Limbaugh, Beck, Cheney And Palin Picked As Most Influential Conservatives
But what I find most interesting is, outside of Limbaugh, none of the names got anywhere near even 1/4th of the vote. And Limbaugh barely got it.
NEW YORK (AP) By a wide margin, Americans consider Rush Limbaugh the nation’s most influential conservative voice.
Those are the results of a poll conducted by “60 Minutes” and Vanity Fair magazine and issued Sunday. The radio host was picked by 26 percent of those who responded, followed by Fox News Channel’s Glenn Beck at 11 percent.
Two politicians as opposed to talk show hosts were the choices of 10 percent each. They’re former Vice President Dick Cheney and former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
I wonder who was polled. Was it just self-identified conservatives picking who the most influential conservatives are or were liberals asked too? Because I think liberals, looking in from the outside, would be more likely to pick the names they target the most for their scorn and derision (Limbaugh, Beck, Cheney and Palin) than who conservatives actually listen to.
Regardless, these results indicate to me that while there are certainly some luminaries on the right that a lot of people pay attention to, there limited government movement isn’t led by any single person. There’s a lot of independent thinking that happens on the right. I think conservatives are more likely to question their leaders than liberals.
Which speaks to the basic political divide between conservatives and liberals in the first place. Conservatives tend to be more independent minded and tend to question authority. Liberals, on the other hand, are all about conformity and central planning. They deny that, of course, but their actions in favor of government-run everything speak louder than their words.
