Conservatives are generally disdainful of so-called popular culture. They describe it as immoral, decadent, degraded and degrading.
Conservatives also claim that their own values represent the majority of Americans. Hollywood is "out of step with America" and so on.
If the majority of Americans actually shared right-wing conservative values, then popular culture wouldn't be so damn ... popular, would it?
So either conservatives are, by and large, hypocrites who privately imbibe of the immoral popular culture they publicly assail, or their values are simply not representative of the majority of Americans.
They simply can't have it both ways. You can't simultaneously decry the culture and appeal to it.
I tend to the latter view, FWIW. Conservatism in America is a shrinking minority view. While they may win a battle now and again, their war on the rest of us is already lost; if not in my generation, then in my children's, or their children's generation.
What's more, I think deep down inside most of them know it, or they wouldn't fight so hard.
Posted by cerebus at July 23, 2004 6:35 AM