So "liberal" is a dirty word, huh? What took so long?
I saw a "Hi and Lois" comic some time ago, wherein Hi tells his son Chip that he’s old enough to remember when "Liberal wasn’t a dirty word",and Chip reacted with shock.
I hear that all the time, actually….that, since 9/11, "liberal" is now a dirty word, derided by all. It’s about time, I say.
"Conservative", when you come right down to it, has been a dirty word for 40 years and more, ever since a commercial aired in which the voice of a cute little girl in a sun dress, counting the petals on a daisy, morphs into that of a countdown. As the voice reaches "one", the little girl’s eye, in extreme close-up, suddenly fills with the image of an atomic mushroom cloud, which in turn pegged Barry Goldwater as a hawk out to nuke the Reds and destroy the world. This blew away his chances for the White House in 1964.
Richard Nixon, running in 1968, lampooned his own popular image as a right-wing stiff by appearing in the "Sock it to me" cameos on the hip comedy/variety show "Laugh-In". It is this appearance that is sometimes credited with his winning the election.
The Right has been derided time and again, no matter which side is "in power" (indeed, when we are in power, the insults fly even harder and faster; Reagan, for example, was one of the most popular presidents in modern history, but you wouldn’t have known, or know it, from Hollywood) in movies and TV and the media in general.
This is because adherents of the Left, admit it or deny it, have positioned themselves in offices of power in Hollywood and New York, the bi-coastal capitals of the American media kingdom.
In 1971, Norman Lear introduced the world to a lovable bigot named Archie Bunker. Bunker was a buffoon; a "typical", for that era, at least, right-wing zealot. He became something of a template for right-wingers as portrayed in the media; he was closed-minded, chained to the past, short-sighted, easily frustrated by those who didn’t agree with him and mildly daffy in his political and social outlook.
Gloria and "Meathead", his liberal, hippie daughter and son-in-law, on the other hand, were right on, baby. They were young, they were hip and they were happenin’; they knew what was "shakin’", what was "goin’ down".
Archie, as performed by Carroll O’Connor (himself a champion of many left-wing causes) was frustratingly stodgy and old-fashioned; Meathead and Gloria were patient, mod and well-informed; their arguments were well-founded and solid.
Archie’s were not; the arguments put forth by the elder Bunker were usually silly, vague, mildly idiotic and most often rooted in the past, with a
"because that’s how it should be, so there" attitude. Archie’s wife Edith, I suppose, was the "moderate" of the group, always finding common ground on which the two extremes could co-exist.
Conservatives down through the last 4 decades have been portrayed, in movies, TV and print, by many turns, as buffoonish, hawkish, violent, racist, mean-spirited, greedy sons of bitches, very often with gun racks in their trucks, huge pot bellies stretching their dingy "wife-beater" t-shirts and hanging low over their dirty jeans. Greasy, unkempt hair sticking out from under a cheap, dirty mesh ball cap and often speaking with thick southern accents were also often features of the stereotypical conservative. We’ve all seen it.
We have also frequently been portrayed as cruel, power-hungry suits, sitting behind massive oaken desks in ornate, well-furnished offices, mercilessly crushing the little guy in our lust for control and profit. This goes on, as I say, no matter which side it is that’s "in power" at the time.
I, however, as a political conservative, do not fit either of these descriptions. Does any other conservative reading this fit either mold?
For all these reasons, I think that the Left’s cries of foul for the last four years of abuse for their "treasonous" choice of political identity are virtually unfounded and entirely unnecessary. They’ve had it coming. For a long time.
After all, we’ve been getting it, at their hands, for ten times that long, folks! They want to whine and cry about it now that they’re at last getting it, too? I don’t think so. They’ve got some payback coming, I feel.
The major difference here, of course, is that conservatives can laugh at themselves and take abuse with a smile. Liberals cannot. They get offended too easily.
Oh, you poor lefties. All the old chickens are coming home to roost, are they? Tough; deal with it. We do.