I do flip back and forth between channels, and have observed a few things:
On Air America, aka Progressive Talk in Boulder: On my drive in in the morning, there's a guy yelling about how Christians control the republican party - the extreme religious right wing fundamentalist party (as oppposed tot he party of everyone else), and how everything they do is about hate - if they're not hating gays, its blacks, if they're not hating blacks it's hispanics.
Those Chritians are always hating, and that is what the republican party is about.
In the afternoon there's a show in which the host - in her rather whiny voice - is running a show that is just Bush blaming and Republican bashing.
The shared characteristic is that both hosts will make crazy accusations against Christians, the president, and the republican party, but will follow it up with "is it possible? I don't know. I'll let you decide. Call in with your thoughts." - or a caller will call in and bash one of these feared/hated groups, and the host will let them go on and on, even if they are not making any sense, or are saying things that are untrue - if they are bashing non-liberals, they get as much air time as they need, and they rarely, if ever, correct someone. Usually if they know it isn't true, they let them keep going, and then just say "thanks for the call." When callers do disagree, and actually have a valid argument, they will talk over them, hang up on them, or start playing sound clips to make Bush, or others they are talking about sound bad.
There are times when things like this happen on the other talk radio stations - there are two rather conservative channels, both run by KNUS, and another that seems to go back and forth - I think the guy I hear on that channel is a conservative democrat. Some show hosts seem to be campaigning for republican candidates, and some yell about how both parties are just two parties of crooks, and there's not much difference between the two.
But even the one that seems to be doing the campaigning has his own disagreements with the right-wing party - and I have heard over and over, when someone makes a crazy accusation against "the Libs" or some liberal leader, if it isn't something that is documented, or received by the host directly from the source, the host says that they've never heard that and they think it's an urban myth, or a misquote, and until they see the documentation behind it, they will not put that forth on their show.
My understanding is that Air America has been financed since the beginning by the Democrat party, moveon.org and other democrat party sponsors - and the way they host their shows is parallel to the campaigning most seen from the left-wing party - insult the other party to no end, and when disagreement arises, begin insulting or just cut off the dissenter. I think this is a shame, because there is a lot wrong with the Republican party, but no one will ever know if there is actually anything right with the Democrat party, because they only talk poorly about their opponents, and offer nothing substantive themselves.
There's a local candidate being called by the other campaign "Both ways Bob" as they say he has flip-flopped on issues. But there is no positive campaigning for his opponent - no one knows who is putting the signs and ads out. Fine, maybe Bob has flip-flopped on issues.. but at least he's done something with issues... We don't even know anything about his opponent, why should we think (s)he would be better?
I think the Kerry campaign was an experiment to see if the public would vote for one guy who didn't stand for anything other than not being the other guy. The removal of substance, issues, and platform in democracy - the change from convincing the public of your quality to smearing your opponent. The experiment failed, and the president who had put us into war in Iraq won the election.
Yet this still seams the strategy - don't tell anyone what you stand for, just talk about how horrible your opponent is and remind peope that you, like 6 billion other people on the planet, are at least not the other guy.
If you have an mp3 player, or just the time to listen to something on your computer, I recommend the podcast Free Talk Live. It's libertarian oriented (not the Party, the principle) and it's kind of nice to hear something that isn't just bashing the other side.
Thanks for the tip - I do have an mp3 player, but when we moved I lost the cable for it.. so I've been stuck with the same mps for almost a year now :)
One thing that I do appreciate, is that since Bush does act very liberal in some ways (like government spending and political correctness), the conservative talk shows have become much more centrist - they don't really like Bush in a lot of ways either.
I think you make some excellent points. But I'm not going to comment on any of them. Not because I agree or disagree, but simply because I need to go to bed right now. And if I start commenting, soon I'll be too angry to sleep.
This post has reminded me that politics - something that (as far as I know) is supposed to be about serving the people, has become nothing more than serving oneself and insulting your opponent. You're right, it is pretty sad that neither party can agree to have intelligent discussion on any topic.
. . . that's all I'm going to say!