  "Liberal" Talk Radio I laughed out loud when I saw the headlines. "The urlLink new network is being assembled to counter the influence Rush Limbaugh and other conservative commentators have on the American electorate. It will never work. Liberals are not mean enough. Liberal radio is the softball urlLink Fresh Air with Terry Gross (on that institution most hated by conservatives, urlLink NPR ).
Rush Limbaugh and his ilk have been preaching their intolerance, whipping up anger and indignation, ranting about immigrants and minorities and drug abusers and welfare moms who own *gasp* microwave ovens (available for $40 at urlLink Wal*Mart ) for more than a decade. Ann Coulter has taken the shrill and vicious rhetoric to a whole new level and has best-selling books to show for it. Even if a "liberal" version of this tripe was marketed, who would want to listen? People who listen to conservative talk radio want to be outraged. They want to feel morally superior to the "feminazis" and have a chance to tell those commie peace protesters they'd better move to Russia where they belong. I suppose a radio version of urlLink The Daily Show could be entertaining, but is that really going to "counter the influence" of any of these shows? For every one Al Franken the conservatives can point to, they've got dozens of Michael Medveds on their side.
More and more often, when it comes to political discourse I agree completely with urlLink David Neiwert . In this very long essay I've linked to, in particular, he hits on the particular unease I've been feeling. For much of this year, I was reading the blog of urlLink Damelon Kimbrough , an American game industry associate of mine who emmigrated to France a couple of years ago. Damelon's take on the politics of the last year or so was interesting, especially considering his perspective as an American in France, but what I found most intersting was that Damelon held many of the same opinions on some of the big issues as I did, even though we'd discovered years earlier that we came from opposite ends of the political spectrum. I like to think he came to the same conclusion because it was the right conclusion...but what was more astounding, more refreshing, was that he was exhibiting a basic decency, even on issues where we held differing opinions. It was notable not because I expected Damelon to lack decency but because exhibiting decency in political discussion had become so damned rare. We have no "discourse" about issues in America these days. It's all shrill finger-pointing and accusing dissenters of "treason" (thank you Ann Coulter, you foul harpy) and irrational "If you are against X, you love Saddam!
" bullshit that spins my head. Unfortunately, Damelon has put his blog on hiatus, and will likely not return for more political commentary in the future, which is a damn shame. I'm trying to imagine a scenario where launching "liberal talk radio" could contribute anything good to this situation, and I just can't. 
