Who is Watching MSNBC?

There is something strange happening in American politics.  Viewers have left the far left network, MSNBC, in droves over the past year.  It is getting to the point where the hosts of MSNBC and a few friends and family members are the only viewers tuning in to watch.  The Rachel Maddow show is the network’s leading program and her ratings have dropped precipitously.

There are several plausible answers for why MSNBC is doing so poorly with the viewers.  First, the views expressed on the network are often one-sided and very liberal.  Unlike Fox News or CNN, MSNBC often stacks its segments with liberal pundits, at which time the host and guests lather themselves in praise and adornments.  Second, it is not news.  While the rest of the world is talking about Benghazi or the IRS scandal, MSNBC is covering wild fires in California.  If the MSNBC viewer gets his or her news from MSNBC exclusively, they will be uninformed.  Finally, the hosts are annoyingly urbane.  Maddow, Hayes, and O’Donnell fancy themselves as intellectuals.  For all of their egalitarian chatter, their journalistic style is anything but equal.  They are pedantic in their approach and I can see this being a major turnoff to most viewers.

Conservatives, on the other hand, are dominating the media.  Fox News and talk radio are head and shoulders above anything the left is attempting to accomplish.   With that said, here is the money question.  Why do Democrats do well in elections, while Republicans tend to struggle?  Here are three potential answers to the question.  Pop culture, education, and infighting.

Pop Culture

Few people would deny that Barack Obama has been a Hollywood president.  His electoral success is based on his popularity, not his effectiveness to properly govern.  Even when things go badly and it is apparent that Obama lacks the skillset to deal with significant issues, his popularity remains high.  Hollywood is inundated with liberals.  Movies and television programs frequently have liberal undercurrents.  Hollywood is like free advertising for liberalism.  Unfortunately the public never gets to see the true impact of liberal policies.   The screenwriters tend to omit the nasty stuff in the scripts.

Education

Teachers are nudged to vote Democrat by the unions.  I have never understood why so many teachers support liberal candidates.   It is liberalism that has created the mess we are in.  It is liberalism that has created the environment that is so difficult for teachers to be effective.  Yet, teachers and faculty consistently wed themselves to liberalism.

The process of indoctrination occurs in many grade schools, high schools, and colleges.  It is not always obvious.  In many instances it is a few passages in a textbook.  It may be a slant in the way the course is taught.  It may be the prohibition of celebrating certain Christian or traditional holidays.  In any event, conservatives need to get involved in education.

Republican Infighting

There is a division within the Republican Party between the institutionalized Washington insider Republicans and the Tea Party Republicans.  The former tend to dismiss and trivialize the efforts made by the latter.  I find the Tea Party refreshing for one important reason.  Generally speaking, you know where they stand.  They believe in constitutional government, state rights, limited power at the national level, and fiscal responsibility.  It is a chapter out of Ronald Reagan’s playbook.

The problem is that all the infighting has left Republicans without a clear message.  There are some excellent ideas on how to replace Obamacare.  Yet, the Republicans are not getting the message out.  They have some valuable solutions for debt reduction, but nobody would know it.

This is the irony in American politics.  As viewers leave the leading liberal network by the thousands, it is not necessarily translating into Republican support.  The conservatives are battling Hollywood, education, and themselves.  It is time for conservatives to be cool.