In many respects, they are the talk of the nation.
According to author Dr. Paul Matzko, 12 of the top 15 radio talk shows in the United States are led by conservative/libertarian hosts. The genre has ballooned into a media bonanza, especially since 2015.
Why?
“Because 95 percent of the coverage of Donald Trump has been negative,” Terese Goemaat told InsideSources. “They aren’t giving both sides in the coverage. And most of it is turned into propaganda with a liberal view.”
Goemaat, a retiree, is a 68-year-old former telecommunications saleswoman from Ottumwa, Iowa. She is one of four middle-class, over-50, white conservative women contacted for their views on Trump, the 2020 election and the maelstrom of contentious political issues affecting a polarized United States.
They pay rapt contention to conservative-oriented broadcasts — with unbridled passion. And they plan to vote for Trump despite his bombast, bluster and braggadocio.
We all know Trump has self-inflicted character flaws and Twitter overdrive, but to some supporters, his policies supersede his drawbacks… and the liberal alternatives.
“Does he talk too much? Yes, sometimes he needs to just shut up,” Mary S. Moore, 58, told InsideSources. “But some of his policies are more in line with what I believe in. And I don’t want Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in there… not at all.”
Also, remember what national columnist Salena Zito explained to a curious lot in 2016: “The press takes [Trump] literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally.”
Moore may be from Biden Territory in Delaware, but that’s where their commonality ends. A lifelong Republican, she is a former educator and current businesswoman living on one of the scenic beaches on the Delaware coast. For Moore, abortion is one of the top two planks on her political platform; the other is the economy.
“Being adopted,” Moore said, ”abortion is personal with me. If I was conceived in today’s world, I may be aborted. And my children wouldn’t be here and my granddaughter wouldn’t be here.”
Goemaat listens to at least 10 conservative shows on a regular basis — from Right Side Broadcasting to Newsmax to Black Conservative Patriot to Mark Levin — mostly on YouTube in today’s digital environment.
Moore prefers hosts Ben Shapiro, Dan Bongino and Candace Owens. “They validate what I’ve already thought,” Moore proclaimed.
Matzko wrote: “Conservative talk radio will march to Mr. Trump’s drum. But no matter what happens in November, it will also outlast him. Talk radio emits much too powerful a signal to fade silently into the ether.”
Allison Layne, 56, a banking employee in Kiefer, Oklahoma, is an ardent listener of the unquenchable Rush Limbaugh, whose unparalleled radio empire reaches at least 15.5 million weekly listeners.
She paid extra attention to the Amy Coney Barrett proceedings for the U.S. Supreme Court seat.
“I think she’s a really good choice,” Layne told InsideSources. “I think she would read the Constitution the way it’s supposed to be read.”
That means as an originalist.
Also with Barrett, there is that sensitive subject regarding family matters. While Barrett has been lauded for being open-minded enough to raise a blended, mixed-race family, some black folk exhibit skepticism, especially on social media.
Some strident postings:
— “Did anybody else notice that Amy Coney Barrett told us her white children have intellectual goals while her black children can . . . deadlift? Or was that just me?”
— “She adopted black children for this exact moment.”
— “I keep feeling those black kids are domestic workers, without pay. I can’t help it.”
With this disturbing air of distrust, it will be compelling to see if these dynamics spark some black folk to begin a national advocacy to end trans-racial adoptions.
Said Layne, “I think Barrett wanted children who needed love. I think a lot of people are jealous of her. She has a lot of things that many people want but can’t get — the nice house, great job, good husband.”
Goemaat believes there is something more insidious at play.
“It seems when people bring up color differences,” she said, “it sometimes brings up racist thoughts. Some people haven’t advanced past our ugly history. And the mainstream news media doesn’t help because they emphasize the radical left.”
Layne also is a gun owner (a 9mm pistol) and staunch proponent of the Second Amendment.
Arlene Sinski-Aguilar, 60, originally from Passaic, N.J., is a former customer-service supervisor and assistant to a company president. She is a retiree in Sun City, Calif., who questions Biden’s political and mental capabilities, telling InsideSources: “I see Biden as weak; he’s a do-as-he’s-told kind of man.”
Sinski-Aguilar, who listens to talk-show hosts Ben Shapiro and Sean Hannity, noted, “With Trump, I feel safe. With Biden, I don’t. In fact, (with Biden) I’d be running out the next day and buying a gun for protection. And I know many others feel the same but don’t say it (publicly).”
Moore of Delaware knows the feel of backlash because of ideological differences: “I know I’m not going to be included in these groups that protect women. If you aren’t liberal, they think we are all racist and intolerant or white supremacists. But that’s not true; not all conservative women are the same. They [liberals] want us to accept them and their beliefs, but they won’t accept us and our beliefs.”
As for Trump’s handling of the pandemic, Moore related, “He’s going to get heavily criticized no matter what he does.”
Economically, faith in Trump also was revealed, as Sinski-Aguilar explained her expectations: “I believe he will bring this country back to order as well as the economy. Just as he did during his years (before the pandemic).”
With that, Goemaat predicts Trump will win via landslide on Nov. 3.
While Sinski-Aguilar heaps effusive praise upon Trump with a historical bent: “He’s the best president since Ronald Reagan.”
History surely will be the judge.
