Dear Rush, Sean, Ann, Michael, Michelle, Bill, Glenn and your colleagues,
I want to congratulate you on your historic success. You all have made it to the top of your field. For many years, roughly half of this country listened to your words and then went out and repeated your falsehoods as if they were fact. People derisively talked down about their fellow Americans and fellow world citizens in condescending terms and often with a smile on their faces. You put them there. Your success was a necessary ingredient for the ascension of Karl Rove and the politics of division. Your success led to this country having the worst president, by almost any measure, in this history of this country. I wanted to congratulate you on those accomplishments.
My question for you, is what will you chose to do now?
One of your most oft-repeated claims of late, is that ours is a "center-right" country. I’m not sure how you come to that conclusion. America voted last night, and overwhelmingly, we chose a leader who is not defined by you. He is black AND white. He is Christian AND Muslim. He has a middle name that just doesn’t sound like an American leader’s middle name should. He is articulate AND smart. He is athletic AND a bookworm. In short, he is all of US. I don’t envy your predicament. How to respond?
As Hillary and John McCain found out, you cannot attack this guy because somehow, you will always be wrong. I know being wrong never stopped you in the past. In fact, most of the success you’ve had was predicated on flawed ideology and failed policies. So this letter is meant to encourage you to modify what you do for a living. It is a prescription on how to be successful in your chosen careers for the next eight years.
You can choose to continue to be the opposition forces: the voices of hatred, intolerance, and division. Or you can join with the majority of the country you profess to love, and become "center-left." Since we now have a leader who will listen to all sides of an issue before making decisions, you may want to consider how best to influence him. You can continue your racists and demeaning attacks, which will get you ignored (and logically, a smaller and shrinking audience), or you can constructively work for change. You can join in the call for civic duty and civic responsibility, or you can laugh and call names, demean your leaders and thereby demean your audience. We’re better than that.
You can continue to stoke the fans of bigotry and isolation and mean-spirited politics, or you can talk to your listeners about how they can feel good about their country again. At a certain point, you have to acknowledge that you have been an advocate of all that has gotten us here. I know this will be hard for you. Rush, you came close after the mid-term elections in 2006 when you essentially said you were relieved that you didn’t have to carry the water for these people. Why carry their water at all? You have the best platforms imaginable to get a positive message out to the masses. Use it for the betterment of the United States. Realize that this election was a referendum on the type of politics that have essentially dominated our system for 14 years, if not longer. Realize that your product has been recalled. If you don’t change your message, you will continue to lose market share, because people will simply stop listening. We need to go forward and your words take us back.
Last night, we all saw history being made. If the emotions of the moment didn’t sweep over you, perhaps it was because anger and resentment are too built up in your psyche to appreciate it. Let that be the first step towards healing yourselves. Again, let me congratulate you on your previous success. If you’d like to continue, you will need to change with the country. I wish you luck.