Right-Wing Radio Host Thinks GOP Won A Battle In 2016, But Lost The War

For the better part of a quarter-century, Charlie Sykes WAS conservative talk radio in Wisconsin. As host of “Midday with Charlie Sykes” on WTMJ in Milwaukee, he was one of the most influential conservative pundits in the Midwest and the nation. However, he announced in October that he is ending his radio show at the end of the year. He openly admitted that Donald Trump’s ascendancy made the decision a lot easier. Sykes, for those who don’t know, was a charter member of the Never Trump movement, and gained fame when he cut Trump to ribbons a week before the Wisconsin Republican primary.

Just two weeks before he hangs up the mic for good, Sykes decided to take stock of the movement he helped build. He didn’t like what he saw. In an op-ed that will run in Sunday’s edition of The New York Times, Sykes argues that his party may have won this election, but lost its soul in the process. That’s not something you’d expect to hear from a right-wing radio host. After all, most of them are popping corks. However, Sykes is a throwback to a time when conservatives, like liberals, actually cared about substance.

Sykes was one of the few conservatives who saw early on that Trump was dangerous. Back in August 2015, he wrote a column at his blog, Right Wisconsin, arguing that Trump was “a cartoon version” of every stereotype about the right. He and a number of other conservatives who expressed similar sentiments found themselves “denounced for apostasy.”

For the most part, though, conservative voters in Wisconsin weren’t as receptive to Trump’s siren song during the primaries. Ted Cruz, you may recall, cleaned Trump’s clock in Wisconsin, beating him by 13 points in the primary. During the general election, however, he believed that most of his listeners bought into the idea that the election was “a ‘binary choice'” between Trump and Hillary Clinton. As a result, a number of his friends who “fully understood the threat Mr. Trump posed” ended up voting for him anyway because of the Supreme Court.

Sykes believes Trump is a consequence of how far the state of our discourse has fallen in recent years.

“In this political universe, voters accept that they must tolerate bizarre behavior, dishonesty, crudity and cruelty, because the other side is always worse; the stakes are such that no qualms can get in the way of the greater cause.”

Sykes just wasn’t talking in the abstract. He found himself having to debunk several of his own listeners when they peddled conspiracy theories about Pizzagate. Before then, he had to shut down several listeners who claimed President Obama was a radical Muslim. It soon became apparent that he wasn’t just dealing with an echo chamber, but “a full-blown alternate reality silo of conspiracy theories, fake news and propaganda.” When it was apparent that he would not back down on his opposition to Trump, he was called a “Judas goat” and “cuckservative” on email and social media.

Unlike your typical right-wing radio host, Sykes was willing to admit that he–at least indirectly–helped cause the problem. He writes that years of telling listeners about the bias of the mainstream media has resulted in “delegitimizing the media altogether.” But rather than shut down those who tried to step into the void with misinformation, he and others simply “changed the channel” just because “they were our allies.” For that reason, Sykes believes his fellow conservatives need to recognize their “moral failure” to combat this kind of nonsense.

What took you so long, Charlie? It shouldn’t have taken the conspiracy theories being peddled against Obama and Hillary, or the rise of Trump. Then again, it does seem that Trump has allowed us to tell the reasonably sane conservatives from those who simply want to join Steve Bannon in burning everything down. After all, it’s going to take reasonably sane people on both sides of the aisle to fix this country.

(featured image courtesy Sykes’ Facebook)

Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.