Early Monday morning, I participated in a hashtag game entitled "#RepublicansMakeMe." My response was simple and honest. Apparently, I touched a nerve; over 34,000 impressions and counting. Well, for those of you who may be intrigued, allow me to explain.
As most of you know, I live in the Tampa Bay area of Florida and have been in this area for the better part of the last two decades, since my enlistment in the Navy ended. For most of the first ten years, I'd say living here has been somewhat enjoyable; I don't like it now. A main reason for this is of course #FloridaMan, but another reason I've grown disgusted with Florida is politics, especially in the era, or error of Trump. Florida is of course the ultimate swing state politically (remember the late Tim Russert with his white board on the night of the 2000 election?), and the Tampa Bay area lies right on the ultimate swing vote region; the I-4 Corridor.
Now you don't need me to tell you that I-4 sucks. Orlando? Right on I-4. Disney? Just off I-4. Daytona Int'l Speedway? Not far from I-4. You get the idea. It's full of gridlock, headaches, and possibly road rage (which is a dangerous combination in and of itslef, #FloridaMan and road rage).
But that's the whole interstate, we're talking Tampa, which is he western terminus of the highway from hell. Here you pretty much have an even split between left and right, but by listening to "local" news-talk radio (and I use that term VERY loosely) it's rather one-sided. I haven't listened in almost three years because of this very fact. On said station you have two old guys (I guess they haven't retired yet) complaining about the left, followed by Mr. Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs himself, Glenn Beck (more on him later), then Rush Limbaugh, then Sean Hannity, then the former #1 morning FM personality now Trump fanboy Todd Schnitt. Then, if not preempted for Lightning hockey, it's Mark Levin, who beckons for the halcyon days of the Reagan administration and basically will call anyone who dares calls his show to disagree with him a moron and then proceeds to hang up on said caller. In other words, an insufferable murder of crows (as opposed to murderer's row) of right-wing talking heads.
So essentially in my mind, you have 16-hours plus of right wing (12 of those NON LOCAL) talk crammed down our throats all day courtesy of the iHeart (iHate Local) Radio behemoth. It's like Sinclair Broadcasting only it's radio and it makes me want to puke. Yes, I know that a radio station is not the reason to move from an area, but when you have to put up with listening to Trump clones all day and all night, enough is enough.
What's weird about all this was up until 2015, I supported the GOP. My stepmom grew up not far from where Reagan grew up in Illinois, and was an election official in the (predominantly Republican) precinct of the town in North Carolina I grew up in. The Tea Party (and Sarah Palin) helped put a big damper on the GOP, and the eight years of Obama weren't as bad as Republicans made it out to be; in fact it was pretty damn good if I'm being honest I had my suspicions about Bush to be honest, but I was too naïve I guess to speak out about it, except one time.
In the year following 9/11, I noticed that the aforementioned radio station was heavily backing anything and everything GWB said. I called it into question on an internet bulletin board, only to get shot down by a nighttime radio host (and company
Now, hindsight being 20/20, was that speech really a rallying cry to the folks stationed at MacDill AFB ( based in Tampa)? OR...was it an attempt by ClearChannel at the time to try to influence public opinion and policy? This goes back to BEFORE 9/11, to 2000 and the hotly contested presidential race. Where is GWB from? Texas. Where was ClearChannel located? San Antonio. Coincidence??? Did they stand to lose more if Al Gore won? Who knows...
But I do know this, the above is a primary reason I want to move to a more moderate area.
CT
No comments:
Post a Comment