An Ol’ Broad’s Ramblings
Sharing An Opinion
*****No, it’s not my opinion. Wish I had written it though. This post was put on Facebook by L.L. Brown, IV. I hope he doesn’t mind that I am doing a copy and paste, but this is something that should be read!*****
How Do We Make Conservatism Cool?
The election of Barack Hussein Obama was not political. It was cultural. This is the end result of years and years of dumbing down American education, feminizing boys, infantilizing adults, extending adolescence into the 30’s, and putting a tremendous focus on entertainment and distractions above all else. We have gotten soft. We value style over substance. Our Presidential election is now American Idol: White House Edition.
Conservatism is now in the wilderness. We lost and we lost BIG. But in particular we got spanked with younger voters. What to do? Be cool man, be cool.
We all know Obama didn’t win with better ideas, a better record of achievement, or better policies. He won with better messaging, better branding, and a cult of personality that would make Stalin blush. Obama was sold like an iPod. He won because he made people FEEL something about themselves. For some (guilty whites) that meant feeling they could make up for the sin of being born pale. For others (mostly single women) that meant feeling he was a strong, calming male presence with a deep voice and gentle yet strong manner who could guide the country through tough times and hold their hand. Maybe even cuddle a little. And for young people it meant feeling that they were part of a movement. That they were changing the world simply by voting for Obama. It meant feeling the kind of excitement and exhilaration at an Obama rally that one could find at a rock concert. It meant feeling that Obama was so damn cool that anyone who wasn’t voting for him was, by definition, NOT cool. And who wants to be un-cool?
So how do we make conservatism cool? During the era of Reagan it was often remarked that it was “hip to be square”. Reagan was actually cool in his own way. He wasn’t a stern, boring father figure. He was the amiable grandpa who was also a former Hollywood movie star, a horse riding cowboy, and very VERY funny. For those who weren’t around, he was like Huckabee when it came to comic timing, stinging quips, and great one-liners. Reagan had the excitement. He was leading not just the Republican Party but a national movement. The Gen X-ers who come of age during the Reagan era are still the most Republican generation alive today: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/813/gen-dems
Andrew Breitbart is a Hollywood conservative and well known presence on the internet. He has recently launched a new site called “Big Hollywood” designed to give a platform to right wingers in LA LA Land. Doug TenNapel (creator of Earthworm Jim) recently posted a piece there entitled “Republican is the New Punk” : http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/dtennapel/2009/01/31/republican-is-the-new-punk/
Here’s an excerpt:
“Lefty politics are no longer the fringe and no matter if the voters knew it or not they carved lefty politics into stone. Bill Ayers became the system he once fought against. Sure, they still wear the earring and say “fuck” a lot to maintain street-cred among the academics, but now rock has taken sides — it is for the establishment. Same with journalism, the university and pop-culture. The left has become a cliché. They’re not “Arrested Development” they’re “Golden Girls” with a soul patch. Snore.
Now that the art nerds and punks just became the football jocks and prom queens, a new rebel is emerging from the wilderness. They are the new anti-establishment. One minority force bands together against every other branch of government swallowed by the Democrat octopus. The last evidence of a check or balance against the popular people are now the Conservative Republicans.
The arts have failed. They no longer keep mass culture in check with thought-provoking art that challenges the establishment. Now they’re in charge of spreading the mainstream mandate of the Liberal Vatican. There isn’t an original thought among them, just a thousand-mile stare, a blue logo and the drone-like vocabulary of emotive, vaguely inspiring chants.
We’re the new rebellion against the majority juggernaut that doesn’t take kindly to dissent. Make a fist and show them what happens when they tell you what to think, feel and believe.
If you want me to unite to your cause, then end abortion, give the people back the money they earned, fight terror, keep your hands off free speech on the radio and enable job creators to make more jobs. Until then, screw your hope and screw your change.”
I don’t know about you but I’m really liking this. The Lefties have always been about sticking it to the man but now they ARE the man: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG-VB5xb6KM So now it’s our job to be the rebels and stick it to them. I’m not quite sure how to go about this. Like most conservatives, libertarians, traditionalists, neo-cons, rightwingers, capitalists, and Republicans under the age of 30 and living in the Northeast I know something about being non-conformist. Black Republicans/conservatives certainly know about rejecting the herd mentality. And of course anyone who came through the last election cycle and didn’t vote for THE ONE knows what it is to think for yourself and to be the odd man out. But ours has generally been a kind of stoic American cowboy spirit. What has been referred to as rugged individualism. Defiant? Yes. Proud? Certainly. Confident? Fear is for the French. But cool? Eh, that’s not exactly our strong suit. So I have been looking for some tips on how to stick it to the man: http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-stick-it-to-the-man My tentative conclusion is that while this could be lots of fun I don’t think it would be good for civilization if the Right went Kos and just spent the next 4 or 8 years whining about how Obama won’t show us his birth certificate.
Now, to some extent “cool” is about fashion. It’s about fad. It’s about what everybody else thinks. And I suspect lefties will always be better at that than us. But one very fashionable young lady is trying to help make conservatism hot this season with her new blog “Conservative Fashionista”: http://conservativefashionista.blogspot.com/ The author, Alexis Rice, describes herself as “A bit of a walking contradiction one might say… I have strong conservative values, political ideals, and religious beliefs, coupled with a deep love of fashion and pop culture. So sit down, kick back, have a cup of tea, and enjoy my life.” In her latest post she takes on the PETA people and defends fur coats. Yikes! Oh, and did I mention she’s a vegetarian? Now that’s non-conformity. This is exactly the kind of free thinking individuality that has always lived on the Right. But lately we have not been marketing this very well.
Now I realize that trying to imitate the Left’s cool factor would be just another way of becoming Democrat – Lite. And as McCain showed us all (if anyone still needed convincing) when you give people a choice between a real Democrat and a half a Democrat they’ll choose the real thing. But I return to the idea of “hip to be square”. And I see at least one public figure in the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy who seems to be able to pull this off. That man is Bobby Jindal. Here is an excerpt from a recent Newsweek article ( http://www.newsweek.com/id/174518 ) about the Louisiana Governor:
“For Jindal, navigating difficult crosscurrents is nothing new. Born Piyush Jindal on June 10, 1971, to one of the few Indian families in Baton Rouge, he suddenly announced at the age of 4 that he would answer only to “Bobby,” in honor of his favorite “Brady Bunch” character. Asked by NEWSWEEK why he chose an American name, Jindal insists that “there wasn’t a whole lot of great thought gone into it.” But Jan Daly, Jindal’s English teacher, recalls that her top student “wanted to be Westernized.” As a teen, Jindal rejected his parents’ loose Democratic ties to become a staunch Reagan Republican—in part, he has said, because the Gipper was “very popular” and “easy to identify with.” By the time Jindal arrived at Brown in 1988, he was a regular Alex P. Keaton. Arshad Ahsanuddin, a close friend, e-mails that Jindal sported “penny loafers with actual pennies in them” on campus, claiming, when confronted, that “it was the traditional way to wear that type of shoe.” Since narrowly losing his first gubernatorial bid in 2003, Jindal has rarely appeared in public without cowboy boots.”
I think an Indian Alex P. Keaton might be just exactly what we need. But I don’t like the idea of pinning all our hopes and dreams for a right wing resurgence on to one man. So how can we be cool man? Any ideas?
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Well-written piece. Relevantly, as many nationally influential voices have repeatedly noted, Obama is part of Generation Jones, born 1954-1965, between the Boomers and Generation X. Google Generation Jones, and you’ll see it’s gotten a lot of media attention, and many top commentators from many top publications and networks (Washington Post, Time magazine, NBC, Newsweek, ABC, etc.) are specifically referring to Obama, born in 1961, as part of Generation Jones.
Great op-ed on exactly this topic in USA TODAY this week:
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20090127/column27_st.art.htm
If you look at election data cross tabulated by generation, you find that Generation Jones is, by far, the most GOP-voting generation. In the 2008 election, Jonesers were split almost 50-50, but historically this generation leans heavily Republican…the original Reagan Youth in 1980 and 1984.
I wasn’t sure if L.L.’s Facebook link would work, but I’m going to try it now.
Yup. It did. I copy and pasted your comment there, hope ya don’t mind.