59. Radio Days

I picked up an older man who told me he was in town for the funeral of his 75-year-old brother. He told me he was 71. The man was certainly full of energy and vigor, and did not seem like he was 71. He said that he had taken care of himself his whole life and he lived a healthy lifestyle. 

His brother, on the other hand, had not. He had been a smoker, was extremely overweight, and just had a triple bypass few years ago. Then last week he just dropped dead at the mall. Said his heart just gave out and he dropped. Quick and sudden. 

He went on to tell me that he loved his brother and they got along on every single level except one: politically. At that point, the man asked me my political leanings. I am always wary when someone asks me this question. I told him I was a centrist that leaned a little left. He breathed a sigh of relief. He said he was a liberal, and that his brother was a hard-core, conservative translated: “Trumpist”. 

He said a few years ago, after the election of 2016, he and his brother were having a discussion about the results. He told his brother he had voted for the Democrat candidate and his brother went off the handle.  “How could you vote for her?!?” his brother shouted at him. “She should be locked up!”

After that, they agreed to never talk politics again. He had talked to his brother 10 days ago, which was a few days before he died, and they still didn’t talk politics. 

He told me that he worked in the radio business for the last 40 years, in every capacity from a disc jockey to a producer. Since I was more left leaning, he told me he had a great story to tell me. 

He was in charge of a number of studios in one of the cities he worked in. Their main offices were in New York and LA and the New York office called him to see if he could provide a studio for one of their hosts. That host was Dennis Miller. 

When Miller first came into the studio, he sat down and took off his shoes. They looked at him like “Oooookay…” and Miller told them all he liked to be comfortable and they should deal with it. I imagined Miller telling them that but through a bad Dana Carvey impersonation. 

The man told me he was very lighthearted and accommodating and that he was never looking for a fight but always fought to keep the peace. It’s why he and his brother made that agreement to never to talk politics. It was his idea to keep the peace between them.

Miller‘s guest that day in the studio was none other than Ted Nugent. The man explained that he grew up in the 70’s and he loved the music of Ted Nugent. “Cat Scratch Fever” was one of his anthems. 

So, when Ted came into the studio and offered him a hug, he took it. He knew Ted was extremely right wing, but figured if he was going to start off with a hug, why not accept it and keep things peaceful.

He told me this was all around 2013, so a few years before the 2016 election and things getting super nuts. He was setting things up as Miller and Nugent, who were talking about what the topic would be for the show. They were both discussing pretty radical right wing ideas. 

As he listened to them, he calmly chimed in and asked, “Can’t we negotiate between the two sides? Wprk together to get things done?” 

Miller got super upset and said in a loud voice, “There should never be negotiation! Negotiation is bullshit!” He said, of the two men, Miller was the more radical and a bigger jerk. He walked away snickering, finding it funny that he had poked the bear. He wasn’t ever looking for a fight he said, but sometimes he found it hilarious when he inadvertently did and someone would go off. 

Nugent said his wife was supposed to meet him there and if he could escort her in. He said he would and went downstairs and waited for her. He told me that a few years before this, Nugent’s wife had been stopped in an airport because she was carrying a loaded handgun in her purse. When they confiscated it, she made a scene. So, while he was walking her down the hall to meet Ted and Dennis, he asked her, “Did you really need to have a gun in your purse?“ and that made her head explode. She went off at him and that made him laugh. 

He wondered where all these conservative celebrities came from. Before 2016, most of them flew under the radar. Probably because Hollywood pretended to be liberal, and the conservatives didn’t want to lose jobs because of their political leanings. 

There were still loud voices like Miller, Nugent, and others. But sp many came out of the woodwork after 2016z Today, there were all these lunatics like Kevin Sorbo, Dean Cain, James Woods, Kirk Cameron, and Chachi. They all now feel free to spew their hate and use their celebrity to spread anger. 

He wondered if it was because they felt the government took all their celebrity money in taxes. Didn’t seem like these were the ones who had a lot of extra cash to spare and had probably already wasted whatever Hollywood money they made. None of these people were paid huge amounts to act and some were barely working at all, so maybe this all just to get people to notice than. 

In listening to Miller, he felt that money was the biggest reason that Dennis became a super conservative. Miller constantly ranted around the studios how his tax money was being wasted because of Democrats and that he had been taxed unfairly just because he was successful. The man laughed at that because he didn’t think Miller was that successful anymore and was getting paid shit for his radio show compared to others like Rush Limbaugh. He reminded me that Miller originally started on SNL which is a pretty liberal program. 

He had once worked with Rush Limbaugh, in the beginning, of his career. Rush knew his whole schtick was an act. And the more popular he became, the thicker he laid on the bullshit. But then he started to believe his own bullshit and began to think he was the word of the people. 

He said that was the mystery about the extreme right. You could show them all the evidence against their people, the crimes committed, show them the lies they spread on video, saying one thing one day and something completely different the next day and the extremists would still say it was a lie, made up, or fake news. They would never listen to reason. These people had so dug in to their beliefs that no amount of proof would change their minds. 

That was his brother. The reason he agreed never to talk politics with him was because he knew that he would never change his mind. He thought the same could be said of all of them, including the so-called celebrities. 

He talked about how all the politicians in Washington were now fighting with each other, not just over issues, but physically fighting. There was a senator who said we should go back to having duels like Andrew Jackson had. Kevin McCarthy elbowed another House member. They all wanted violence. Fortunately, he felt that these right wingers were only being violent towards each other. 

He did follow this with saying that the problem with the other side, the left, was that they didn’t do any fighting and that they should. The left had no fire, and seemed unwilling to fight on any level whether politically or physical. He imagined if someone raised a fist at someone on the left, they would flinch and jump back. 

They didn’t need to get into a fistfight, but he definitely think they needed to show some passion, because that’s what the right side had in spades. They might be crazy, but they are very passionate about their beliefs. And that’s what makes them frightening. 

I dropped him off, and he thanked me for listening. He said he had been holding his tongue for the past three days, because all of his other relatives were Trumpists and he did not want to rock the boat in this time of mourning. 

It was really interesting to hear this man’s stories of his radio days. He had mentioned he hung out with all kinds of people from Elton John to Bruce Springsteen. 

I was happy that he had found a way that he and his brother could talk over the years. It’s just sad that he feels he can’t have a rational discussion about politics with his relatives, because he knows they will all go off. 

It’s an election year coming up and it just makes me wonder how many more people will go off the handle and if the violence the right is asking for, especially from politicians on the floors of Washington, will be picked up by more and more people.

We do not need to go back to the ways of Andrew Jackson.