Dr. Who

Quote of the Day

I do not know which makes a man more conservative—to know nothing but the present, or nothing but the past.
  - John Maynard Keynes

Quote of the Day

Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good.
  - Thomas Sowell

Goodbye

For those of you who like your media with no cream or sugar, be sure to tune into C-Span:

Happy holidays everybody!!!!

Did I Say "Silent Majority?"

In my previous post I mentioned a song called "Okie from Muskogee" and how it was considered an anthem by Nixon's so called "silent majority."  Since then it has occurred to me that I have heard a similar term used during the 1980's referring to the Moral Majority.  While the silent majority was merely an abstract political term, the Moral Majority was an actual conservative Chrisitian-oriented lobbying organization.

It seems like the idea of an invisible majority could be considered a cynical attack on democracy itself.  Both the notion of an unofficial silent majority and the existence of the official Moral Majority organization were essentially asserting that there was this large majority of Americans that were somehow disenfranchised from the political process and needed to be heard.  Don't people get heard when they bother to go to the polls?  Of course they do, and our elections reflect the will of the voters who bother to show up and vote.  This doesn't appear to be good enough for some people.

Perhaps the idea of a silent or moral majority is really just a phenomenon of the American tendency to get wrapped up in culture wars.  The cultural warfare of the 60's was an all out brawl encompassing issues ranging from civil rights to ending the war in Vietnam.  Cultural warfare during the Reagan administration seemed to be about a resurgence in American conservatism.  Today there is definitely a culture war going on with people accusing the President of being a socialist, but I'm not sure how this culture war will get defined by the history books.  I haven't figured this one out.

Conservative Music

As a music and politics blog, I wanted to challenge myself to think of the most conservative song ever written.  I may have found it.  The song "Okie from Muskogee" came out during the Nixon administration and was considered by many to be the official anthem of Nixon's conservative "silent majority."  Listening to this I couldn't help admitting that conservatives have come a long way.  Sort of...



We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee
We don't take our trips on LSD
We don't burn our draft cards down on Main Street
We like livin' right, and bein' free.

We don't make a party out of lovin'
We like holdin' hands and pitchin' woo
We don't let our hair grow long and shaggy
Like the hippies out in San Francisco do.

And I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee
A place where even squares can have a ball
We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse
And white lightnin's still the biggest thrill of all.

Leather boots are still in style for manly footwear
Beads and Roman sandals won't be seen
Football's still the roughest thing on campus
And the kids here still respect the college dean.

And I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee
A place where even squares can have a ball
We still wave Old Glory, down at the courthouse
And white lightnin's still the biggest thrill of all.
We still wave Old Glory, down at the courthouse
In Muskogee, Oklahoma, USA.

Culture War or Class War?

If the Republican party cannot piece together an actionable economic agenda anytime soon, will their platform revert back to the relatively softer social issues like abortion and gay marriage?  Traditionally, the real red meat of Republican party platforms past and present has been social issues.  Even though their Tea Party wing claims to be focused on economics, the traditional way to rouse the GOP faithful is through cultural warfare, not the class warfare that emerges when you start talking economics.  One way to read the political "tea leaves" (no pun intended) is to watch whether or not Don't Ask Don't Tell becomes a big issue in the House floor debates of the next Congress.  That could very well signal which way the GOP wants to go.