Liberal Radio

(I've listened a fair amount to the programming that AirAmerica has on from 8am-5pm. Have not heard any of the evening programming.)

Necessary voice in the darkness, or preaching to the converted.

What's the goal? How do they make the world listen to what they have to say? Once the novelty has worn off will they add anything to the general discussion that any interested party couldn't find in greater depth elsewhere?

The inevitable danger of any enterprise like this is that those listening are not needing to be convinced, and inevitably they will listen to anything that the respective hosts have to say. Isn't that our argument against the Rush Limbaugh's and Bill O'Reilly's of the world? The people that listen to them take what they have to say as literal truth because it jives with their world view. It's empowering, though in a mob mentality, freaky mind-washing sort of way. What's to keep the liberal side of the equation from becoming nothing better than that of the conservative side. It's all in the hands of the hosts, and inevitably in the democratic (note little D) power of the listeners. Do we want to be pacified, appeased with a view that doesn't challenge us, fits comfortably with our own? Hopefully not. And we need to make sure the people running Air America know that too.

We live in a highly polarized political society. Not to say that people are in fact actually polarized. If you ask 100 people the same questions, about education, the environment, etc, a majority will give you the same answer. But what politics has done is twist these debates into black and white. Don't vote for them because they want to......raise your taxes.....or destroy the environment..... They benefit from our believing that their is a simple answer. It's not true.

We got some serious issues to deal with in this country, problems for which there is no simple answer and will probably require some sacrifice in the short run. And it's not like our resistance to change is something new. It's always taken extreme situations to get us off our collective asses - wars or systems in crisis. (and when I say wars, I do not include a certain 'war on terror') American society has fundamentally chosen to take the easiest path far more often than the difficult one.

So what I hope Air America does once we get through this travesty of democracy is focus on the tough issues, the things that make people look the other direction. All the really tough things this country has overcome (or at least vastly improved) were the elephant in the room of their day. You've got to make people look at things they'd prefer to ignore to make change happen.

So to start....all you people out there driving cars that get crappy gas mileage with no justification for doing so. YOU'RE DIRECTLY SUPPORTING TERRORISM. And that may sound like unjustified pot-stirring - but it's true.