Second thoughts from conservative talk radio star: Did we create Trump?
| MILWAUKEE
It鈥檚 Friday morning, and Charlie Sykes has just finished reading on air yet another newspaper editorial, this time by USA Today, excoriating the candidacy of Donald Trump. 鈥淲ill that make a difference? What鈥檚 your reaction?鈥� asks Mr. Sykes, a conservative radio host and kingmaker in Wisconsin鈥檚 partisan politics.
Two minutes later, the first caller is up. 鈥淪teve from the north side, you鈥檙e on the air.鈥�
鈥淗ey Charlie, I would love to say it won鈥檛 have an effect. But when you think of the low information voter, where do they get their information? They get it from the drive-by media鈥�.鈥�
Sykes interrupts, noting that 鈥渓ow information voters鈥� don鈥檛 read newspaper editorials.
Steve has another go: 鈥淭hey did a beautiful job of laying out all of Hillary鈥檚 arguments. They may as well be on the Democrats鈥� payroll.鈥�
It鈥檚 an argument that Sykes has heard a thousand times 鈥撀燼nd had a hand in popularizing as an attack dog of conservatism, a truth-teller tilting against the media establishment, the Democrats, and any Republicans who go soft.聽
Then came Donald Trump.
After Mr. Trump tried and failed to woo the state鈥檚 primary voters in March 鈥撀爈osing to Ted Cruz by a wide margin 鈥� Sykes got credit for . That was perhaps the high-water mark here for 鈥淣ever Trump.鈥� Since then, the Republican Party at large has largely coalesced around its candidate. Republican Gov. Scott Walker, House Speaker Paul Ryan, and Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus 鈥撀燱isconsinites all 鈥撀爃ave come aboard, with varying degrees of enthusiasm.
But Sykes is holding out against the Trump tide. It鈥檚 a lonely rock. He鈥檚 losing friends and listeners; his inbox fills with screeds about betrayal; callers to his show seethe at Mrs. 聽Clinton and ask how he can let her win. And Sykes wonders if he shares the blame for building a news media echo-chamber that blocks out any information or viewpoint that could undercut shared beliefs.
鈥淚鈥檝e long thought the alternative media was a positive development that would counter the mainstream media monopoly. It鈥檚 only this year you go, 鈥極K, what have we done here? We鈥檝e created this monster,鈥� 鈥� he says.
鈥淚鈥檓 not the same as Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, I make a distinction,鈥� he adds, referencing two other stalwarts of the conservative media. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e different from me. But I鈥檓 not saying it鈥檚 not our fault. I think we all have to look in the mirror.鈥�
Sykes announced Tuesday on air that he would step down from his show at the end of the year. He insists it was a personal decision taken long before the 2016 campaign, while conceding that it had 鈥渕ade this decision somewhat easier.鈥� He told listeners he planned to write a book about 鈥渢he crackup of the conservative movement.鈥�
Post-truth culture?
For Sykes, the conservative media鈥檚 disdain for 鈥渓iberal鈥� truths 鈥� the 鈥渕onster鈥� 鈥� allowed Trump to crash the GOP party and claim its mantle. He says his own listeners, like 鈥淪teve from the north side,鈥� refuse to read conservative columnists in The New York Times because they prefer online sources that traffic in lurid allegations about the other side, just as Trump imbibes conspiracies and rumors and fashions them into a 24/7 media spectacle that can seem immune to fact-checking.
鈥淭his is the shock of 2016. You look around and you see how much of the conservative media infrastructure buys into the post-factual, post-truth culture鈥�. I understand that we are advocates and defenders, but when do you veer off into pure raw propaganda?鈥� he asks.
One of Sykes鈥檚 biggest beefs with Trump is that his views on race and gender have confirmed all the stereotypes applied by liberals to conservative politicians and made it even harder for future GOP leaders to broaden the party鈥檚 appeal among minorities. His other complaints about Trump are familiar ones: unqualified and intemperate, inconsistent on issues like abortion and gun control, shaky on constitutional principles.
Sykes refuses to consider Trump as the lesser of two evils for the job as president, as so many fellow Republicans have done in recent months. 鈥淚t鈥檚 painful for me to listen to conservative media folks who think it鈥檚 their job to rationalize and justify everything that he says,鈥� he gripes.
At a Trump rally in Waukesha, a Milwaukee exurb and Republican stronghold, few show much sympathy for Sykes鈥� position.
鈥淗e鈥檚 the establishment Republican,鈥� says Jim Reifenrath, the manager of a car dealership, shaking his head. Another supporter, Michael Barnes, a self-employed builder, says he listened regularly to Sykes鈥� show but was tired of his finger-wagging toward Trump. 鈥淗e鈥檚 raw. He鈥檚 not a politician. We need an agent of change,鈥� Mr. Barnes says of Trump.
Kris Eastman, a paralegal, says she is hopeful that Sykes will come around. 鈥淗e鈥檚 moving. You can tell. His tone is getting softer鈥� on Trump, she says.
A liberal turns to the right
Sykes, the son of a Democratic professor, began his career as a reporter at the Milwaukee Journal. 鈥淗e was a liberal back then,鈥� says John Torinus, a former editor at the newspaper who hired him. (鈥淵eah, you can say that,鈥� says Sykes.)
In 1992, he moved into talk radio and never looked back. The 1990s was the era of Rush Limbaugh, the Drudge Report, and Fox News. Sykes鈥� morning show became a platform for rising Republican politicians, including Governor Walker, who was a regular call-in as chief executive of Milwaukee County. Sykes championed Walker鈥檚 campaign for governor in 2010 and subsequent recall battle after he revoked collective bargaining for most public employees. Walker was later among the failed challengers to Trump in the Republican primaries, dropping out before the Iowa caucuses.
Sykes was merciless in mocking Wisconsin Republicans who didn鈥檛 back Walker鈥檚 controversial reforms, says Dale Schultz, a senior state senator who stepped down in 2014. The on-air attacks were personal and partisan, making it harder to find common ground in the legislature because Republicans feared being labeled as turncoats. Referring to Sykes and his fellow conservative and crosstown talk-radio rival, Mark Belling, Mr. Schultz says, 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 channel the anger. They feed it and nurture it.鈥�
Mr. Belling has left the Never Trump movement behind: He criticizes Trump鈥檚 missteps in his daily show but backs him as candidate.
At WTMJ-AM, where Sykes has his morning show, he has a fellow Trump skeptic in Jeff Wagner, an affable counterpoint who hosts the midday slot. Sykes also hosts a weekly TV show at the station. 聽
Last Friday, as Sykes is wrapping up his show, Mr. Wagner slides into an adjacent chair inside the gray, dimly lit studio. Sykes sits at his console in shirt-sleeves, an arc of styrofoam cups on his desk. In the corner, a desiccated pot plant sheds its remaining leaves on the dark carpet.
After some on-air banter, Sykes goes to commercials and stands to chat with Wagner about the fallout from the presidential debate. Wagner, a former attorney, muses on what might have been done to stop Trump during the primaries, to make sure a true conservative was on stage. 鈥淒idn鈥檛 you get the memo? Nothing matters,鈥� says Sykes, with a weary smile.
