The GOP's Undereducated Spokesmen

There is not a college degree among them.

The only educational credentials that Rush Limbaugh (the alpha voice of the three), Sean Hannity, and Glen Beck stand upon are their high school diplomas. I don't mean to suggest they are not bright enough by most practical measures--and they are clearly very accomplished at what they do--they're just undereducated and lack meaningful experience for the GOP thought-leader roles they pretend to. They are, after all, radio and TV personalities, and they operate principally in the mode of political provocateurs. And however much they enjoy their unofficial roles as the GOP's populist conservative spokesmen, they are first and foremost public entertainers, building and protecting a professional franchise and a loyal, committed audience--and the handsome income, lifestyle, acclaim and notoriety that come with it.

Not one of them has the formal education, training, or professional experience expected of someone aspiring to speak for the philosophy, platform, and values of a major political party. None has an educational foundation or experiential background in economics, finance, government, international or geopolitical affairs, national defense, science, law, taxation and fiscal theory, philosophy or theories of society, or macro- and microeconomic decision making in the public sector. And yet, they confidently, publicly, hold forth on the most important domestic and international issues facing our country.


Rush Limbaugh* graduated from Cape Central High School, in Cape Girardeau, MO, in 1969. At the urging of his parents he enrolled at Southeast Missouri State University, but dropped out after two semesters and one summer. His mother is quoted as saying, "he flunked everything," and further, "He just didn't seem interested in anything except radio."

After dropping out of college, Limbaugh moved to McKeesport, PA, where he became a Top 40 music radio disc jockey. Through most of the '70s he moved to different music radio opportunities before settling in Kansas City, MO. In 1979, he took a break from radio and worked as director of promotions for the Kansas City Royals baseball team. Then, in 1984 he returned to radio, but for the first time as a talk show host at KFBK in Sacramento, CA. In 1988, after a very successful stint in Sacramento, he moved to WABC in New York City and the debut of his national radio show that continues to draw the largest and most devoted audience in radio today. It has been reported that his contract calls for him to be paid more than $30 million a year.

More than just an unofficial spokesman for the GOP, in some corners Rush Limbaugh is viewed as the leading voice of the Republican Party. Excepting his own voice, of course, Dick Cheney appears to support that view. An unlikely, amazing success story, but a chilling prospect.


Sean Hannity* graduated from St. Pius X Preparatory Seminary High School in Uniondale, NY, in 1980. He enrolled in and dropped out of both NYU and Adelphi University. Higher education was not for him, either.

Hannity too wanted a career in radio. But before getting his first opportunity at the UC Santa Barbara radio station in 1989, he tried his hand as a contractor and bartender. A controvertial talk radio stint at the UCSB station ended with his termination after some of his comments about gays and lesbians. Ironically, it was the local branch of the ACLU that fought successfully for his reinstatement. Nonetheless, he left and pursued talk radio opportunities in other locations until, in 1996, the new Fox television network hired the unknown talk show host for what would become the Hannity & Colmes show which, with Colmes eventual departure, became the Hannity show. Hannity also now host the Fox network's Hannity's America.

But he has not neglected his career in radio. He now hosts The Sean Hannity Show on ABC Radio and last year drew a national audience of over 13 million devoted listeners a week. It is reported that his radio show alone pays him $5 million a year. An American success story.


Glen Beck* graduated from Sehome High School in Bellingham, WA, in 1982. It is reported that at some point he entered a program for nontraditional students at Yale University while working at a New Haven radio station. He took a single theology course and dropped out, possibly because of his divorce. But that was his one and only brush with higher education.

After graduation from high school, Beck pursued a successful career in music radio as a Top 40 DJ at a succession of radio stations. Then, The Glen Beck Program, a news and political commentary show, was launched in 2000 in Tampa, FL. It's notable success led to a 2002 change in affiliations and his show was broadcast to a national audience. That audience now numbers over 6 million listeners.

And in 2006, TV came knocking on Glen Beck's door, too. It was CNN, where his Glen Beck show was among their most watched shows. And then in 2008, the Fox network offered him a deal to broadcast his show, which was then extended to weekends in 2009. Yes, another success story.


But as successful as these radio and TV personalities have been, they have all lacked a temperament for higher education; they are not suited to it. They prefer to hold forth to their audiences sharing confidently their political views and what they do know based on their self-taught foundations. Then they write books, selling the same opinions to the same audiences. Confidence, however uninformed, and a penchant for populist demagoguery appear their surpassing personal traits. Listen to them and follow them if you must, if that is where you find affirmation and comfort in identity, if that is where you find intellectual security. But understand who they are, and how little they truly have to offer you. And ask yourself whether they represent the intellectual and temperamental high ground of the Republican Party, and why they should be the party's standard bearers. And then you should ask the same questions about Karl Rove.


Karl Rove*, it should be noted, also lacks a temperament for higher education, although he did manage to earn a few courses more than a year's credit at the University of Utah. But at the earliest opportunity, he jumped into developing his life-long craft of aggressive political campaign management and, say many, mastery of the darker political arts. He did enroll in and drop out of colleges a couple times after that, although those occasions appear more related to maintaining his college deferment from the Vietnam war than earning additional course credit.

A protégé of Nixon dirty-trickster Donald Segretty of Watergate fame, Rove also introduced political colleague and fellow campaign operative Lee Atwater to the George H.W. Bush presidential campaign. It was those credentials and that background that lifted him to manage G.W. Bush's gubernatorial and presidential campaigns. He then served as Bush's Deputy Chief of Staff, where he functioned as a freelance political advisor and operative. Today he is a conservative political consultant and another of the GOP's most undereducated and revered spokesmen. And like the three radio and TV personalities--Limbaugh, in particular--he is also one of the GOP's most polarizing individuals.


The reason I make these points is that Americans need to hear the Republican-Democratic debates carried on by the best educated, trained and experienced exponents of each point of view. Both parties represent important ideas and claims that are historical and complementary parts of American life, economics and values. If Americans are to be well informed citizens and voters, we need the most able explanations and defenses of each party's current policy prescriptions for our country. It's that simple. And if that's what the current Republican Party believes we have been offered, then we cannot be surprised that they don't understand why so many have fled them for Independent status or the Democratic Party, why a recent poll found only 21% of American voters now willing to admit being Republicans.

But that is the state of things. Speaking for the Republican Party today are three undereducated radio and TV personalities, an undereducated former political campaign operative and master of misinformation, the discredited Dick Cheney, the Religious Right, and the legacy of George W. Bush. This could be the sad obituary of the GOP. But it doesn't have to be. America still needs to hear credible voices from a modern, inclusive, socially adaptive and politically evolving Republican Party. But there are no such voices being heard.

[*The source for most of the information on individuals named in this piece is Wikipedia and the sources cited therein.]