Molly Ivins Quotes

I wonder about guys like Sean Hannity, Keith Olbermann and Mark Levin. They're on such a mission. I mean, I love Hannity and Levin to death, but on the radio they're insane. How can you keep that up?

Last year, on a long car trip, I was listening to Rush Limbaugh shout. I usually agree with Rush Limbaugh; therefore I usually don't listen to him. I listen to NPR: "World to end-poor and minorities hardest hit." I like to argue with the radio.

When it comes to conservative social issues, it saddens me when sometimes my fellow Republicans duck and cover in the face of pressure from the left. Our loudest opponents on the left are never going to like us so let's quit trying to curry favor with them.

I suffer from the same frustration that every decent American suffers from. That is, that you begin to wonder whether decent liberal instincts, decent humanitarian instincts, can actually penetrate the right-wing voice, get through the steering of American opinion by the mass media.

Conservatives and companies condoned Rush Limbaugh's politics of personal destruction when it came to smearing elected officials. 'Fair game,' they said, even when crass and crude. That's just the way it is.

The reason that conservative talk radio works is because there is an audience for it.

The Tea Party has definitely increased political involvement, not only among Tea Party members but among people who oppose the Tea Party members. It's been a general stimulus.

Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Newt Gingrich, and other conservative giants are the voices of the conservative movement's conscience. Every day, millions and millions of Americans - myself included - turn on their radios and televisions to listen to what they have to say, and we are inspired by their words and by their determination.

In no way am I supporting or suggesting that a Conservative government is a good thing, far from it.

I'm appalled that when I talk about the neo-conservatives it's somehow twisted, some sort of a racist comment.

Second, a quarter to a third of those who listen to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are liberals.

Our national politics has become a competition for images or between images, rather than between ideals.

Public opinion can become polarized into a bimodal distribution with only a few people in the center and many more lying toward the extremes. But under such circumstances, democracy will probably break down …

You have the socialist parties ruling Denmark putting in conservative policies because the conservatives control the media and the public discourse.

Rush Limbaugh makes money getting simpleminded people to feel good about their intellectually undernourished brain spasms. He's very good at it, and I scarcely believe a fraction of what he says.

What I think works for Fox News is we have a very direct form of communication.

Politics has become the great spectator sport of the United States.

I think a lot of the people who feel out of step with contemporary society or feel that they've been left back economically or feel disaffected and are drawn to the Republican Party, they are looking for a news source that will tell them something they would like to hear and then is reassuring, emotionally rewarding, and confirming.

I don't believe Rush Limbaugh has a racist bone in his body.

Fox News has been a force in converting the party of Lincoln into the party of Trump. The network's allegiance to Trump approaches mindless adoration.

I do not use words like 'liberal' or 'conservative.' You can ask me a question, and I will give you an answer. Those are words rich people on television use to divide and conquer.

I am not saying Russia is not important, but Trump's base is very well defended against that: 'the liberal media is out to get him', 'it's fake news', and all the rest.

Sometimes I think that Rush Limbaugh is the dumbest man in America. This happens whenever I take him at face value and forget that he is basically an entertainer with contempt for his audience. He will tell them anything.

I do not want to see, for any reason, the Tories resurgent in any way.

Political culture has become popular culture.