March madness has begun on Capitol Hill, and almost as predictable as a B horror film, the slashing has begun. House Republicans have made a small down payment on their plan to make massive budget cuts. Perhaps emboldened by November's results and maybe even covered by the public's fascination with the O.J. Simpson trial, Republicans have succeeded in attacking a variety of social programs without much of a public outcry. It was really unseemly to hear Rush Limbaugh asking for support for something. I mean, that just doesn't work.
Talk radio is about venting, it's about anger, it's about tearing down.
Some people are very concerned about talk shows, radio talk shows in general, of course. Most of them around the country have a decidedly conservative bent. The rap that some people give them is that they reflect the views of a very vocal minority, the extremists in this country, and don't really reflect the true nature of political debate in the United States. And, as a matter of fact, they tend to be quite divisive and sort of have a bad, a negative impact on the country. There will be a natural corrective to the 1994 election results as soon as the electorate calms down and notices who gets the money the newly empowered Republicans are busy redirecting away from such shocking frills as school lunches and toward more traditional expenditures, like welfare for the rich.