Conservatives becoming Liberals?

On a dare from Scott Walterman, I actually took up the task of listening to conservative talk radio for a couple days. What I heard was… well… noise (and lots of it).

There was some guy (whose name escapes me) literally screaming about the stimulus package. I listened to Sean Hannity brag about how the Dems (particularly President Obama) are out to get him (personally). And then there is Rush, who I consider to be a master showman.

In short, what I heard was pretty much the same empty-gong-rattling rhetoric that I heard on Air America after the 2004 elections.

And here’s what the branding guy sees:

** NOTE – I could care less about party affiliation. My goal is to treat everyone as a “brand” irrespective of political affiliation or belief. **

Conservative talk and the hosts of those shows – if indeed my limited sampling of them is the norm AND they continue to conduct their shows in that manner – will become totally irrelevant to the national conversation within months.
Here’s why (and again – this is based on a limited sample and I welcome other’s perspective on this):
1. Whiners – Wow! If you keep that up, you are working on a system of diminishing returns. The more you whine, the fewer the number people that will want to listen to you whine (I tell my 4-year-old this all the time). The first to drop off will be the people who listen to you now but disagree with you. This will continue to cull listeners until the last one left is you. Good luck with that.

2. Lack of constructive criticism – people will listen as long as you are offering solutions. This means that if you just want to vent … well… shut up!

3. Ain’t no I in TEAM – irrespective of your political affiliation, the President is the President (it’s the office not the person). Now more than ever we need to be praying that this President is successful (even if he’s a socialist ☺ ).
So let me try to play this from both sides of the aisle.
If I were advising the Republicans:
Hey! Michael Steele. Go on the talk show circuit and tell all the hosts this – “We need to calm down and get on our Presidents side. We do that by NOT compromising our platform of SMALL GOVERNMENT and LOW TAXES as well as our stand on MORAL ISSUES – but we need to give our criticism in a gentle and constructive manner.
If I were advising the Democrats:
Hey! Rush and the rest of you, Stop your whining you’re making my ears hurt. You are not helping things. All of this vitriolic rhetoric… that’s the reason why people stopped voting for your side. Stop being a hater and we might… actually… never mind.