Are we witnessing the beginning of the end of Trump loyalists defining conversations on talk radio?
Talk radio has been dominated by right-leaning conservative hosts and callers. Even on my show, where I present the voice of an Independent radical moderate who is not afraid to challenge President Trump on his threat to the truth, I am seeing and hearing more texts and calls from individuals that do not worship the President as the savior of America. Could the winds of change be in the air?
Last Friday, I noticed an unusual surge of anti-Trump texts and calls. The general messages were: “Hang up on these Trump idiots!” - “Why do you try to reason with Trumpsters?” - “Scoot, you’re doing a great job and don’t let the Trumpsters get to you.” A series of calls from listeners that day carried the same tone of Trump-bashing. There was a definite change in the collective attitude of the listeners.
When I returned to the show Tuesday after the Labor Day holiday, I noticed that the trend of anti-Trump sentiment was continuing. Momentum was building and by Wednesday when I was honest about the flood of new news about Trump admitting that he downplayed the serious threat of Covid-19 to the American people, the surge of anti-Trump texts and calls hit a peak. Yesterday, texts were active and the phone lines were lit up from the beginning of my show at 1:00 pm to the end at 4:00 pm.
The devastating narrative spawned by the words of President Trump, himself, about hiding the truth about the dangers of the coronavirus from the American people came in the wake of credible news sources reporting that when Trump made an excuse for not attending a ceremony at an American cemetery in France in 2018 - an excuse that was factually proven to be wrong - there were comments made by the President about that time that the men who signed up for the military and died for their country were “losers” and “suckers.”
With these two damaging narratives about President Trump hitting at about the same time - we may be seeing Trump’s autocratic-style reign reaching the tipping point. The “tipping point” refers to that point at which a series of small changes or incidents becomes significant enough to cause a larger, more important change and applies to everything from products to politicians. A friend, who is aware of the workings of the media, called me this morning to tell me that she noticed an unusual number of anti-Trump callers into the morning show on WWL Radio. Could this be the beginning of the tipping point for the lies and the deceit of the Trump Administration?
There are three basic groups of radio listeners: the myopic Trump loyalists - the Trump haters - and those who are part of the virtual common sense political party. Those who are part of this virtual common sense party don’t hate Trump and they also don’t accept everything he says as gospel. This group is more rational at assessing the reality of what is best for America. This group is the group that decides elections. President Trump’s reelection does not depend on his hardcore base. There are not enough of them in numbers to guarantee a victory for the President in November. The Trump haters are not large enough as a group to remove Trump from office. This election - as with all presidential elections - will be decided by the Independents and the moderate Democrats and Republicans. And this is the group that may be increasing the volume of their political voice.
The silent majority is not the Trump loyalists - the silent majority is the Independents and the moderates from both parties and it could be that the silent majority will no longer remain silent in the aftermath of the stream of factual news that has been released about the man behind the public facade of the President.
This new collective voice does not guarantee that Trump will not be reelected, but it could be a new factor in the political world of 2020 that more resembles a three-ring circus than a political campaign.
Smaller groups from the right and the left get more media attention because of their extreme views. That is the nature of news. It is time for the group that will determine the outcome of the election to become more vocal and drown out the dominance of the extremes from the right and the left.
And respect for freedom of expression in America supports ending the silence of the silent majority.