Trouble on the Right

Any practitioner of politic's black arts knows that drama, envy, and animosity are the very lifeblood of success. The only further degradation is the insulting claim that these people make that this behavior will "bring us together."


                         Trouble on the Right

Bill O'Reilly's show, "No Spin News," which currently airs on his website and across YouTube, will be broadcast twice daily on The First, a conservative digital television network that runs on several platforms, including ViacomCBS-owned Pluto TV. This announcement has been reported as a significant event in the propagation of the Right/Conservative movement. It looks to be just the opposite.

For the last years the Right/Center-Right position has been remarkably available. But the thoughtful position is shrinking. Coulter is too abrasive, Will too abstract. The successes on the Right have been the very accessible talk and television personalities. While O'Reilly has been one of these, he is not ideologically Right and now has been marginalized. (He once had 5 million viewers.) Levin has recently extended his contract and has some reach. But Thomas Sowell is over 85, Walter Williams is 83. Hannity is loud and liked but offers more screed than creed.

The real crisis on the Right is Limbaugh. He is estimated as having 50 million listeners. He is unmistakenly Right, has the simple, focused approach of Reagan, a midwest voice, and seems to have a good heart. But his recent diagnosis is grim and he is likely dying. Metastatic lung cancer has a terrible prognosis and it is hard to imagine his living the year. If true, that will have consequences.

Ours is a culture that tries to think about things as superficially as possible. The decline of public Conservative positions will cede the field to the arrogant and grasping Left, strangely supported by its congenital opponent, the Press. In a leaderless, drifting, and silent culture, anything could be bumped into in the night.