Did Talk Radio Kill Conservatism?

In the latest issue of The American Conservative, John Derbyshire surveys his movement’s sorry state and asks, “Did the Limbaughs, Hannitys, Savages, and Ingrahams lead us to this sorry state of affair?” Answer: “They surely did. At the very least, by yoking themselves to the clueless George W. Bush and his free-spending administration … Much as their blind loyalty discredited the Right, perhaps the worst effect of Limbaugh et al. has been their draining away of political energy from what might have been a much more worthwhile project: the fostering of a middlebrow conservatism. There is nothing wrong with lowbrow conservatism. It’s energizing and fun. What’s wrong is the impression fixed in the minds of too many Americans that conservatism is always lowbrow, an impression our enemies gleefully reinforce when the opportunity arises.”