Future Clash (A 'South Park conservative'/libertarian counterculture emerges)

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette ^ | June 23, 2005 | Bradley R. Gitz

[quidnunc]

The central theme of Brian Anderson’s "South Park Conservatives" is that a new kind of anti-liberal counterculture is emerging comparable in tone, if not substance, to the 1960s New Left.

Like the nasty and funny TV show from which the label comes, South Park conservatives are characterized by skepticism and irreverence, with a special animosity reserved for the doctrinaire political correctness and limp-wristed liberalism that pervade Hollywood, the media and academe.

South Park conservatives make fun of everything and everyone, but especially those they see as hippies, tree-huggers, feminist dykes and fruity multiculturalists. Conservative on matters of economy and foreign policy but socially liberal, they can probably be best characterized as particularly cheeky libertarians dedicated to lampooning leftist dogmas and shibboleths.

That contemporary liberalism has become so easy to ridicule testifies to both its intellectual sclerosis and the broader shift in the political balance of power in recent decades toward conservatism. As New Republic editor Martin Peretz recently bemoaned, the left is increasingly "bookless" and brain-dead.

But the emergence of a powerful libertarian strain within an increasingly triumphant conservative movement also suggests an almost impossible to avoid future clash between those libertarians and the social conservatives who have provided so many of the foot soldiers and so much of the energy in the rise of the right.

Liberals claim, of course, that the religious right dominates the Republican Party to such an extent as to threaten the separation between church and state upon which the nation’s liberties rests. While such a characterization is almost certainly more a byproduct of liberal hysteria and further evidence of liberalism’s intellectual demise than an accurate description of the Bush administration’s intentions, there is no denying that "South Park" and evangelicalism represent extreme ends of the cultural continuum.

The source of the problem is not just that libertarians often tend to be closer to leftists on questions of abortion, gay rights, drug use, etc., but that they also tend to view social conservatism, with its ecclesiastical foundation, as every bit as doctrinaire, intolerant and generally oppressive to the human spirit as leftism.

For many libertarians, the left wishes to silence freedom of expression and association, confiscate the fruits of our labor and leave our nation defenseless in the face of its ugly enemies. But the right is suspected of seeking to rule from the pulpit in an effort to ban drinking, drugs, fornication and just about anything else that smacks of fun.

As the old cliché suggests, the left seeks to pick our pocket while the religious right tries to look under our beds. Each represents, with its respective orthodoxies and dogma, an assault upon the individual freedom and choice that South Park conservatives value most highly.

Because they have already decided how everyone should live and tend toward absolutism, both religious right and humanist left feel justified in imposing their values on others by force at the expense of individual liberty.

When Republicans last week voted overwhelmingly in the House of Representatives to uphold the federal government’s power to prosecute those who use marijuana for medicinal purposes, they were providing a perfect example of precisely such coercive intolerance. It was the kind of political performance in which the mind was shut down, reason took a vacation and moralistic breastbeating took center stage in the worst holier-than-thou fashion.

Libertarians don’t have a vision of the good society, except to the extent that they wish for everyone to be able to live as they please so long as they respect the right of others to do the same. Rather than dispensing with morality, as often claimed by their critics, they have such great reverence for it that they don’t feel entitled or qualified to determine it for anyone other than themselves.

How strange, then, that a misguided moralism masquerading under the phony rubric of the "war on drugs" could lead Republicans to do such an immoral thing as denying a harmless substance like marijuana to people in pain.

James Dobson undoubtedly approved, but the growing number of conservatives who watch "South Park" almost certainly didn’t.

[quidnunc]

Free-lance columnist Bradley R. Gitz teaches politics at Lyon College at Batesville.

[My2Cents]

skepticism and irreverence

Now THERE's a winning political formula (/sarc). Another term for it is "political nihilism."

[wildwood]

actually "south park conservatives" is an excellent book.....EXCELLENT.

[Constitution Day]

Ping.

[GSlob]

That's OK. Every pompous windbag should be pricked - those with too much internal pressure will burst.

[America First Libertarian]

they have such great reverence for it that they don’t feel entitled or qualified to determine it for anyone other than themselves.

This is my main beef with the religious right. I have no problem with them, in fact many libertarians are extremely religious, but simply don't want government in their business. The whole gay issue illustrates it best. I value morality, but I am a sinner, and surely would rather die, that legislate another adults behavior, as long as they are not initiating force against another American, do what you please, and stay out of my business. I'll leave the rest up to God.
I have many associates that fall under this category, of south park conservative, and they just want to be left alone, and do likewise for others, but free expression is probably the most conspicuous aspect to them. And I often join them in pointing out the utter hypocrisy that is present amongst liberals and the left.

[cvq3842]

Maybe I'll have to take a look at this book.

My own theory is that it's pretty simple: the '60's generation rebelled against what it saw as the up-tight, authoritarian generation before it. Now the '60s radicals are grown up and as overbearing and intolerant as the generation preceding it ever was.

Satire targets the pompous, the self-righteous.

South Park itself may or may not be my cup of tea, but super-serious liberals make as good a target as any . . .

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

But the right is suspected of seeking to rule from the pulpit in an effort to ban drinking, drugs, fornication and just about anything else that smacks of fun.

LOL! That's a major distortion. The right doesn't think unborn babies should be slaughtered, nor does it think marriage should be defined by the courts as something it has NEVER been. Public institutions should get public approval. Rule from the pulpit would force church attendance, baptism, communion, etc. And the only crowd seeking government rule over the heart would be the hate-crimes crowd.

[wildwood]

i'd take a libertarian on the supreme court before i kept jp stevens, ruth buzzy ginsberg, kennedy, souter or breyer. what a bunch of european socialists they are.

[My2Cents]

You have a point.

[EveningStar]

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[bpjam]

Would you rather have Christian conservatives in your party or Liberal crosser dressers? You only get two choices.

[EveningStar]

Thank you. :)

[Constitution Day]

Anytime! ;)

[k2blader]

They're liberals.

[LongsforReagan]

W and this congress- with their spending, are creating many more South Park Republicans.

[America First Libertarian]

If they love liberty, both. Why do I care if one is a conservative christian who doesn't want liquor, or gay themed tv in his house? Why should I care if the other likes to wear women's clothes? I would prefer a big tent party. People need to realize we are all Americans. And we need to focus on the enemy, who like neither christians nor crossdressers. I do not want any American to feel like they aren't welcome. No special rights, just equal. I don't want to judge someone based on their religion, or their fashion. I wear ripped jeans, and stained t-shirts when I am too lazy to throw anything else on, this doesn't however define me as a person.

[Paradox]

I'm pretty much there myself. I don't so much love conservatives, but I totally LOATHE the Left. Occasionally, conservatives will do something that makes me wince (flag burning amendment, ugh), but I'm with em on at least 90% of things. I say so what, once the Conservative/Libertarian republicans have taken over.. THEN we can work out things between us. I'd like to see three main political parties, old-school Conservatives, Liberatrians, and then that all but forgotten, powerless, and useless party, the Democrats..

[thejokker]

no they are conservatives...

providing the radicals in the conservative movement don't blow it i suspect this is the new "two party system" for america.

the democrats fade away to nothingness and republicans split into two groups: religious conservatives and secular conservatives...

[KC_for_Freedom]

I value morality, but I am a sinner, and surely would rather die, that legislate another adults behavior

I don't see the homosexual issue as one of legislating another's behavior.

Homosexual soilder? OK but keep quiet about your bedroom pals and bedroom behavoior. What is being legislated?

Homosexual marriage? Well, form a legal contract with whomever you choose. Again, you don't need to bring the behavior to a public place, Do you? Here I believe the homosexuals want the legislation. Somehow creating within the area of sexuality a "civil right".

I agree with you about the religious right. Religion is a private matter, and I am as irratated over the door to door evangelicals as the next person. I don't care whether homosexuality is a sin, it is enough for me to realize my feelings run counter to public variations of sexuality. (Actually too much public heterosexuality is too much as well.) But I don't worry about offending someone when I say you can't join our club and stand for open homosexual behavior. It should not be an area for the courts or the legislature. But remember who is pushing the agenda, and who is simply resistant to it.