Posted on 03/09/2004 5:55:12 AM PST by crushkerry
Before he quit the race for president, John Edwards worn out stump speech featured talk about the two Americas. You get it? Yeah, rich and poor, the Haves and the Have Nots. This was a largely fictional account, true about America once like, say in the 1890s or so. But no longer.
Rather, if you gave Americas poor full use of a time machine and they went back to any era in the history of man, they would swiftly realize how good they have it and come back. Over half own a home. 98% have a color TV. Almost as many own a car.
No, the old political narrative that pits rich against poor has lost a tremendous amount of steam and is being replaced with a different fissure. Here at crushkerry.com, we prefer different labels for the two Americas: Janet Jackson America and Mel Gibson America. We base this on the premise that the big division in America today is cultural, not economic.
Janet Jackson, you will recall, infamously revealed her right breast in one of the most troubling celebrity watch me moments in television history. Mel Gibson, of course, is the producer and director of the smash film The Passion of The Christ. It was fortuitous that these two major cultural moments occurred at roughly the same time because they give us clear symbols to use as reference points in the raging cultural cold war.
One side, the liberal side, is Janet Jackson America. This is a universe of people who are titillated by a 40 year old woman disrobing on television in front of millions of children.
Janets live on the coasts, largely, and are drawn to big cities. Most of them are single or divorced. They have no serious religious beliefs. Instead, their god over the past year-and-a-half has probably been Howard Dean, or maybe Denis Kucinich. They comprise 100% of the 30% of Americans who support gay marriage. They see George W. Bush as at least the equivalent of Saddam Hussein, some see him as Osama bin Laden. The most extreme Janets think hes Hitler. This America unfailingly votes Democrat come election time.
Mel Gibson Americans are different. They live in rural and suburban places, generally between the coasts. Many Mels escaped city life on the coasts for greener pastures.
They are religious. Most of them are Evangelical Christians, but an increasing number of Jews and Catholics are becoming Mel Gibson Americans. They are married and they have kids, or are expecting. They own a home. Both husband and wife work, but wifey would like to stay home with the kids.
Mels like George W. Bush. But they are not necessarily Republicans. Many Mels still buy into the old class warfare narrative and see the Republicans as the party of the rich. But ever since they voted for Ronald Reagan in 1984, theyve inched ever closer to the GOP.
So, since ours is a site dedicated to crushing John Kerry, is the Massachusetts Senator a Janet or a Mel? Well, first, lets face it hes from Massachusetts. There arent a lot of Mels in the land of Kennedys.
But let John Kerry answer for himself. On Janet Jacksons classless reveal Kerry has been silent, not even a shrug of the shoulders of a roll of the eyes. But he has expressed deep concern that Mels Passion is anti-Semitic.
Enough said.
Well written and thought out.
Welcome to FR! :)
Sure there are, and their numbers increase the further one gets from Boston. This polemic, and this piece, are childish.
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