You really are confused!
Posted on 05/04/2005 5:59:04 AM PDT by OESY
I'll get to First Lady Laura Bush's bawdy stand-up routine in a minute. But I want to highlight a related new book out about how young conservatives are shaking up the dominant liberal media culture. It's called "South Park Conservatives." My name is listed on the cover along with many other (mostly) right-leaning pundits, websites, and bloggers, but I must confess to having mixed feelings about the honor.
The best-selling book's author, Brian C. Anderson of the Manhattan Institute, writes a fun, breezy survey documenting the rise of talk radio, FOX News, the Internet, conservative publishing, and college Republican activism. Anderson's chapter on the success of conservative talk radio and the abysmal failure of liberal Air America to replicate it is incisive. Another chapter on the blogosphere (alone worth the price of the book) gives readers a useful history of the explosion of news, opinion, and political websites that have smashed the left-wing media monopoly.
But how did such a wide-ranging list of individuals and organizations -- Anderson's book cover includes the names of conservative-leaning Internet pioneer Matt Drudge and center-left journalist Mickey Kaus, the libertarian Tech Central Station, the culturally conservative WorldNetDaily, political upstart Arnold Schwarzenegger and political chameleon Andrew Sullivan, plus Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, and myself, along with a feature blurb from Jonah Goldberg -- all get lumped under the umbrella term "South Park Conservatives"?
Anderson argues that Comedy Central's cartoon series "South Park" embodies the "fiercely anti-liberal comedic spirit" of the "new media" from Kaus to Coulter. The cartoon, he writes, reflects a "post-liberal counterculture" that is "particularly appealing to the young, however much it might offend older conservatives."
Well, I'm 34 and no fan of "South Park." I have many good friends who are indeed huge boosters of the show, but I find that the characters' foul language overwhelms any entertainment I might otherwise derive from the show's occasional, right-leaning iconoclastic themes.
"South Park" may be "politically incorrect." But "politically incorrect" is not always a synonym for "conservative."
My discomfort with "South Park's" increasingly mainstream vulgarity is not a matter of nitpicking. We're not just talking about a stray curse word here or there. As liberal New York Times columnist Frank Rich points out, "South Park" "holds the record for the largest number of bleeped-out repetitions (162) of a single four-letter expletive in a single television half-hour." That's probably about the same number of profanities uttered at John Kerry's infamous New York City celebrity fundraiser last summer, which Republicans rightly condemned for its excessive obscenities.
Rich is wrong about most things, but he's painfully on target in noting the incongruous pandering now taking place by some in the cool-kids clique on the Right. Conservatives criticize Hollywood relentlessly, but as Rich notes, "the embarrassing reality is that they want to be hip, too."
Which brings me to Mrs. Bush. She demonstrated at the celebrity-studded White House Correspondents' Dinner this weekend that you can entertain without being profane. Most of her humor was just right: Edgy but not over the edge. But her off-color stripper and horse jokes crossed the line. Can you blame Howard Stern for feeling peeved and perplexed? And let's face it: If Teresa ("I'm cheeky!") Heinz Kerry had delivered Mrs. Bush's First Lady Gone Mildly Wild routine, social conservative pundits would be up in arms over her bad taste and lack of dignity.
The First Lady resorting to horse masturbation jokes is not much better than Whoopi Goldberg trafficking in dumb puns on the Bush family name. It was wholly unnecessary.
Self-censorship is a conservative value. In a brilliant commencement speech at Hillsdale College last year, Heritage Foundation president Ed Feulner called on his audience to resist the coarsened rhetoric of our time: "If we are to prevail as a free, self-governing people, we must first govern our tongues and our pens. Restoring civility to public discourse is not an option. It is a necessity."
Lighten up, you say? No thanks. I'd rather be a G-rated conservative who can only make my kids giggle than a "South Park"/"Desperate Housewives" conservative whose goal is getting Richard Gere and Jane Fonda to snicker. Giving the Hollyweird Left the last laugh is not my idea of success.
"There were faults on both sides" is NOT an unqualified apology.
What would Jesus do?
I dip into these threads.. and I wish more people were involved in politics; they'd have a much keener appreciation for what kind of person constitutes a winner versus one that sounds good but loses elections and issues.
That's so cute. It's always fun to read what passes for phlegmatic contradiction among the terminally self-conscious.
You're all over the place. If you'll answer the first question I posed to you in this thread you'll be getting near a topic, at which point we can have a conversation. Until then, buzz off.
Dunno. Perhaps, as some suggest, have an affair with Mary Magdeline and have offspring?
Uh oh. The National Auxiliary for the Godly Serious (NAGS) are all over you, now.
And then go to the Washington Correspondents' Press Dinner and crack jokes about it?
Great argument. Nice talking to you.
Harry Truman talking to some White House guests said he thought the Rose Garden needed some manure.
One of guests drew Mrs Truman aside and said "Could you suggest to the President that he calls it fertilizer, instead of manure.
Mrs Truman sighed "You have no idea how long it took me to get him to call it manure"
Thank you. I'm here all week, Enjoy the vael.
I agree with Michelle Malkin here.
The problem I have with South Park is not so much that it is the equivalent of juvenile sixth-grade potty jokes.
It is that there is no wit involved. It is pure stupidity.
Most of The First Lady's funny lines were new takes on old jokes. Yet, coming from her, it was a refreshing and successful attempt at good humor, and it diffused some of the libs tactics; she stole their thunder.
Michelle honey I love and admire you dear but we need to pick our battles.
I'd rather stick to immigration....something which you have been splendid about.
Exactly the point I made earlier.
Knocked the wind out of Mo Dowd and Frank Rich and all the other media claiming the GOP are bringing us a theocracy.
**You don't have the right to demand that Laura Bush not watch certain things on television -- unless someone forgot to tell me that the Thought Police had begun to rule recently.**
Actually, she already admitted she never watched it.
It is less arrogant to say "I don't get it"
Take up a hobby. I suggest needlepoint.
Exactly. It left those two dingbat social commentators reeling.
You are perfect in every way?
Hmmm I seem to recall that there was only One who was perfect.
You ain't Him.
Apparently that's what Laura said George did. Haven't you been paying attention?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.