Conservative -- and cool - How the right has come to reflect middle America's pop culture

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | Sunday, August 24, 2003 | James Sullivan

[anymouse]

The conservative commentator James Hirsen, a columnist for Newsmax.com and a regular on Fox News and "The Sean Hannity Show," once played keyboards for the touring Temptations. At the time he was the only white face in the group.

His hiring, he says, was "no affirmative action decision. I really had to be funky, or I lost the gig."

[anymouse]

It's printed in the SF Chronicle, so it must be true. :)

[Paul Atreides]

I didn't read all of the article, but it seems to be saying that Republicans are all flash and schmoozing with the right people. We are more substantive than that.

[rdb3]

The conservative commentator James Hirsen, a columnist for Newsmax.com and a regular on Fox News and "The Sean Hannity Show," once played keyboards for the touring Temptations. At the time he was the only white face in the group.

Cool! The best singing group of all time!

It was the third of September...

[cmsgop]

Thats soooooo cool! Love the gun in your name, I want one!..... :*)

[rdb3]

Love the gun in your name, I want one!..... :*)

Thanx. It was inspired by...

The font name is Mobsters.

[Question_Assumptions]

Bump for later.

[Tamzee]

Without going so far as to pierce anything unusual, yes, conservatives are very cool ;-)

[anymouse]

Agreed.

[anymouse]

Next time read the article. Ann Coulter is quoted saying just the opposite.

[Joe Bonforte]

The Democrats, says Danny Goldberg, have squandered their historic advantage with young people and ordinary working-class Americans by renouncing the pop culture that, for better or worse, makes up the country's common conversational ground.

Liberals will try any excuse to avoid the realization that their philosophy fails because it is false-to-fact. Liberal/leftist/socialist policies always fail - there are no known long term exceptions.

But the writer is on to one thing. As the left's worldview has increasing been shown to be deluded, they have become shrill. Nothing drives off young people faster (or old people for that matter).

[nutmeg]

FoxFan ping!

Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my FoxFan list. *Warning: This can be a high-volume ping list at times.

[Akron Al]

bump

[floriduh voter]

We are kewl. Permit me to brag on myself - I think my web site is kewl. Check it out sometime. I am on board to make conservatism and patriotism part of pop culture. It's pretty much my mission statement.

[cmsgop]

Very Well Done,Very Clever.....

[floriduh voter]

We are kewler than democrats. I knew it!

[Reeses]

The party of John F. Kennedy has turned an embarrassed cheek to its own charismatic past

JFK's party today is the Republicans. Arnold belongs to JFK's party and has even married into JFK's family. The Democrat Party hasn't turned a cheek, what they did do is move to the left and become Socialists. The Republican Party has also marched to the left and become JFK Democrats. The conservatives as well as the former Democrats have been abandoned by their parties.

[LS]

I teach 100-120 students per semester. Admittedly, it's a somewhat conservative Catholic school in Ohio, but still, we recruit from all over, including Puerto Rico and we have plenty of foreign students.

My students are moderate-conservative to conservative, for the most part. Yah, there are the anti-war kooks, but this year, with no faculty impetus, the students THEMSELVES formed a "Students for America" club to back down the protestors! I judge (somewhat) where things are by how well my conservative quips/jokes go over during classes---and by the way, no one has to decipher where I stand on important issues. Judging from this, students are definitely not left any more, and gradually swinging to the right. The younger they are (as with the freshmen) the more likely they are to be more conservative.

[Timesink]

Republicans are responsible for turning the Temptations white! Auugh!

[nutmeg]

I will check out your site ASAP.. thanks!

[nutmeg]

(belated) FoxFan ping!

[Argus]

My nephews - age 30 and 21 - are US Navy (Ret) and NROTC, and far to the right of their father, my older brother, who used to be a William F. Buckley fan but now sounds more like Howard Dean. The pendulum has swung, folks. Leftism is now associated with being a brown-nosing square, and frank conservatism is the new Hip.

[lmr]

My parents are a couple of ex-hippies. I turned out Conservative and my dad has made me feel bad for that on more than one occasion. He now patronizes me by striking up conversation and saying things like "I don't think some of these government programs are good- alot of bums take advantage of it... yadeyadeyada...", and then he points out members of my own family as examples. He will never be Conservative, but he finally accepted the notion that Republicans are in a bit of a renaissance, after the last election, in which I kept telling him that Republicans were fired up and the Democrats would lose. I would talk about Rush and he would call Rush "A idiot!" Several days after the election he saw Little Tommy Daschole ranting (In obvious defeat) about those hate-filled conservatives that listen to Rush Limbaugh and he saw me and other conservatives in a different light altogether. Man that felt good.

[Chuckster]

"Kewl"? sounds like something my cat might say. You need a conservative spellchecker.

d;^)

[Reeses]

Yah, there are the anti-war kooks

Keep in mind you probably shouldn't categorize high school age people, they don't know who they are and are all over the map. I was against all military intervention for a month or two in high school because I was cannon fodder age and Carter was control. Plant your seeds of wisdom in everyone and you will be surprised someday.

[floriduh voter]

I am just lurking tonight, but still acting kewl.

[floriduh voter]

Slightly change a country song and you have "I was conservative before conservative was cool."

[windchime]

Bump

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[lainde]

Fox fan BTTT!

[weegee]

As the Democrats grow blander, Hirsen says, "conservatism begins to look refreshing. Gosh, they're happy, they smile, they tell jokes, they have fun.

"We're not mean and dumb, like Janeane Garofalo says. What was that Huey Lewis song -- 'Hip to Be Square'?"

I beg to differ Miss Garofalo, you are mean and dumb. You are also a liar when you said that you would apologize if things didn't go as badly in Iraq as you hoped.

[DoctorZIn]

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[weegee]

I contend that some of the "antiwar" movement were well meaning housewives and students. They were red dupes of the communist organizers.

The easiest way to turn some of those people against the "antiwar" movement is to show them who is paying to organize those protests. Quite often I heard, "I didn't know that". The anticapitalists dislike the American system. There were riots at a number of the protests (including vandalized banks, INS offices, Starbucks, etc. none of which had ties to the war in Iraq). The organizers tried to play up American involvement in Columbia but that is nowhere to be heard today. The organizers support the Palestinian war so they aren't "antiwar" despite what they call their protests. They even supported the Palestinian use of suicide bombers ("They're using the only weapons they have, their bodies < sob, cry... >").

There may be dissent against sending the troops but those who wish to show their displeasure should do a better job investigating who they are siding with (and what "facts" they cite).

[ThinkFreedom]

Like I've said before, one thing that Socialists are particularly good at is "entrism", and cloaking themselves.

By now, most people would not support a revolutionary Marxist-socialist agenda. So what these virulant schemers do is cloak their agenda in other terms. For example, rather than saying "we want a big government that gives handouts to the undeserving at worker's expense", it's "social welfare", "social security", or "social justice" that they support (rule of thumb: anything with "social" in the title is probably socialistic).

Some of them are fairly crafty - "anti-globalization" for example. If I didn't know any better, I'd support something with that title. The thing is, it's not a one-world-government they oppose; it's any form of capitalism whatsoever. Most of the lefties behind that movement would be abhored if you told them "if you're against globalization, shouldn't we protect our borders better?" You'd think that, with a title like "anti-globalization", these people would be very nationalistic - they're not... they've just cloaked themselves with an easy excuse to attack private businesses.

Other traps include "feminism", "environmentalism", "minortiy rights", "gay and lesbian rights", etc. Basically, any group that "needs" big government protection.

Just like anti-globalization protesters don't oppose *all* globalization, they just oppose globalization that's done in a way that doesn't fit their narrow agenda, so to are most of the "peace" organizations not for peace. If you pass these clowns on the street, take a good look at the faces at the front of the crowd. If there were an attempt at a socialist coup tommorrow, these same people would be bearing the arms on the front line - make no mistake about it. When Yassir Arafat's, Al-Qaeda or Saddam's minion's kill innocent men, women and children, they're the same people who cheer with glee. When the Chinese Government, the Ayatollah's, Hugo Chavez's or Castro's troops put down a democratic uprising, they're the one's cheering for war. Make no mistake about it - these wacko leftists don't want peace, and they don't oppose war either. They just oppose just wars for national security. Injust wars fought in the name of socialism are a totally different issue.

The sad thing is that there are honest, Church going people who naevely believe, with the full radical agenda hidden from view, that these "pro peace" groups are really about peace.

In short, 2 kids of lefties in this world. The Michael Moore crowd who see the USSA Politbureau in their future, and the rest, who are stupid do-gooders who get sucked, unwittingly, into the leftist agenda.

[LS]

Most of the anti-war people on my campus are predictable, and not of the variety you cite. They are full-time lefties, who oppose ANY use of U.S. power where we might win.

[LS]

I teach college. Usually about 30% freshmen, the rest upper-level kids. And when I listen to them, they have pretty well-reasoned arguments, even if some of their evidence is wrong (on both sides of the issue). But there are some kooks. Trust me on this!

[Let's Roll]

And the young people who were "engaged" back in the 60s got older. The "pig through the python" is getting ready to retire.

[ChewedGum]

This is pretty cool. I don't think I've ever been thought of as hip or cool before...but now I am! I can handle that (I think).

Actually, my wife's students think I'm cool but they have only seen me once or twice and are just impressionable young children who don't know any better yet.

Gum

[nutmeg]

bttt