Attack of the Conservative Zombies, Starring George Looney, Mutt Damon, and Janeane Garatoolo

We watched the big debate last night between Joe "the Jerk" Biden and Paul "the Kid" Ryan. Ryan's behavior was for the most part, respectful and civil, while Biden was ugly, boorish and condescending. Yet this morning Biden's "aggressive" style seems to have Democrats foaming at the mouth in political ecstasy. Although a CNN poll immediately after the debate showed otherwise, they apparently think his performance brought them back into contention after Obama's embarrassing debacle last week.

Jonathan S. Tobin pretty much summed up our feelings here at the Post in his Commentary article with these two statements:

Though they [Democrats] rarely own up to it, they don’t think Republicans are so much wrong as they are bad. By contrast, most Republicans think Democrats are wrong, not evil....     

The problem here is not just that presidents and would-be commanders-in-chief must appear presidential. It is that the liberal base of the president’s party is so filled with anger and contempt for Republicans that they can’t abide even a show of civility from their champions.

Why is this? Why do they hate conservatives so much?

In my opinion, this deep seated hatred is the fruit of about three decades of conservative debasement in the popular culture (movies, TV shows, popular music including rock and roll, novels, art, etc.) and in college (and to some extent, secondary public school) classrooms.

After years and years of  this, day in and day out in the classrooms, and night after night on TV or in the movies, the message of disrespect and contempt has eaten its way into the liberal psyche. To progressives, conservatives are greedy, evil people, so vile that hate speak (which liberals claim to loathe) aimed at them is acceptable and expected. Republicans are heartless and rich fat cats, ignorant unsophisticated rednecks, war mongers, and bigoted zombie racists. What's not to hate?

And in recent years that kind of debasement has spread into major newsrooms so that even a "serious" journalist like Anderson Cooper can disparage the Tea Party by attaching the nasty epithet "Tea Baggers" to what is in reality a growing and powerful grassroots political movement of ordinary citizens.

As I've said in an earlier posts, it's time for Republicans and conservatives to get into the popular culture business. I mean get into it Big Time, jump in with both feet. There are plenty of smart creative conservatives around and a lot of others who have money to invest. But I'm not talking about propaganda or a bludgeon approach in terms of spreading conservative views. We should take a subtle, long range approach to the problem of progressives dominating pop culture. Just nick 'em a little here, nick 'em a little there, first thing you know we've whittled 'em down to size.

Some of us know how to build a business and make money. Some of us know how to make movies, books, TV shows, or art. What say we bring these talents together on a large scale/ Such an investment can make investors and artists money and make a big difference in popular culture over the long term.

To me, a conservative investment in popular culture would be like buying a blue chip stock, one that you buy a five thousand shares of at $10 a share; thirty years later those shares are worth $200 each and your $50,000 investment has turned into $1,000,000. Or in this case, millions of people with conservative views and values.