THE KING DUDE is shuffling papers, clearing his throat. The revolution he leads will not be televised, but it will be patched in by satellite during the morning drive. The King Dude is bouncing in his seat, his feet dangling about a foot above the floor. His voice is beamed into space from Sirius XM’s studio in Washington, D.C., then back to earth and through your dashboard where it explodes, pops, and fizzes in your skull like a fireworks show dangerously out of control.
In approximately the next 45 seconds he will reference “The Matrix,” The Lord of the Rings, the “Virginia Debate on Ratification of the Constitution,” and “Idiocracy” before concluding that the Union should be busted up and the federal government drowned in the Potomac.
Mike Church is the King Dude behind the microphone. A 20-year veteran of radio-gabbing, he describes himself as a recovering “neocon” and red-team true believer. His daily show on Sirius XM radio was once a fresher, more entertaining echo of the form pioneered by Rush Limbaugh and taken up by Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin.
But now if one had to describe the Mike Church Show, you might say it’s a bit like listening to George Mason, if the revolutionary Virginia patriot were a pop-culture savant given to stream-of-consciousness impersonations and jonesing hard for a second American revolution.
Church isn’t satisfied with repeating timid suggestions for a policy change here and a tax-rebate there. “We are all talking about the same things we’ve been talking about since Barry frickin’ Goldwater, or when Harry frickin’ Truman was sending boys to go die in Korea!” he shouts into the microphone. “This beast that is the federal government is unmanageable, it must be dismantled.” His dissatisfaction with conservatism-as-usual has made the King Dude the most radical man on radio...
