The disgusting Mark Levin
Friday May 22, 2009
Categories: Conservatism
I don't listen to talk radio a lot, because I have a short commute between office and home. But last fall, I got into the car with a colleague to go pick up a pizza (we were working late), and...
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About Crunchy Con
Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
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Has always been one of the worst Neocons. Dismissive of anyone that disagrees with him. His attitude towards Ron Paul during 2007-08 was borderline lunacy.
In the immortal words of Hank Hill: Yup.
I don't know about his book but, on air, he's a political vaudevillian -- and a damned fine one. Loved Don Rickles. Love Mark Levin. I might recoil from what I'm laughing at, but I laugh. God knows, I laugh. Even as I learn a few things.
Levin's a smart guy who diminishes himself with shock-jock underground radio shtick, basically.
I was listening to that show last night too, and heard that comment. It did shock me at first. I wouldn't personally say that ... wouldn't feel comfortable. He said something to the effect that he wouldn't apologize for it, pointing to her ignorance over the power that the caller thought the POTUS should or would exert.
I can't defend him. I'll let him do that. He's a big boy. I know that he is upset over statism in our country, and he gets loud about it.
At the same time I have to wonder if the same anger existed last week when comedian Wanda Sykes wanted Rush Limbaugh to suffer kidney failure. That was funny, wasn't it? Hilarious? Our POTUS laughed.
Can't we all laugh at this? Can't we assume that he wasn't serious? I mean, didn't we think that Wanda Sykes was kidding?
cons love the crazy.
Big mouth, gun buying and scared of everything makes America look weak and pathetic.
So you would characterize him as a member of the "mongoloid right", in other words (*your* words, nb).
It's grand, Mr. Dreher, that you don't have lapses in judgment like the dreaded Mark Levin. Though Mr. Levin also happens to be a brilliant legal scholar .... at least the guy has something else to offer.
I had the same experience of happening upon him by accident on the radio once. Levin's disgusting. If I could have reached through the radio and slapped him, I would have.
I'm a conservative (paleo with a libertarian streak to be exact) and I can't stand any of the folks on radio. Some are worse than others. Limbaugh is a blowhard, but at least he is midly entertaining at times and isn't a loon. Hannity is worse and tends to whine and make mountains out of molehills. As a Southerner, I also can't stand his awful Yankee accent. It wears on me very fast. Levin strikes me as just a complete loon. In the end, most of them are an embarrassment to conservatism and probably do more harm than good.
rr
An extremely intelligent and insightful guy, but a total a-hole as well.
Media on the left said Wanda Sykes was wrong for her 9/11 and kidney failure jokes.
Bill Maher says that and worse and yet he gets big applause from his liberal audience. These things are only shocking when a conservative says them. For liberals, anything goes. Just ask Perez Hilton. Read Levin's book for the smarts, listen to his radio show for the shock.
I think you are too kind to Limbaugh. Remember Limbaugh once ridiculed Chelsea Clinton as "the White House dog" when her father was president on the air, I believe on his mercifully brief TV show.
She was a child at the time--absolutely unforgivable.
He is both.
1. He is unapologetic about his disgust for liberal ideology and stupidity in general. He is a crusty old curmudgeon and he admits it.
and
2. He is a brilliant legal mind, a sharp litigator and a devastatingly capable advocate for Constitutional principles and Conservative ideals.
I can totally understand if somebody doesn't like the general tenor of his show. There are those who think Ann Coulter 'goes too far'. Okey, dokey. There are also very calm, even handed conservative intellectuals like Charles Krauthammer who can dissect leftism without resorting to decimating the lefties who believe in those ideals.
But as with war, you do need people to man the batteries and shoot down enemies planes. Mark Levin has taken up that role. So as displeasant as it will be to some even within the conservative movement, Levin is happy to take the disapproval of people even amongst fellow conservatives as long as he gets to continue unrestrained in humiliating and destroying any vestiges of liberals who cross his path.
If you read his book, you will find that it is not the same as his daily talk show. Levin is not a happy-go-lucky 'let's agree to disagree' kind of guy in person. But he wrote a book which may end up being a seminal work in this generation for Constitutional defenses and a retaking of our government BY the people from the Statists who currently hold it hostage.
Like I say about Ann Coulter, you can disagree with her tactics at times but what say you about her argument? The conservations usually end there save the last one 'she/he is hurting the cause more than she/he is helping'. And that is a fair argument but aren't we a 'big tent' party?
I can't stand the man. His voice sounds like a chainsaw hitting a twelvepenny nail in a 4x6, and his arguments are the worst kind of post hoc, special pleading horse dookie. Getalife, get one, please. There are batshit conservatives and there are batshit liberals. We have many of the latter here in the Portland area, and there are many of the former scattered around the country. Your error is in assuming that batshittery is found only on the right. And what is your problem with Americans exercising their rights under the 2nd Amendment, anyway? Are you going to get equally worked up over people speaking freely, or objecting to warrant-free searches and seizures?
Brilliant writer. Talk show is either hot or cold, depending upon the subject matter. I would invite him over for dinner any time.
Love him or hate him, he is effective and gives lots of red meat for the right of center crowd, hence why his profile continues to rise.
Rod, you do know that National Review prints columns from said a$$hat and he's a regular contributor on NRO's Corner? He occasionally makes a good point when he sticks to legal matters, but mostly he kneels before elite establishment to service his masters and hasn't found any foreigners that he believes we don't have to bomb back to the Stone Age.
I've never heard his show, but I've rolled my eyes at the jacket of his book when I've seen it on display.
Would that Olberman, Maddow, Stewart, and Colbert were as easy to avoid as Levin has been.
Welcome to today's conservatism. Levin writes for the National Review Online site, one of many reasons I never look at the place anymore. I don't know why any emotionally healthy person would want to be part of this movement. True Christians who yoke themselves to this kind of person, via this movement, are suckers.
Since I consider myself to be a libertarian, I don't know if my answer counts.
I have not heard Mark Levin's talk show, neither have I read "Liberty and Tyranny." But if he's talking about husbands committing suicide, then he's definitely not helping conservatives!
At least William F. Buckley had charm.
Though Mr. Levin also happens to be a brilliant legal scholar...
Nothing personal, but if Mr. Levin were truly a brilliant legal scholar he'd be too busy getting paid for his legal services to play Howard Stern wanna-be on AM radio.
He's hard to listen to. Either over the top rude, or over the top screeching.
Levin's the only thing on when I drive to work, so I listen to about a half hour a day. He's pretty over the top, but he's also the only conservative voice to go after John Stewart, who has been sniping at conservatives with great success for years now without any challenge.
Yes, I totally agree that Mark acts like a "big dope," as he is fond of calling so many of his liberal callers. I label myself as a conservative and I agree with most of his points, but his rudeness and nastiness really turn me off. Along with Ann Coulter, he's giving the right a bad name, and he'd better watch out. He's a perfect poster boy for the reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine, and if it ever becomes law, he'll be one of the first to be sent to Right Wing Radio Gulag.
Mr. Lavin is a man with Kahonies. Too many men are d emasculated
boys who play with toys and have no idea what the Constitution stands
for. We have lost our way by the blur of political soundbites and
techno liberated world. Mr. Lavin OPENS my EYES.
"He's pretty over the top, but he's also the only conservative voice to go after John Stewart, who has been sniping at conservatives with great success for years now without any challenge."
More evidence that the single most important thing conservatives care about is aggravating liberals.
Before you decide to call him looney, read "Liberty & Tyranny" a brilliant book. He lays it out so you can understand the problem. I have bought copies for the grandchildren who go to UT. He is sort of over-the-top on his radio show sometimes.
They sure can't govern. Conservatives believe government is bloated, inept, and cruel then spent the last eight years proving it.
All I can say is if this their great plan for getting back into power we have nothing to worry about as Democrats.
Much more so than Limbaugh Levin is an acquired taste and I cannot deny his bombastity is definitely way more caustic and cutting. But there is room for that from our side of the spectrum, Coulter being the singular monopolist.
On the other hand, I defy you find a better more even tempered and reasonable conservative argument in print than Levin's Liberty and Tyranny.
Frank
I actually laughed at that...
This hispanic thinks Mark Levin is the man... Stop hating..
Doesn't anyone remember laughter?
Sarcasm it exists embrace it.
Levin makes good points when you listen to what he's actually saying but I agree with Dreher. He comes across as a very angry and unpleasant person to be around. His rhetoric drives people away when we should be reaching out to bring people in. Only then can you convince them to change their hearts and minds. When you rave like a lunatic (a la Savage) those sitting on the fence are not persuaded that you are correct. The way you sell the message is just as important as the message itself. This is why I miss Tony Snow so much. He presented the conservative message in such happy, non-arrogant way and he never berated his callers or those who disagreed. He always politely explained his positions. We need more Tony Snows.
Levin is EPIC!
Lighten up, Francis.
yeah im gonna have to agree with most of the commenters, levin is an aquired taste. he doesn't put up with crap on his show, you don't like it, you don't have to listen. the only thing i vehemently disagree with him on is his stance on marijuana, basically he won't even hear arguements on it.
No doubt Levin's voice and style is an acquired taste, but he is a brilliant man. His books, his views, excellent. You use the example above of the woman he asked if she is married, and how he wondered how her husband hadn't offed himself. As a woman, I like to deal in honesty. I couldn't stand to live with one of us, what makes you think it is such a great thing to deny or lie about it? Women may be the fairer sex, but to assume we come with angel wings is a joke. I don't listen to Levin often, in fact rarely, but I have great respect for his mind and his love of country.
There is a dashcam video clip that shows up on every other "World's Wildest Things That Happen That Happen To Other People" episode. It's of an older man in a Mitsubishi Montero getting a speeding ticket. The man goes bat$^%# crazy when the cop hands him a ticket for 200 dollars. He grabs the ticket out of the cop's hands, crumples it up, and throws it on the ground. The cop then threatens to give him another ticket for littering, which causes him to freak out even more. To this day, I am convinced that old man was Mark Levin.
I have yet to read his book, but in general have found his articles to be well conceived and eloquent. His radio show is a different matter.
For all the reason and thoughtful conservatism that he is able to promote with his writing, he destroys an equal amount with his radio show.
For anyone who caught Rush's show the day that he interviewed Levin- Levin was great. He seemed reasonable and calm. But a few short hours later, he was back to being insane.
I just don't get the appeal of his radio show.
I listen to Levin all the time and think he is great. Sarcasm is his trademark. I love it when he tells some liberal "to get off the phone"!!!
He knows the constitutional laws so much better than any of the liberal judges on the Suprmeme Sourt!
Mark Levin used to drive me crazy on the radio for the reasons you state: his voice is screechy and he DOES yell a lot. I used to turn the dial when the screaming began. Then I read his book, Liberty and Tyranny, which is brilliant. Somehow, after reading the book, I found I could listen to Mark without turning the dial as much. Yes, I prefer it when he talks softly vs yelling, but mostly I appreciate his intelligence and perspective on what is happening in the country right now. He's screechy, but a really smart guy.
Rod,
I somewhat agree. Mr. Levin can be bold. BUT, what are your thoughts on Keith Olbermann? I tend to agree with what Mr. Levin says because it's straight to the core; I feel as he does. It's just that we don't have the platform to say it.
My hatred, yes hatred, for the people who are taking an entirely beautiful country to the edge of insanity can't be spoken aloud, then what else do you propose?
Yes, Mr. Levin truly is a brilliant legal scholar. He was AG Ed Meese's chief of staff in his 20s, & runs the Landmark Legal Foundation, where he kicks liberal butt around the country. On radio, he is laugh-out-loud funny. The people he berates on-air CALL HIM, knowing what he is going to do. He knows and loves the Constitution, which is a lot more than can be said for Barack Milhouse Oblahblah, on both counts. Yes, he can be rude, and he offends people - but the truth will do that. He gets angry because fools like the current president are trying to destroy the country, and gut the constitution. Anyone who isn't angry is a fool. By the way, he also has a big heart, and if you listen to him regularly, that comes through.
Rod: Mark Levin is the smartest and best educated talk show host!
Richard B...
Actually, it wasn't Conservatives that spent 8 years proving it. Republicans, yes but clearly not Conservatives.
Rod - I suggest you try more than 15 minutes. He is a bit abrasive at times - you'll see it's a sense of his humor and that he's plain fed up with liberal crap. And he's also brilliant and passionate about getting this country back to it's founding priciples. Book is awesome.
Based on this so called conservative and how his attention should be "enticed and entertained" I can now see how Obama was elected. I have faced the type like Mr. Dreher- more credit to presentation than substance. If 15 minutes is all it takes to take the full measure of a man then we would have a better president.
An advice for Mr. Dreher take more than 15 minutes to listen to a true conservative and listen closely what Mr. Levin and what he is trying to convey to you. And Mr. Levin is not a radio talk show host as a vocation.
I think Keith Olbermann is a pompous gasbag. My idea of hell would be to be stuck between Olbermann and Levin on a hot, crowded bus ride to Tijuana.
Alas, I'm going to have to close off comments. This thread is getting spammed by Levin fans who have learned manners and civility from their idol. We don't do that sort of thing here. Game over.
He's no Phil Hendrie, that's for darn sure!
You gotta listen to "The Great One" for more then 10 minutes to recognize his brilliance....
He(Levin) is funny as hell and very smart. A lot of what is going on in this government should make you feel frustrated and angry. They are robbing us blind and taking away our freedom not too mention making business the enemy.