Only days after Bill O’Reilly’s big showdown on the Factor with his conservative cohort, radio host Laura Ingraham that aired on Tuesday, when he angered the entire right-wing with his strong criticisms of what he referred to as “Bible thumping,” O’Reilly doubled-down on his positions in the face of some fierce conservative fallout during his latest Factor episode that aired last night, as he debated the issue with Fox’s Megyn Kelly and conservative pundit Bernie Goldberg.
During the segment with Kelly, O’Reilly again criticized the religious right for too much “Bible thumping,” when it comes to issues like gay marriage, as he told Kelly that conservatives “are going to have to find something else” besides “thumping the Bible” to win the legal battle against gay marriage.
Kelly agreed and said: “The nine justices on the U.S. Supreme Court are not going to base their ruling on religion.”
O’Reilly went on to demand that other less legitimate conservatives are hell-bent on trying to “diminish the power” of his program, because “it is a power thing,” as was evident when he lashed Laura Ingraham for suggesting that he should not use the term “thump the Bible” on the Tuesday episode, because conservatives and Christians overall are offended by it.
Kelly responded by telling O’Reilly that all of this is really just about “a dislike of you,” but O’Reilly took it to another level by claiming that some conservatives are very fearful of a “non-ideological guy” like him—especially being as successful as his brand has become.
But the most intriguing moment of the entire show happened during the segment with conservative pundit Bernie Goldberg. With a statement that probably sent a few shockwaves throughout the conservative landscape, Goldberg told O’Reilly that there are certain demographics of the conservative movement that definitely “do not like” him.
Goldberg said:
“I know exactly why the right-wing ideologues don’t—no offense Bill, but I know why they don’t like you, because you are not an ideologue, because you’re not reliably conservative.”
“They see you as a kind of traitor. Screw them! Don’t worry about it!”
And there you have it, and it’s not coming from a progressive or a Democrat. It’s coming from another conservative, who sat on a nationally televised show and said imperatively that conservatives/Tea Party members/Republicans have a real problem with anyone who is not an ideologue.
So what were Goldberg and Kelly suggesting by telling O'Reilly that a decent amount of conservative haters don't like him? Were they saying that if O’Reilly wants to get invited to Rush Limbaugh’s country club for conservatives, he’s going to have to yield his power to Limbaugh and follow the script like a drone or a slave?
O'Reilly to his credit made it perfectly clear that his usage of the term “thumping the Bible” was strictly about successfully framing the public policy debate, and if other conservatives either don’t like it or refuse to comprehend it, then it is their problem, not his!
Maybe O'Reilly feels like having a number one television show gives him the freedom to break away from the chains of ideology, even if it means occasionally breaking away from conservatives like his friend Laura Ingraham or his not so much of a friend Rush Limbaugh.
In other words, conservatives as a whole apparently have an initiation leash, and anyone who chooses to break away from it might be primaried out of the club.
Now isn’t that what the Tea Party is known for doing? And people wonder why so many Democrats, immigrants, Independents, women, minorities, and progressives like me see many of the GOP’s draconian antics as a return to the Dark Ages.
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