Recently, the Federation for American Immigration Reform or F.A.I.R held its annual “talk radio row’ event in Washington D.C. Having attended a number of these events over the years, it struck me. It is those in talk radio and its listeners who have become the leaders in the movement to save the heart and soul of this nation, and unfortunately … that is no longer cool, hip or even mainstream.
Fighting for America, our borders and our culture is counter to today’s mainstream and is truly what is at the heart of what I like to call The Rusty Humphries Rebellion. There’s no question that today’s counterculture is conservative. The political system and media elites are in almost perfect harmony on the Left. Liberal assumptions are sprinkled across every inch of news and entertainment media. Sometimes, these ideas are promoted directly as propaganda — we get a good stiff dose of that every Earth Day. Sometimes, it’s a more subtle matter of arranging fictional stories and comedy routines to promote the beliefs of the dominant culture.
The original counterculture was liberal, and hated the way stodgy old traditional assumptions were promoted by the media of their day. Those roles have completely flipped now. Conservatives are the underground, the resistance, creators of subversive pop culture, keeping news alive when the mainstream press leaves it to die.
That all began with talk radio. It’s the backbone of conservative counter-culture. Long before there was an Internet, back when there were only a few openly conservative national publications, talk radio was humming at the local level. When Rush Limbaugh and the other big nationwide conservative talk shows arrived, other forms of conservative media grew with them. Magazine subscriptions increased, and new publications were born. Those publications became big parts of the conservative Internet. The Internet was essential to the birth of the Tea Party. Conservatism was ready when the online revolution arrived, and it’s all because of those talk radio pioneers.
One of the most important features of this counterculture, from its AM talk origins to the online community, is the way it helps ordinary people understand they are not alone. Cultural dominance can be used to make dissenters feel marginalized and outcast. The elite rulers of coastal media empires reshape flyover country by making millions of people feel lonely and isolated in their living rooms. Nobody wants to be an uncool outsider.
Through talk radio, conservative people across America realized they were not alone, and they were not a helpless minority. They started hearing news the Establishment didn’t want them to hear. They realized other people had the same doubts about the official party line. They learned resistance was not futile.
Conservatives aren’t much for street theater. They’ve got day jobs. When they get together to show their strength, it’s a special event … and they clean up after themselves. Before the tea party came along, there weren’t a lot of events like that. It was talk radio that allowed us to understand we were part of a mighty community, much larger than we were led to believe.
Liberals haven’t had much success breaking into talk radio, which is why they keep trying to legislate it out of existence. It’s not someplace people go to hear the same tired old ideas flogged 24 hours a day by Big Media. It is, and always will be, revolutionary.
At The Rusty Humphries Rebellion page at WashingtonTimes.com, I have released a number of very important interviews that were conducted and the F.A.I.R “Hold Their Feet To The Fire” event. Each of the interviews is important unto its self. Insight into what’s REALLY going on in talk radio with Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers Magazine. Radio host, Washington Times columnist and now author of “Rules for Patriots: How Conservatives Can Win Again,” Steve Deace, talks about his book and how we CAN do more than just say “Obama bad – Republicans good.”
And Nationally Syndicated host Lars Larson talks about immigration and its true effects on our country. Visit https://www.washingtontimes.com/video/staff-exclusives/ to see these interviews.
Next week, I’ll bring you videos with congressmen, ranchers, Mexican nationals and the group whose sole purpose is to fix the broken American immigrations system.
What do you think this “Conservative Counter-Culture” should be fighting for and do you see victory ahead? Comment here at the Washington Times and until our next beefing … This is The Rusty Humphries Rebellion.
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