WASHINGTON — Here I am on the campaign trail, frenetically
promoting my book,
The Death of Liberalism. I appear on scores of radio
interviews, in and out of the studio. I appear on Fox News and
C-SPAN. I hardly have time for dinner, but it could be more
demanding still. I could be invited to appear on mainstream media,
as it is still quaintly called. Yet I am not. ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN,
and MSNBC do not call. I, the editor of a major magazine from the
right that has been around for 45 years, have written a book
arguing that a major political ideology, Liberalism, is dead, and
no one in the mainstream media seems to think it merits even a
spitball. Things have changed even more than the mainstream media
knows.
Thirty years ago, when I came out with a book, all the above
networks — at least all the above networks that were then in
business — would have me on. They thought I was crazy, but they
would have me on. Through all these years my views have not changed
or radicalized. They remain pretty much fixed, though possibly I am
a little bit more liberal. I am more tolerant of sexual diversity.
I have flipped and oppose capital punishment. I am open to
reforming the criminal justice system to treat nonviolent crime
differently from violent crimes. But today the mainstream media is
alien country to me. I cannot get in even with a green card. Three,
possibly four, presidents have been my friends, but I remain
persona non grata with mainstream media, especially when I talk
about politics.
The voices of conventional mainstream media never tire of
mawkishly saying that something has changed in America. In this I
agree with them. Yet as my hordes of publicists spread out through
medialand tempting the personages with appetizing morsels of my
thesis, only the conservatives bite. The Liberals turn a stony
face. In 2009 when Sam Tanenhaus came out with a book titled
The Death of Conservatism they clapped their hands, though
there was no evidence in the book to support its thesis,
and a year later, on October 19, 2010, as the conservatives were
about to have their mightiest victory in decades, the
unfortunate Tanenhaus came out with a second edition now in
paperback!
Today, of course, the mainstream media bewail how polarized the
political landscape has become. They fret over the violent
language, the dirty tricks, the lack of dialogue. But what they are
fretting about is that there has over the past thirty years
appeared a point of view that disagrees with the serried ranks of
Liberalism. It is the point of view held by 42 percent of the
American people. It is the point of view that has dominated
politics since Ronald Reagan’s election and gained emphasis since
President Bill Clinton threw up his hands and said, “The era of big
government is over.” It was in retreat in the last years of George
W. Bush and perhaps the first six months of President Obama, but
now it is again dominant. It is also a perfectly respectable point
of view.
As I continue on my campaign, I am increasingly aware that what
has changed in the country is mainstream media. They are less
hospitable to conservatives. They act like a political party, an
especially partisan party. Conservatives have emerged in media to
express their point of view on major issues of the day. This is
diversity of opinion that the increasingly partisan mainstream
media cannot countenance, and so they say it is shocking. It is
incendiary. It is closed-minded.
Actually, one of the rare figures on television or radio that
strenuously works to include both the left and the right in debates
is — prepare yourself — Sean Hannity of Fox News. He really works
at it. He airs people who disagree with him and he lets the left
and the right have at each other. As for mainstream media, if it
airs a debate between the left and the right the person on the
right is usually a critic of the right who feigns a therapeutic
message for conservatism, say, David Frum, a man with no standing
on the right.
I say wherever I go nowadays that Liberalism is dead. One piece
of evidence is mainstream media. It pretends the dominant political
view in the country does not exist, conservatism.
