Arts & Entertainment and the impact on America

I am not a regular visitor to the Democratic Underground website (democraticunderground.com), but a caller to REgressive talk show host Stephanie Miller brought up a commentary piece by Ted McCelland explaining how the liberals will eventually win the hearts and minds of Americans.

That way is through the Arts and Entertainment that many Americans consume each day. McClelland says their fight may take decades to accomplish but liberalism will triumph. He says that many of the “right wing’s fiercest culture warriors are middle aged men" that are re-fighting the battles of their youth.” On that list includes George W. Bush, Pat Buchanan, Tom DeLay, Gary Bauer and Alan Keyes.

McClelland says they are trying to “unring every bell that sounded in the 1960’s. I will not waste my time by giving a list of what happened in the 1960’s, but I think you can figure it out. He reminds us that the culture than the “culture warriors” loathe are still in their face and are not going back to the days of Donna Reed.

He also reminds us of how liberal Hollywood is and how many of the “players” their backed John Kerry for the highest office of the land, and how “Great Comedy” mocked the status quo. He also had to mention that on the week of the election a lot of people watched the hit Soap Opera/Comedy “Desperate Housewives” and then went to vote Republican on Tuesday.

Overall McClelland says that entertainment is the most power weapon that the liberals have in the culture wars. It’s done when an American turns on the radio (other than right-wing talk radio I would take it), watches TV (liberals have great control on that), or buys a movie ticket (they have to throw an adult word here and there or every 5th or 10th word depending on the movie).

This piece was published on December 1, 2004. However McClelland’s piece would have made a stronger statement if he held off this piece until after the Christmas weekend of this year. His statement would only be strengthened with the box office success of the adult comedy “Meet the Fockers” which stars two outspoken liberals Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Streisand. Streisand by the way plays an aging sex-crazed therapist.

In a piece in yesterday's USA Today, the name Focker is based on a profane word. Just cut out the letter O and replace it with a U. I will not spell the word out for you. The article quotes Nell Minow who is the editor of MovieMom.com who warns that Fockers has a lot of R-level humor in the movie. Most of that is the graphic sex talk in spite of a PG-13 rating. Another good week and the Fockers should be in the black. Hollywood wins again with a movie that is “adult” in nature.

I should say at this point that I am not a “social conservative.” I would not personally go see “Meet the Fockers,” just because of Streisand, and she is know for her outspoken views on political issues. Granted a Toby Maguire or a Kirsten Dunst (Damm she is so good looking) are both known to be politically liberal along with many performers in the entertainment business, but Streisand wins hands down for being the most annoying person in the business.

Sadly the Entertainment business tend to support the personalities and ideals of the Democratic Party, which as of late support the ideals of higher taxes, expanding government that is bloated allready, and attacking the concept of the individual in favor of lumping people into some kind of group (Poor, Black, Hispanic, GLBT etc.). I called KOA-AM’s Mike Rosen to task for the Republicans not supporting the Gays in favor of the religious people. Rosen told me and his audience that without those “religious people” John Kerry would soon be taking office.

It is funny, on one hand these people go to church or synagogue, but hours later they turn on to a TV show like “Desperate Housewives,” or pay $7.00 dollars to see “Meet the Fockers.” Knowing and seeing this I still think that the Republican Party need to ditch the James Dobson’s, the Jerry Falwell’s, and the like and realize that most Americans are libertarian in nature.

The fight for social conservativism/family values is a lost battle. If you think you will be able to “Reclaim America for Jesus Christ” you have another thing coming. The best thing for the Republican Party to do is to embrace the values when it comes to our government. Less government, lower taxes, and life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…oh and let’s not forget supporting the individual person rather than some group that the Democrats like to put people in. If we do that, then this is one battle in which the left can be defeated.

Oh and if your a prude and look at such movies and programs that I talked about, you are just as two faced as John Kerry. The man you did not want to see beat Bush. You really need to take a look at the person in the mirror sometime.