Another conservative canary swoons in the right-wing coal mine.
Los Angeles-based KFI (AM640) is probably the largest radio station west of the Mississippi, reaching south to San Diego, north to Fresno, and east to Las Vegas.
And effective January 20th, it’s done carrying Rush Limbaugh.
Limbaugh is moving in LA to another, much smaller, station that barely reaches into Orange County.
This, of course, signals that far-right radio in the United States is on the decline–which also means Tea Party conservatism is on the decline.
We’re entering a long political era in which women and liberal-leaning Millenials will be the ultimate deal makers and breakers in politics and culture, not far-right baffoons.
The conservative era, driven by post-WWII Baby Boom voters–and that began its Romantic phase with Ronald Reagan, its Decadent phase with George W. Bush, and is now in its Late Decadent phase–is heading, however crankily, for the historical exits.
What the Republican Party will be a decade from now is unclear, but its future–if it’s going to be at all successful as a national party (and not just a Southern party)–is not with anti-gay marriage misogynists like Rush Limbaugh. And that’s a good thing.
Prometheus Unbound 
I was stunned when I saw a link to your post entitled “Limbaugh 3Dropped from KFI..” so right away I visited the official KFI 640 Radio web site to start asking questions or find out why KFI would do such a thing. I don’t know where you got your information for this post but according to KFI’s web site, Rush is still “on and cracking” as they say.
http://www.kfiam640.com/cc-common/rushlimbaugh/
I lived in the L.A. area for 54 years and don’t remember the exact year I started paying attention to the radio my mother glued herself to for the few hours Rush Limbaugh was on the air, but I’ve listened to him for many, many years. Now that I live in Nevada where I don’t think there’s any radio but country music and Christian broadcasts (which are nice but not 24-7) I still listen when I have time to sit with my computer online to IHeart radio. (John and Ken are on my list of favorites as well).
Maybe you ought to post an “Oops” to this one, and maybe your theory of the decline of the Baby Boom Right isn’t all that accurate either. In fact, basing a decline like that on someone like Rush Limbaugh being dropped by a radio broadcast is preposterous. Really.
I find that us Baby Boomers are still around, still pretty “right” (as opposed to “left” as well as “wrong”) but have become less extreme and more tolerant and understanding of those who do not agree with our convictions, values, and traditions. Mostly what we stand upon is the truth, in any regard. We don’t want to be lied to. We really don’t want to be members of a party, we just want all of us to be Americans who love our country, who protect and uphold our beloved Constitution, and who will fight to keep our freedom and keep our country free as it was intended to be. Mr. Limbaugh can be extreme at times, almost to the point of becoming embarassing but he does tell the Truth and he does expose a lot of what liberal media hides from the American public.
Cynthia,
KFI announced it over the air–that the 20th of January is when Limbaugh switches to a different station. And here’s the LA Times saying the same thing (without specifying the exact date in January of the switch):
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/dec/05/entertainment/la-et-ct-rush-limbaugh-kfi-ktlk-20131204
The Republican party will carry on and it will do so with Rush Limbaugh and every other traditional values, conservative, promise keeping, tellers of truth there is. The “right” is not declining, giving up, backing down or going away. We are not going through any historical exit, in fact, we are making historical progress. We don’t hate gays, we cherish our traditional values. The name calling and b.s. in this post reminds me that there are those who would do and say anything to “win” their game, whatever that may be.
Try telling the truth, it’s really great. When you tell the truth you don’t have to remember what you said.
Rush Limbaugh’s email address is elrushbo@eibnet.com You can ask him yourself if he was “dropped” by KFI. But you won’t because you know that is not true. You lied to have a chance to bash Mr. Limbaugh and bash the “right” and make your sheeple readers think conservatives are dwindling away. I’m happy to say we are not.
Conservatives are not going away, but the era of Baby Boom driven activist conservatism that started with Reagan and is now in its decadent phase with the Tea Party is ending. That’s a historical and demographic fact.
But one reason conservatism is not going away is genetic. There’s a correlation between temperament and liberal and conservative attitudes, and temperament has a large genetic component.
So again, I agree with you that today’s style of conservative isn’t going away. There will always be lots of people who are wound tight religiously, like authoritarian-style father-figures in power, hate outsiders, gays, feminists, etc.
What is going away is the era in which such conservatives dominated the country’s conversation and direction (the wars in Iraq, torture, gays banned from the military, deficit spending that went to the military, etc.).
Demographic shifts in the country (more non-white voters, more white-collar women voters, more Millennial voters) are causing the country to trend toward liberalism (especially cultural liberalism).
Outside of the South, conservatives no longer have easy routes to 50% + 1 in elections. And every year the demographic “dice” load ever more heavily against Tea Party conservatism.
If I were advising the Republican Party, I would say the following: make a conservative case for various contemporary trends and own them. Embrace pot legalization as a form of freedom from the nanny state; embrace gay marriage as individual rights; embrace immigration as good for economic growth and business; embrace feminism as a form of individualism; embrace Obamacare exchanges as a conservative idea (which it was), etc.
In other words, so you can get buy-in from temperamental conservatives and attract a broader range of voters, this is the kind of thing the Republican Party, ultimately, is going to have to do. Because none of the things I’ve mentioned is going away.
Until Pax Americana Atomica collapses.
What do you mean by “long political era”? The permanent USG has been in power since at least 1945 with the likes of Limbaugh acting as a phony opposition to the official progressive religion. But remember, you have to pay the soldiers first if you want to keep telling people what to do.
“What is going away is the era in which such conservatives dominated the country’s conversation and direction (the wars in Iraq, torture, gays banned from the military, deficit spending that went to the military, etc.)”
We are still at war, just in other countries. We continue our world-wide bullying agenda. Torture is not a political party issue, except when the left tries to create it as such. Make no mistake, torture happened while Bill Clinton was in office. He turned that job over to other countries, such as Egypt, who did far more despicable things than we would ever do. And don’t let yourself believe the Democrats in Congress were not aware of what was going on. Do you not believe the military is getting huge appropriations now? Look at their budget. It’s unbelievable! And don’t forget, we are in the biggest financial hole we have ever been in, and most of our debt is owed to Communist China!!
The American people, even those former Obama fans, are waking up and realizing we’ve all been lied to. Taxes are up, Healthcare is all about expensive & mandated insurance. Our hard-earned income, if we’re lucky enough to have an income, shrinks every year. Student loans can only be issued by the government and those rates are high! No one on Wall Street nor in the government has been charged for the outrageous financial crimes of six + years ago. They all just got that much richer. And the final straw for many? Congress, the administration & their staff are all excused from participating in Obamacare, thanks to Obama!!
So while the left, especially in California, who have most likely never listened to Rush Limbaugh, may be happy he is no longer on KFI, that doesn’t mean conservatives are diminishing. If anything, it proves what we’ve known for a long time… that the media is biased and promotes the liberal agenda exclusively.