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Sunday, Nov 22, 2009
Let conservatives co-opt "South Park and "The Incredibles." It's time for liberals to get in touch with the free-range, foul-mouthed, gunslinging antiheroes of "Deadwood."
May 21, 2005 | On Page 99 of Brian Anderson's new book, "South Park Conservatives: The Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias," an Arizona State student named Eric Spratling makes the blunt case for why America's Party of God should hitch its wagon to television's leading popularizer of the word "goddammit."
"The label is really about rejecting the image of conservatives as uptight squares -- crusty old men or nerdy kids in blue blazers," Spratling told Anderson. "We might have long hair, smoke cigarettes, get drunk on weekends, have sex before marriage, watch R-rated movies, cuss like sailors -- and also happen to be conservative, or at least libertarian."
In other words, it's all about the re-branding ... with perhaps a hint of defensive self-justification thrown in (We're not uptight, honest!). For years now, commentators on the right have been appropriating whatever strands of friendly popular culture they could grasp -- "The Incredibles," Dennis Miller, even "The Simpsons" -- in an often comical yet undeniably successful attempt to overhaul the default image of the Grand Old Party from the home of scary old creeps like Jesse Helms to "Star Trek"-quoting smarties like Jonah Goldberg. Anderson argues that a new generation of feisty Republicans has used talk radio, cable TV, blogs, book publishing and "fiercely anti-liberal" comedy to roll back the "liberal monopoly" in Hollywood and Manhattan. "A new post-liberal counterculture," he says, "has emerged." Other conservatives have employed these familiar cultural cues to demonstrate that, hey, they too are normal people. Even normal hippie people, belonging to organic food co-ops, bustin' with the Birkenstocks, and inventing cute new nicknames to describe themselves seemingly every week (Crunchy Cons, Eagles, Skepticons, whatever).
The net result of this narcissistic noodling is an expanded political tent purchased with the dirt-cheap currency of pop culture references by non-politicians. The president never had to pretend he liked "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone (also the brains behind the short-lived "That's My Bush"), yet Anderson's book and similar arguments have helped nudge the crucial "South Park" swing vote into Republican play. It's a much more efficient and dignified approach than, say, sending John Kerry out duck hunting, or loading Mike Dukakis into a tank.
But an interesting thing happened the second decade into the revolt against the liberal elites: The right won, at least as measured by control over the federal government, while making measurable inroads into traditionally liberal outposts such as the media, academia and even the Public Broadcasting Service. What was once the language and tactics of a guerrilla minority -- licking its wounds and lashing out at lefties in enclaves like talk radio, reaching for unwitting allies in the culture wars -- is now the new battle hymn of the republic. And it's the Democrats who are in desperate need of re-branding.
What to do? "The West Wing," despite a recent resurgence, offers the same goo-goo liberal wish-fulfillment that Hollywood has been oozing for decades. "Saturday Night Live" hasn't been countercultural since the Carter presidency, "Doonesbury" long ago lost its anti-authoritarian kick, and the literary lions of yesteryear are either dead or writing cover stories for Parade and armchair paranoia for the Huffington Post. Michael Moore is a one-man fundraising tool for the GOP, Bruce Springsteen is a fraud, and Jon Stewart, God love him, is one or two more pious lectures away from morphing into Ed Asner.
Worse, while the right commentariat has been appropriating genuinely racy and transgressive content, the left political establishment has been crusading against it. The worst national nanny on the Federal Communications Commission is Democrat Michael Copps; Hillary Clinton and Joe Lieberman have taken up where Tipper Gore left off; John Kerry pledged in his campaign bio that a "major focus" of his administration would be "saving the Internet from hype and filth"; and during the 2000 Democratic National Convention then-chairman Joe Andrew canceled a party at the Playboy mansion, explaining that it was "neither appropriate nor reflective of our Party's values." (Andrew had a different set of values altogether when writing a masturbatory 1993 spy thriller called "The Disciples" in which a 300-pound black woman with "melon-wide lips" sexually tortures an American agent named, uh, Tommy Wood.)
Eleven years after the Gingrich revolution there is evidence galore that the two armies in the culture wars have simply switched sides after swapping the reins of power. The Republicans are now the party of big government and optimistic Wilsonian adventures abroad, while the Democrats flirt anew with federalism, fiscal sobriety and sour isolationism. Within this realignment, and the religious right's continued overreach in the Terri Schiavo case and others to follow, lies a golden Democratic opportunity for cultural re-branding. Yes, cocksuckers, it's time for liberals to get in touch with their inner "Deadwood." It's good politics, better philosophy and (most important of all?) damned fun.
