really, I dunno, shrill. One on Randi's show today had some goofy stat about taxes being overpaid and he really seemed to NEED to feel that that stat put Randi's screeds out of court.
Well, it's all speculative and based on mostly subjective impressions.
And clearly I would really LOVE to believe it's true. Wish fulfillment can be a distorting thing.
And yet, danged if I don't in the end still feel that it's true.
I think these people are worried. The circuitry in the matrix is beginning to flash across their awareness. They really feel the need to push back against the threat of reality.
I think the dynamic is changing. They still listen to Rush, sure. But Rush isn't the issue. Rush is a known commodity. They know what Rush has to say.
By contrast, Air America just won't seem to go away and neither will the bad economic news, the bad Iraq news, and the Terry Schiavo mess. They seem to be feeling a pressing need to PROVE US WRONG!
They're like football fans on discussion boards who desperately try to prove with logic that their aging team is NOT going belly up this year. If only they can beat the troll from another team in a desperate debate, then maybe their team can avoid the reality of age and the salary cap.
Well, that's my impression. Let me know what you think. Am I nutso?