Mr. Z and Mr. Z, or Talk Radio as a symptom

With the Democrats dominating the elections, many Republicans are diagnosing the problems that led to the electoral disaster (which may not yet be over). The story of one such Republican has become interesting web fodder and seems to me to be a symptom of why the Repubs are no longer in power.

The story begins, for me, with a story by Nate Silver on the now controversial pollster John Zogby engaging in some push-polling for a right-wing talk show host named John Ziegler, who is hosting a website called howobamagotelected.com and is putting out a book of a similar name. At the time, what Nate - and I - found interesting were the questions posed to Obama voters being polled:

• "Which of the four [candidates] said his policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry and make energy rates skyrocket?"
• "Which of the four [candidates] started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground?"
• "Which of the four [candidates] quit a previous campaign because of plagiarism?"
• "Which of the four [candidates] won his first election by getting opponents kicked off the ballot?"

One can see right through such loaded questions, right? For someone like Nate Silver, who spends his days analyzing the garbage in such polls, this is the sort of thing that drives him up a wall and causes him to drop a pollster's weighting to zero.

The story gets more interesting, as Silver wasn't done. Ziegler solicited Silver to interview him, and things got interesting right away. What Silver wanted to know was the business arrangement that Ziegler has with Zogby, and how that influenced the questions. Ziegler wasn't interested in that - and made it vulgarly clear - but it seems that Ziegler was interested in proving that Silver was just a hack.

Admittedly, Silver is a far better statistician than interviewer (his quizzing Ziegler about Senators at the end seemed pointless, and I would have had Ziegler's reaction to those questions). But, Silver did uncover something interesting:

JZ: [Laughs]. In your world, the question that I would ask you is what question [in the survey] is there any ambiguity as to what the answer is?
NS: Well, that Obama 'launched his career' at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground --
JZ: That happens to be one of the questions that Obama supporters did the best on! They did better on that question than on any other Obama-related answers! And here you’re telling me that it’s not true?
NS: What do you mean by "launched his career"?
JZ: The first campaign as told by the person whose position he took in the State Senate, as told by her admission, his first campaign event was in the home of Bill Ayers and his wife. [Laughs] Unless you live in the Obama kool-aid world! That is astonishing to me that you would not accept that! And by the way, when you're given four responses to that question, what else was the response going to be? Sarah Palin? [Empasis NS]

Silver goes on to observe:

There are a certain segment of conservatives who literally cannot believe that anybody would see the world differently than the way they do. They have not just forgotten how to persuade; they have forgotten about the necessity of persuasion. John Ziegler is a shining example of such a conservative. During my interview with him, Ziegler made absolutely no effort to persuade me about the veracity of any of his viewpoints. He simply asserted them -- and then became frustrated, paranoid, or vulgar when I rebutted them.

Andrew Sullivan has labeled the world in which such Republicans live as a "cocoon". Actually, no less than David Foster Wallace brought this home 3 years ago in The Atlantic, when he did a cover piece on Ziegler to illustrate the business of conservative talk radio:

How often a particular spot can run over and over before listeners just can't stand it anymore is something else no one will talk about, but the evidence suggests that KFI sees its audience as either very patient and tolerant or almost catatonically inattentive. Canned ads for local sponsors like Robbins Bros. Jewelers, Sit 'n Sleep Mattress, and the Power Auto Group play every couple hours, 24/7, until one knows every hitch and nuance. National saturation campaigns for products like Cortislim vary things somewhat by using both endorsements and canned spots. Pitches for caveat emptor—type nostrums like Avacor (for hair loss), Enzyte ("For natural male enhancement!"), and Altovis ("Helps fight daily fatigue!") often repeat once an hour through the night. As of spring '04, though, the most frequent and concussive ads on KFI are for mortgage and home-refi companies—Green Light Financial, HMS Capital, Home Field Financial, Benchmark Lending. Over and over. Pacific Home Financial, U.S. Mortgage Capital, Crestline Funding, Advantix Lending. Reverse mortgages, negative amortization, adjustable rates, APR, FICO … where did all these firms come from? What were these guys doing five years ago? Why is KFI's audience seen as so especially ripe and ready for refi? Betterloans.com, lendingtree.com, Union Bank of California, on and on and on. [Emphasis mine]

Remember, this piece was written 3 years ago. And Republicans are trying to hang the entire mortgage-based economic disaster on banks being forced to give loans to poor minorities. As DFW asks, where did all these firms come from? And, why are they so keen to advertise on conservative talk radio?

In any case, Ziegler was not too keen on DFW once the story came out - he believes it was part of why he was let go from KFI in LA. But, Ziegler goes on to show how classy he is in commenting on DFW's suicide earlier this year:

While I have absolutely no evidence to back up this assertion, I also think it is quite possible that he knew that killing himself in his “prime” and before he had been totally exposed as being a mere mortal in the literary realm would cement his status as a “genius” forever. After all, don’t tortured artists often kill themselves? Heck, based on the glowing and reverential reporting on his suicide, in some circles ending his on life may actually be seen as a badge of honor.

Nice, especially for someone who has been on anti-depressants himself. He goes on to mock DFW for succumbing to the depression. That, to me, is like mocking someone for succumbing to cancer. And I think this is what, ultimately, and with perfect irony, has been doing Republicans in: a failure to empathize. Ziegler is mad that DFW never granted him an interview, and seeks some sort of personal revenge. For conservatives, it is all personal. Which is why folks are amazed that Obama simply let Joe Lieberman walk: for Obama, it seems that keeping Lieberman had value, and he put his personal feelings aside. Professional Repubs need to learn how to do this, and also to learn to keep the emotions in check, if they're going to win seats back in 2010.