Flashback – Morton Downey Jr. show.

[wakeflood]

I just saw this article about a former Conservative reminiscing about the Morton Downey Jr. show. There’s a new documentary coming out about it.

Has a couple great quotes in the article that I thought summarized things nicely.

One is that he reiterates the notion that MDJ begat Limbaugh/O’Reilly shoutdown tv just like Lee Atwater begat Turd Blossom modern dirty political tricks.

The other quote that I thought is wonderfully succinct and spot on is this:

“Post-Reagan conservatism is largely based on stunted, undeveloped, childish, contra-empirical ideas about the world — ideas that both confirm and enable simplistic notions about the role of government in society.”

He goes on…”The success of the Downey show was due to the carefully choreographed delivery of the ideas from an authoritative, alpha-male role model who wasn’t afraid to throw down like a testosterone-possessed teenage boy. He was a heavy metal political rocker without the long hair and leather and he used the persona to tap into that politically immature mindset.”

Hoping we figure out how to move on to a better political zeitgeist asap.

A link to the article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/25-years-later-morton-dow_b_3397844.html

Share This

[anonyme]

Wake, great analysis as usual. I love reading what you write, even when some get their knickers in a knot over nothing. Your posts are interesting, thought-provoking, and opinionated, and yet detailed, well-argued, and factual.

I hadn’t thought about MDJ in years, but now I see the correlation. I wish the screaming would stop.

Share This

[wakeflood]

Um…TYVM. That’s very kind! And for anyone already thinking it, “anonyme” isn’t my alias. ;-)

But it certainly bears note that 93.67% of that post was attributions or quotes!

Share This

[Author]

Posts