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I miss one of the best discussion boards ever to exist in Delaware’s political spectrum. Moderated by WDEL’s Allan Loudell, it’s closure coincided with the removal of Al Mascitti, together which pretty well poisoned the well of all imaginative creative discussion in the Delaware virtual world.
Google popped this discussion in a recent search of mine and nostalgia caused me to flick back and reminisce…
The topic was fascinating… All the regular players commenting back in April 2015 on how this election would pan out… And now…. we enter November….
Here is that fascinating snippet revisited…..
Discussion:
8:17am, Tue, Apr 14, 2015
EarlGrey
The strategy I have heard from every Republican contender (including those who have not yet jumped into the race) is simply asking “What accomplishments does Hillary actually have?”
She has had some very important government positions, but what did she actually accomplish while in any of these jobs?
8:39am, Tue, Apr 14, 2015
Mike from Delaware
Hillary has somethings going for her that Mitt Romney didn’t. First, she’s a woman; second, she’s not a Mormon. The majority of female voters will overlook the mud thrown on Hillary by the right-wing media folks; the “sisterhood” will close ranks. As I’ve said before, Reagan, Papa Bush, and Little Bush’s wives were pro-choice even though their husbands were pro-life. Women see those issues very differently than men. They’ll see Hillary as the first President who’ll truly understand their feelings, needs, and viewpoints.
Hillary is a United Methodist, not a Mormon. The typical DEM voter is moderate to liberal. They’d see a Mormon candidate as being VERY religious, and as the Mormon Church does NOT support LGBT stuff, they’d NOT want to vote for a Mormon. The United Methodists in the U.S., on the other hand, are not as dogmatic, and the U.S. membership would vote to support LGBT stuff. What keeps that from happening is the United Methodist church is a worldwide group, so the votes are taken from around the world. As a result, the fast-growing churches on the continent of Africa are very conservative and as they get more delegates to the churchwide body, due to their growth, they’ve voted down any changes to support LGBT marriage, clergy, etc., within the UM church. So the only reason the UM church has not supported LGBT stuff is due to the African church; European and U.S. Methodists do support LGBT stuff. So my point is many of the United Methodists ARE DEMS, and are moderate to liberal in their political viewpoints, thus making them likely Hillary voters.
9:57am, Tue, Apr 14, 2015
EarlGrey
I’m curious: Are Democrats as excited about Hillary as non-Establishment Republicans are about Jeb Bush? Only the Establishment/Big Money Republicans want Jeb… is this the same on the other side of the political aisle?
And, if not Hillary who? O’Malley? Warren? Chris Christie? I actually think that Christie would be a tough contender for Hillary to beat.
The current Republican field has quite a few exciting/young candidates offering fresh/new ideas to choose from…and a LOT more diversity than the Democrat candidates.
10:26am, Tue, Apr 14, 2015
Mike from Delaware
EarlGrey: I don’t know if they’re new fresh ideas. Sounds like the usual G.O.P. stuff. Cut government, cut benefits to the poor, lower taxes on the wealthy, continue to give corporate welfare to businesses like the oil industry, and my favorite: Social Security is an entitlement that’s going to bankrupt the nation as those Senior Citizens who’ve paid their Social Security insurance premium for 40+ years [in my case, 47 years] are takers just like the welfare folks.
So far I’ve not heard much difference yet. You see, I’d be an old-style Democratic liberal on helping the little guy and conservative on moral issues, kind of like the FDR/Truman/Kennedy Democrats. Thus, why I’m not a Republican nor a Democrat. Republicans have the moral stuff and the DEMS have the ‘helping-the-little-guy’ stuff.
No matter how these young turks in the G.O.P. want to spin Reaganomics a.k.a. Trickle-Down Economics, it never has, and never will work. The theory is great. FB had a picture showing a bunch of wine glasses stacked on top of each other in a pyramid. The top glass gets full and then the wine overflows and trickles down into the next level, and when those get filled, the wine trickles down to the next lower level, and so on. The second photo shows the reality. That top wine glass gets filled and then it just keeps getting larger and larger so none trickles down. Fix that aspect of the problem and I’d gladly buy into to the trickle-down vision. But sadly greed is a major part of the human condition, and those folks on top truly believe they NEED all that, and just are NOT willing to allow the trickle-down happen to the great unwashed lower-class folks. So trickle-down won’t work, and each time our nation’s tried it, the results are the same. Time to find another approach.
12:08pm, Tue, Apr 14, 2015
EarlGrey
Then you aren’t listening Mike. Rand Paul was recently in Detroit offering some very good/fresh ideas on how to breathe life back into that once-great city… Cruz and Rubio also have some very good ideas on how to fix many of the very broken parts of our country’s federal government/economy/banking/world status.
One of my favorite Rand Paul ideas is to place term limits on Congress! That would go a long way to repairing the corruption in government by eliminating career politicians who remain in office till they die.
JFK was also a young/energized senator who changed this country because he had vision and truly loved this country…I would gladly vote for him (though I seriously doubt he could get today’s Democrats to elect him). Maybe we should toss out the “trickle down” theory and go for the “rising tide” theory of JFK.
BTW, I am still not sure any of the current 3 “youngsters” running are going to win…but they are bringing fresh ideas to the table which is a lot more than can be said for Hillary.
1:10pm, Tue, Apr 14, 2015
Mike from Delaware
EarlGrey: I like the idea of term limits, but also remember the G.O.P. Contract on America Newt used in 1996 that had as one of its key planks term limits for Congress. Funny how when the Republicans got the power, they actually said, we no longer need term limits since we’re now the ones in control. So fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. The problem is most members of Congress don’t believe they need term limits, and they’re the ones who’ve got to pass it. This isn’t something a President can do via EO; not even Obama can do that. So that’s one of those bogus issues politicians throw out into the mix knowing full well they’ll never have to deliver on it. Same with Abortion. The Supremes have said abortion is constitutional and to not allow it is un-constitutional. So candidates are simply flapping their gums saying their going to stop abortion. It isn’t going to happen.
The rising tide theory sounds good too, but without legislation from the government taxing those wealthy folks so that their excessive wealth actually gets spread around, it isn’t going to happen. Republicans are against taxing the wealthy, so the rising tide theory doesn’t work either.
See the problem is there are way too many ways for the rich to make tons of money, pay little or no tax on it, and then hold on to it and not pass it on, or spread the wealth. If they don’t have to do it, then it won’t be done. The wealthy control the system, including the government, so much of this is academic. At least the DEMS want the wealthy to pay a bigger tax, which does help. The tax rate for the wealthiest folks had been far higher during the New Deal years [1932-1980] than the rate has been since 1980. Note since 1980 the rich have become even richer and the poor even poorer, with the middle-class becoming a rare breed. So from where I sit, Americans were better off during the New Deal Era than the Trickle Down Era.
So I’m listening to the “youngsters” of the G.O.P., but knowing they all are TEA folks makes me even less believing they’ll not hurt the least of these while protecting the wealthy. Of course it’s still very early until November 2016, so we’ll see how things play out.
I agree that the G.O.P. young turks may not win and it might have more to do with Obama. Obama, himself was a young turk when he ran for Prez with fresh new ideas, etc., etc. The nation was tired after 8 long years of Bush Jr. and his wars. The nation took a chance and elected the young turk. Now folks are a bit tired of the young turk and his new ideas and want some stability. Enter Hillary Clinton. She’s a rock. She’s been there, done that, got the tee shirt, ball cap, and sweatshirt. People remember also that the last time our nation had “good times” where we had a surplus, etc., was during Bubba Clinton’s years as Prez. So many folks just may be willing to over look the baggage [and Bubba’s womanizing] that comes with the Bill and Hillary Show, because they want a an adult to take the reigns of leadership again. As of now, that’s Hillary. Even Jeb Bush doesn’t have that going for him. Hillary is seen by most folks other than the ultra-right wing TEA folks, as being a moderate DEM like her husband. I believe she’ll be a difficult opponent for the Republicans to beat.
2:09pm, Tue, Apr 14, 2015
EarlGrey
Mike: If you fear politicians who will protect the wealthy then you should steer clear of Hillary, Jeb, and Chris Christie. Your candidate should probably be either Elizabeth Warren or Ted Cruz if you are against insulating the rich. Warren’s solutions come from the Left and Cruz from the Right, but both oppose protecting the uber-wealthy (in very different ways). Warren wants higher taxes and Cruz wants a flat-tax and rewards for businesses that relocate/manufacture in the United States. Higher taxes chases businesses to other countries…and with them goes their tax base.
I refuse to vote for either Jeb or Christie because there is no real difference between them and Hillary. HRC and Jeb’s funders are Big Money/Big Business leaders hoping to elect “their own candidate” so they can reap the rewards once that person is in office.
BTW, I’m not a “ultra-rightwing Tea folk”, but do know that Hillary is nothing like Bubba…Bill Clinton (love him or hate him) was a personable guy who truly was a Blue Dog Dem…Hillary is not. She is more like one of your favorite presidents (and my least)… Woodrow Wilson. This week on SNL summed up many of HRC’s “likeability issues”…again I say, she is nothing like Bill.
4:13pm, Tue, Apr 14, 2015
Arthur
So far 2016 is shaping up to be like most elections – the lesser of the evils.
4:15pm, Tue, Apr 14, 2015
kavips
At this point, there is no one else who is even remotely viable in the Dems’ camp. And at this point, there is no one in the Republicans’ camp worth of a national race.
Therefore, at this point, Hillary wins 2016 hands down.
5:47pm, Tue, Apr 14, 2015
Mike from Delaware
EarlGrey: I agree with your assessment of Liz Warren and Ted Cruz. With Liz, I know she’ll not mess with Social Security for folks 55+; with Ted I still don’t know that. So if it were between the two and the election were today, Liz Warren would get my vote.
Sadly, Liz Warren has repeatedly said she’s not running in 2016 [probably in deference to Hillary].
Like I said, it’s early, and Ted Cruz has time to make his case to me that his administration would veto ANY attempt by Congress to change anything in Social Security for the 55+ group that would cut benefits or raise the age of retirement.
In that previous post I wasn’t implying you are an ultra right-wing tea party person, but those youngsters are.
I agree Hillary’s big Achilles Heel is her lack of being very likable. Ole Bubba has charisma, a guy who’d have a beer with you, go to a ball game and eat a hot dog with, and just be a regular “Joe”, whereas Hillary comes across cold and aloof. However, at this moment, she is the adult in the room and the nation might be ready to have someone a bit more experienced and mature vs. another Young Turk after 8 years of the Young Turk Obama. People have fond memories of the Clinton years so the appeal to go back to a better time is in her favor. Sort of they did it before, so maybe they can do it again.
8:24am, Wed, Apr 15, 2015
EarlGrey
Mike: Hillary is attempting to coast in on Bill’s credentials, but she’s nothing like him.
Americans by-and-large are sick of the state of our country and the world, thanks in large part to this administration. Hillary was actually a part of this administration and The First Lady under the Bill Clinton administration. She can’t run on an actual record and must depend on “the past” that her president hubby accomplished.
How many companies would hire a man for the impressive resume of his wife? Same thing here…Bill has the record of accomplishment and Hillary hasn’t really accomplished anything beyond receiving high-powered government jobs thanks to who her husband was… what would be said of a Republican woman who did the same? Again, judge the candidates by what they have done and their own past records… and don’t assume Hillary will be Bill Clinton 2.0
BTW, The Clinton Machine is expected to spend more than 2 BILLION dollars to buy Hillary the Presidency… sure sounds like she is backed by the ultra-rich she condemns in speeches. This 2B is twice what 0bama spent to buy the Presidency…so much for the myth that Republicans are with the uber-rich and Democrats despise the 1%ers.
kavips: Both Rand Paul and Scott Walker are currently beating Hillary by a few points… a few months back, no one was close to her. Hillary just isn’t an exciting candidate and does not have the charisma of Bill Clinton, Rand Paul, Scott Walker, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, or many others soon to join the 2016 race.
11:00am, Wed, Apr 15, 2015
Mike from Delaware
EarlGrey: Sadly, the conservative Supreme Court ruled that businesses are people and can donate as much money as they like. So the reality is both parties will spend Billions of dollars on radio/TV/press ads – such a waste of money – but that is a market-driven way to run a campaign.
A better way would be like what Norway does. The government pays for the campaigns, and it is only 3 weeks long. Norway has televised debates, etc., just no radio/TV/press ads. So no fundraising. Until our system evolves to some version of that, where money isn’t a factor, the wealthy folks in the U.S. — be they liberal or conservative — will continue to grease the skids of their favorite candidates as they continue to buy elections [The Koch Brothers and Grover Norquist come to mind for the conservative side of the aisle].
This is one area where the socialists have a better idea, but heaven forbid we’d ever use a socialistic idea in the good ole U.S. of A. Take the good ideas from socialism and throw the rest out, is my motto. Same with capitalism. In other words, make a hybrid version that uses the best from both capitalism and socialism; that is what we Americans do best, making a system our own. Good luck getting that past the G.O.P./TEA Party folks though.
11:19am, Wed, Apr 15, 2015
EarlGrey
Mike: My main point was the hypocrisy of Hillary condemning WallStreet/Big Money with one hand and receiving billions from the exact same people/businesses (plus questionable contributors from Saudi Arabia) with the other hand.
I actually agree with the “Norway solution” you suggest…limit each candidate to a set monetary number for their campaign and let American citizens actually hear all the candidates in a series of debates.
And yes, Grover and the Kochs do fund Republican candidates BUT the Left is as well…the hypocrisy is the Democrats demonizing the Right for doing the exact same thing they themselves are doing (George Soros, Media Matters, Bill Gates…etc.)
It would also be great if NO political parties were listed/shown on the ballot and people were forced to know who they were actually voting for rather than pulling a L or R lever for a straight-ticket choice.
1:36pm, Wed, Apr 15, 2015
kavips
Although big donors can be found on both sides, the best measurement is which side actually gets grass-roots support?
48% of Obama’s funding came from donors under the $200 level. 9% of Republicans were small donors…
http://cfinst.org/Press/PReleases/12-02-08/Small_Donors_in_2011_Obama_s_Were_Big_Romney_s_Not.aspx
So big funding is not equal, and never should be arbitrarily equated as so between the two parties.
To understand why, go here.
http://www.demos.org/publication/billion-dollar-democracy-unprecedented-role-money-2012-elections
Citizens United now allows elections to be bought by a handful of players. Less than 10% of America has ever given to a political campaign.
1:43pm, Wed, Apr 15, 2015
EarlGrey
kavips: I agree..and that’s how Republicans ended up running Mittens R. Money in 2012. If Big Money wins out this time, the Republicans will nominate Jeb Bush, and Hillary will win the nomination from the Democrats. There is very little difference between these two.
The grassroots in the Republican party support Cruz, Paul and Walker…the Establishment Republicans (i.e. Big Money) support Jeb and Christie.
1:59pm, Wed, Apr 15, 2015
Mike from Delaware
EarlGrey and Kavips: I think we all may be on a similar page and have a basic agreement.
The key for a Ted Cruz though is to not be a TEA robot and really lay out clearly what he wants to do, including his stand on Social Security and abortion, assuming he’s not going to try to stop it [thus possibly gaining female voters – again the Court has already ruled]. If he can do that and not lose his G.O.P. support, you never know, he might be able to energize folks like me to actually vote for a TEA party candidate, but we’ll have to wait and see/hear what happens between now and November 2016. If Ted is smart, he could cause a major upset, but that’s a large IF.
8:56pm, Thu, Apr 16, 2015
mrpizza
We’ve already had 8 years of Julius Rosenberg as president. Do we really have to balance it out with another 8 years of Ethel?
You realize the efficacy of our media in times like these…
It is in times like these that I really miss Al Mascitti… when you want comfort, truth, and real news, there is no where else to turn to… now, since he is gone.
We should be talking about how we need to bridge things and build together. Al was good for that… Although known for bashing people who corruptly took advantage of little people, he was very even handed and would also bash those who tried to take the little people defense too far…
He was an eye on truth. If you wanted to find out details gleaned from the breadth of the Internet which you didn’t have time to peruse, he was the only trusted source you could turn to…
With Al, a story had nothing to do with politics and everything to do with truth… Where some on media are more concerned about spinning lies to create a certain “message”, Al was concerned with finding the “message” immersed in a sea of lies….
Today on WDEL, we hear no empathy about “Black Lives Matter”. The answer why is obvious; to the financial management there…. black lives simply don’t. (Actions speak louder than words)
Instead you hear about the need for more police liberties…Callers insisting they should be able to randomly come into your home and arrest you if they think you are up to no good; without the need of any collaborating proof….
Obviously they are just fishing for bites now.. Completely oblivious that was why we became a nation back in 1776; because that was what the British were doing and we objected to it strenuously enough to suffer a new nation. Now, instead of restricting gun purchases, they recommend constricting everyone’s freedom formerly protected by the US Constitution…
And… no one calls in to object? No one says anything contrary? Making the subliminal message coming across the air being that this is what our country should be doing?…
But that is the opposite of what America is saying on social media. That is the opposite of what George W Bush and President Obama both said at the Dallas memorial for the fallen officers. That is the exact opposite of what bosses all across this nation calling all their workers together, are saying to their staffs.. That is exactly opposite of what parents are telling their children….
Which is, that blacks, Hispanics, and whites are all the same… They start as kids, grow up, and eventually die. They love, hate, feel the same honor and pride, no matter the color of their skin.
But if you look for that anywhere in corporately owned media… you can’t find it.. It is flat out not there… Instead they fall back on tired old phrases. Instead they retreat into the same 10 step plans. Instead they resort to find one single difference and harp on that like it is the only thing that matters in the entire universe…..
Well, none of those things matter. and WDEL, if that is your take on life, it follows that you no longer matter.For we have grown bigger as a nation. We have grown better as a nation, and if we can’t find positives on our airwaves, only divisiveness and hate, we are picking up our shoes and moving elsewhere….
You once led the broadcasting field and dropped Rush Limbaugh substituting it local programming. That is when I started listening…
You once had a great balance between Al and Rick… Sometimes they even agreed but often they differed; we still knew them both as great guys…
Now, you dropped investigating truth…. for another…. Oprah….. Where there is no truth, there are no listeners.
Hint: there is a REASON Oprah is no longer on daytime TV….
Today, as I was sitting on my lawn chair soaking up the hot temperature, a cabbage butterfly flew over me.
My first thought was oh wow, I have to mention this to Allan.
But then, I remember, they pulled the plug on comments to their blog, so this little conversation that should have lead to other conversations and topics, will never happen.
Death …. it is final.
Lol. he will hate me now… I’m talking about Al Mascitti. And as a disclaimer, I acknowledge that now in hind sight, the Donald stands far more negatively than any American in recent memory so this analogy probably has so much additional clutter attached, it no longer is a good one… sigh.
If I can ask your indulgence, I will only continue to make that connection because like the Donald, Al Mascitti was able to vent the frustration millions of American’s feel towards their government who sold them out instead to a higher bidder… We now understand how a slave teen felt, growing up in a nice plantation home, friends of the family even though a servant, and at a young age, without warning, being put on the block and auctioned off to a highest bidder…
Al brought that home.. His rages supposedly got him in trouble. “People don’t want to hear that” is how Rick Jensen tried to gloss over it… But Al was no different then Glenn Beck and people lapped THAT up. He was no different than Rush Limbaugh. People lapped THAT up. He was no different than Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, or Fox News for that matter… He simply expressed controlled anger towards the establishment.
Just like the Donald…
And a large number of silent people DID want to hear those frustrations that mirrored their daily lives.. Instead, it was the “control elements” of our society, who didn’t want you to hear it… The same big money Republicans who didn’t want you to hear Donald Trump. First they put their money on Jeb Bush.. That fizzled. Next, they put their money on Rubio… That fizzled, their money is now on Cruz… who is fizzling… These “controllers” were wrong about the anger just as Delmarva Broadcasting was wrong about Al’s “anger”… and anger most of us called “constructive thought”….
The “anger of the American People” is like a hard rain falling… It sits on flat land until it finds a place to go, and then the pent of weight of all that water flows with a vengeance….
The anger has slowly been building for 15 years as Republicans stopped the Federal Government from doing its job, as corporate giants moved into the vacuum with impunity, as people became stretched like too little butter on a slice of bread… Now, the bread is tearing…
Trump points to Mexicans, Muslims, blacks, gays, disruptors, and Liberals and says, “these are your problem. I’ll exterminate them if you let me do so”… and for many people having less competition in the job market is deemed as a good thing… “Great”, they say, “exterminate the whole lot of them..”
Bernie points to corporations and the rich, and says… “These are your problem.. We will restrain them with laws and jail sentences if you put me in power, they must obey the law the same as you…” and for many people who were raised on America’s moral values in churches and synagogues, putting needs of people over the need to make more money, is not bad at all.
When Trump lashes out, his supporters cheer… When Al lashed out, his supporters cheered.. The difference is in who those supporters were. Nothing Al said or did was any different than any other anger channeling human being. But all the people who said they didn’t like Al, all tended to be people who really needed to hear how their actions are really hurting this state as a whole, by hurting all those living in it…
In removing Al, his message was silenced, making this unmentioned threat real. “We are corporate America” this act of firing, states; “we do not stand for dissent against us”. As long as you want to get angry at people trying to tax us, trying to regulate us, trying to hold our feet to the fire so we might have to pay them higher wages, then you can be as angry as you like. You can rail, shout, throw things, no problem. Just don’t tell the truth about how we are stealing all your money and keeping you down in trash heap, or we will shut you up and shut you down.
When you allow one thing for one side and disallow it for the other side, you are playing favorites.
Now as we look around, that is very obvious what happened…because the other side is still being angry. The liberals side was the only side silenced. Making what he was saying be what got him tossed. Not … in how he was saying it…
But if you are Liberal and cannot grasp how anyone could be so supportive of Donald Trump, look at how you feel about Al. Though the message is different the emotion is exactly the same… He told you the truth you secretly knew, but the establishment didn’t want you to hear… And those conservatives who hate him because of what THEY are, are exactly you scratching your head how anyone could possibly follow the Donald.
I wish there was a way a lot of us could run his campaign against John Carney… That is exactly what Delaware needs…. a path for all the flood water to go. Winning the governorship would not be the prime objective; getting an alternative message out and pulling Carney out of conservatism or painting him into a Conservative corner where it couldn’t win, would be highly beneficial to the state for many generations to come….
It’s been a week and WDEL has died. Allan Loudell still gives the best news one can find, but lunch is a busy time. Whereas before, the oscillator was always positioned on 1150 AM or 101.7 FM because of Al Mascitti who was on 9-12 M-F, and the news came on right after, now even though I know Allan comes on at 12, even though I know how good it is, I still forget because I’m already deep into another station… When they hit their commercial break at 12:30, suddenly I remember: oh crap, I missed Allan’s news.
Rick’s show is still Rick and I do listen whenever I get the opportunity, but that usually is random and now rare, simply because as soon as the car turns on, another station begins playing…
The blog of Allan’s has dried up. No one has commented on it since the change over to facebook login only. No one. I wonder how long Allan will dance in the dark, putting up his links and commentary which take a lot of work and time of his, when there is no corroboration that anyone is paying attention. Before it is too late, scroll down past the timeline of change, and see how voluminous the comments often were. I’ve gotten many comments of how less fun life in Delaware is since these changes were made.
Today I listened to Susan for a short spell. Someone from Pike Creek who used to always yell at Al and Al would often yell back and hang up on him, told Susan she was a lot better than her predecessor. Said the previous person in her position was crass, disrespectful, and a disgusting human being. Then he went on to lambaste Liberals as putrid imbeciles, full of hate, disgusting slugs who had ruined the entire world and would not sit still to be lectured about it..
It occurred to me. Al wasn’t a horrible human being.. This person calling in was. A real jerk. A jackass. An insolent piece of pipe one could buy at Ace Hardware for 5 cents a foot. The reason he didn’t like Al was because he couldn’t put his “thing” down on Al’s show. He had nothing to say, but call names.. This made me think since a lot of chatter was speculating that Al was mean and rude, the real problem was those callers who really shouldn’t have been calling in public. I don’t know how many people supposedly complained, but… did we do a psychological examination on all those who did, before taking their side and removing the prime money-maker WDEL had?
But between the hateful spew this commentator gave, Susan, was playing along right with it. Thanking him for listening to her show, and telling him to call in again. Out loud I said… “Damn, what a double standard…. ”
And it became quite clear, personality clashes probably had little to do with it. If you allow one side to be rude and obnoxious, but don’t allow the other, you are playing sides.
There is no progressive side now. Rick’s show is more progressive than Susan’s if you can believe it. Morning radio at WDEL is like listening to the old days at WGMD when Don Ayotte and Frank Knox would call in and spat. 🙂 And there were calls in from Phoenix (obviously a regular caller) and West Virginia, weighing in on Donald Trump? Can we say…. conservative plants?
One can sense all negative feedback over the change will be brushed off by Delmarva Broadcasting. It’s a marketing plan to go after the Southern listeners… However, there are other stations down there with conservative views that conservatives listen to. Al Mascitti was the only option for progressives in this state to catch. The math doesn’t add up. You lose everyone in New Castle County to fight in the margins of Kent and Sussex. New Castle County is Delaware’s most populous with 56% of the state’s population.
Smh.
More on WDEL’s switch up. Sorry to elaborate but you see, they are the reason I decided to settle in Delaware. I have never been opposed to anyone expressing their views.. I have always been opposed to being forced to listen to ONLY one view.
And the former is what WDEL used to offer… Daily I got two viewpoints, morning and afternoon… Sometimes they merged. Sometimes they didn’t. Ironically they merged on local issues for the most part; on national issues, … umm. not so much.
And the latter is what they offer now.
Now those of us who live in the real world (conservatives by their creed, don’t) know that the only thing consistent is change… So though it is with heavy heart that probably the only person in this nation who could get ahead of me and tell me stuff I didn’t already know, is no longer at WDEL, the pragmatic acceptance says that a new reality is upon us.
We can use it; or be ignored by it.
I listened to Susan Monday for a while this morning. Even though she tried to get calls from upstate, they didn’t come… Her topic was Trump… and whether we thought he was “presidential enough”, basically she was playing right out of the Rubio playbook which would immediately disinterest the entire New Castle County.
Calls came in from Lewes, Milford, Milton, Frankford, Salisbury all sticking to the topic. There was no Liz.
And that’s when it hit. As a state we are very different top to bottom. We always joke about it. We’ve been doing it for generations.. and with this listener trying to sit through this morning’s program like one would a corporate dog and pony show meeting, it became apparent real quick, just how different we are…
It was made stark reality by the station’s insistence of calling the station, ALL-STATE radio to advertise it was statewide, and not local. Today’s show may have been carried statewide, but it certainly wasn’t listened to… state wide….
Then I remembered something. During the golden years of blogging which I would rank between 2006 to 2010, one of the greatest things about it was that we had an all-state community. We all commented on each others blogs, north and south. And we were loose cannons,… pretty much calling each other stupid for not agreeing with us, and it was lots of fun.
But what emerged from all that was an understanding of why they thought the way they did… If it wasn’t logical, we saw it was emotional. It it wasn’t practical, we saw it was deeply embedded in how they were raised… Did I say it was fun?
But, over time in the back and forth and back and forth, if an idea was lacking in currency it quietly disappeared. For example, global warming which caused some of the most heated conversations, over time won convert after convert over to the side that humans need to do something. It wasn’t a miracle of persuasion. It was the preponderance of the evidence.
The current went the other way with guns. Those originally wanting to ban ALL guns are nowhere to be found today. Again due to the preponderance of evidence.
It is with sadness that the civility found in the printed words flying back and forth, cannot be found in spoken words replacing them. There is probably a reason for that; one primarily being that the world of written word allows us to take words back from between uttering them and them being communicated. Not so with speech.
But the thought did occur to me today that these people below the canal live in their own little world where their own little world view makes sense. The only way they will grow and expand their knowledge is for them to hear from different perspectives; perspectives which make them realize that they are living on a island and the appearance of water rising higher every year around them is no illusion. There are things out there they need to know.
So it does make sense then for Al Mascitti’s supporters to call the station and explain things as they are, to engage Susan in conversation. It does not make sense for them to boycott the show in deference to Al. Especially when it comes to communicating that the entire problem we have with America today is not because we have a black president who most of America elected because they thought he was pretty awesome….. it is because most of those in Congress refused to do their Constitutionally mandated job because doing so, would make that black president look even more awesome. We have broken national government; it is entirely the Republican’s fault.
Constantly bringing up this fact repeatedly would make those who have only heard one line across the last eight years, that line that Obama has been an ineffective president, actually have to confront the fact that THEY were the ones who throttled government down to a standstill by voting Republican, and therefore THEY are the ones responsible for all our recent tribulations.. one being Donald Trump.
Reminders that facts make a difference.
So to keep Al’s legacy alive, perhaps it is fitting to call Susan Monday to say you represent the top half of the state, and then ask her your question…. politely.
Hello! We, up north, were wondering why you purposefully are avoiding the REAL issues?
- Issues like allowing the wealthy to make up new rules that steal all the middle classes’ money.
- Issues like crippling unions so none of us get paid anything close to what we are worth.
- Issues like underfunding government so much it hurts all of us.
- Issues like allowing hidden money into elections, forcing politicians to be bought so they then pay their purchasers back with our tax money.
- Issues like saddling our children with huge levels of college debt we didn’t have when we bought our first house.
- Issues like not doing anything to stop carbon pollution.
It would be in WDEL’s interest to allow as many as possible of those liberal calls from the North to go through… So it would indeed be ALL STATE radio. For across the last two days, I have yet to see any reason why anyone north of the canal would listen at that frequency between 9 and 12 weekday mornings.
Sooner or later Northern big money cows are going to realize all those advertising dollars spent across that time frame are wasted. I don’t think any of the current WDEL 101.7 advertisers get even one dollar of return on their investment from listeners living south of Dagsboro…
Susan Monday came on at 9:00 today. Susan hails from 105.9, a sister station of WDEL located in Dover. Al has been scrubbed entirely from the WDEL website. Today Susan’s conversation was imported from 2006… “What we should do about waterboarding?” Really? I flipped stations after 15 minutes because that battle was fought and won 10 years ago… The two callers I recognized from battling them back then on Delaware Politics and Delaware Right. Even with Al, I always had another station burning in the background but would hold off depending on Al’s topics. With Susan, it is now a no brainer.
Furthermore at exactly the same time, Allan Loudell’s blog comment section has switched over to only to Facebook verification, there is no bypass. Those of you who do comment on Facebook, and feel disheartened by Al’s absence, should go to Allan Loudell’s blog and replicate the thread you put down at Delaware Liberal..
Whether this change was insisted by someone to shut down a very powerful voice which did create multiple backlashes which in fact, did stymie a rather large number of New Castle County crony get-rich-schemes, OR…. whether it was as is being played, a business move to try and grow more conservative listeners downstate,….. either way, there is now no progressive main stream media outlet in this state.
It’s like the world just went silent.
=====
What can we do?
Use your facebook account to log onto her greeting on Al Loudell’s Blog and express your complaint. (If you get scrubbed, comment on that too, here)
Join the boycott of Boulden Brothers, Sobieski, Calvert (Now One Hour Air) Horizon HVAC, Concord Pet. They are the largest commercial advertisers. (can’t really boycott the DSEA)… Hitting them publicly will put progressitivity back on the burner faster than anything else. Visit them on Facebook.
Scold Susan Monday’s twitter feed that Northern Delaware’s attention span is too short for her ramblings; we are all dropping off … 30 tweets allegedly stand for 30,000 people who didn’t bother to tweet but feel the same way… (That is what Twitter advertising claims.)
And of course tell everyone you know how WDEL has gone downhill. I guess it was destined, being the only true news source in the tri-state area; eventually it would have to go the way of all the others… Now all we get is one sided news, efficiently scrubbed clean of any progressive points, and therefore one sided. WDEL just went from great icon status, to another News Journal.. Seriously, how many of you still look at that anymore?
Sigh, I guess I’ll have to pay more attention to the blogs…
On Rick Jensen today, some figures gave us pause. One in five Delawareans live in poverty. Three out of every five children, live in poverty. The numbers of people going hungry has gotten worse since 2012…. not better.
This happened because of the Republican’s cuts to SNAP, the food stamp program. Originally a family of four in 2012 could spend $750 a month in food stamps. Now it is down to a little over $400 dollars thanks to both Tea Party Republicans and Democrats like John Carney who cowardly don’t stand up to them.
Which means a family of 4 making less than $1500 a month working however many jobs, ate off $25 dollars a day in 2012, but now, thanks to bastards in the Republican Party, is down to 13 dollars a day!
Most go that 4th week in the cycle goes with very little or no food. They would have to stop by charities to pick up a 50 pound box which would get them through that last week…
We all know that the recession was brutal.. But I did not know that by 2011 very few people were needing boxes and most of the charities cut back on handing them out and would only do them to order, at special requests. In 2011 and 2012, there simply was no need….
Then came the budget cuts.. Those brutal 60% cuts which not only put hunger back into the working people’s daily ritual, but laid off large numbers of grocery and retail store employees are causing tremendous hardship.
So whereas private sector jobs are growing, and unemployment is down, the need for food is not. One needs $50,000 in family income to stay self-efficient today. Anything less is hurting the economy and is draining some other resource from somewhere… Most often SNAP and Medicaid.
We need to realize that despite as much as we like their entertainment, we cannot afford Republicans.. But until we root out the prime cause, stingy people in power, we desperately need charities to fill the void. Please make some of your holiday money go to a cause that is probably the most important and most politically correct of a choice you could possibly make in this life…
Big thank you to the Riley family… ❤
Go here, click on the banner. and donate…
He is on vacation….
Send him a quick birthday greeting…. aloudell@wdel.com
(This is my present… lol.)
kavips 