Posted on 05/02/2005 6:48:26 AM PDT by bmweezer
Interview with Brian Anderson. Posted: May 1, 2005 Brian Anderson is the Senior Editor of City Journal, but he often contributes pieces to the magazine itself. His new book expands on the idea of the South Park Republican, or a strain of conservative who believes strongly in the free market and our national defense, yet is socially liberal on many issues. The term was first created by Andrew Sullivan, but Anderson joined in on the discussion via his 2003 essay called “We’re Not Losing the Culture Wars Anymore” . He now celebrates this ultramodern breed of anti-perfectionist in his newly released South Park Conservatives: The Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias. Here’s an excellent review of the work. We are most fortunate that the author was able to give us a few minutes of his time and answer some questions.
(Excerpt) Read more at gopnation.com ...
Next stop. Europe. They are so bound up with PC groupthink that they will wrap us up in Napoleonic bureaucratic red tape, if we let them.
>>a strain of conservative who believes strongly in the free market and our national defense, yet is socially liberal on many issues
Most of Bush's '04 vote probably came from totally-conservative voters but I wonder if he would have won had it not been for the South Park conservatives...the ones who agreed with him on issues like defense and fiscal policy but disagreed, perhaps, on the social issues.
The ones who may have agreed with Kerry on the social issues but said to themselves, this election is too important for me to put that Mass. Liberal in office.
For swing voters I have a hunch there were a lot more
"Democrats for Bush" than there were "Republicans for
Kerry". Conservative Dems are a rarity these days. Some
of them may be unenrolled in either party (Independent)
and in this past election pulled the lever for Bush.
I would call myself a South Park Conservative, but I guess I'm the opposite - I vote for Catholic Social Doctrine, which basically means that I think we should take care of those who cannot take care of themselves, but without the government's help.
As far as the "socially liberal" stance goes, I would maintain that South Park Conservatives are morally conservative and this takes precedence over the social aspect.
In any case, South Park is dang funny - so maybe the distinction lies in an ultra-conservative base actually having a sense of humor, and this being revealed to the masses who otherwise think that a conservative is a stodgy old man (kind of a sraw man image, if you ask me).
tSG
Not sure if this hasn't already been pinged before in a different thread. It looked new to me.
I think Socially liberal is the wrong characterization, because to me that says "pro abortion". I don't think I'd characterize SP conservatives as pro abortion, they're anti-abortion, just less religious.
Amen. I'm a SPR who's pro-life, but doesn't attend church. The most common mis-characterization of "South Park" is that it pokes fun at God, Jesus, etal. This is a mistake made by people who never watch the show. It does poke fun at organized religions who try ram their opinions down people's throats, like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. But it is also an unleashed pitbull against leftwing sacred cows like abortion, stem cells, and caving in to the terrorists after 9-11.
I agree with you. Socially liberal is the wrong term. I think South Park Republicans are probably socially libertarian, not liberal. My opinion is that we want PC and the government out of our personal lives but want a strong economy and national defense.
Persoanlly, I dream of the day the dim party is finally tossed to the ash heap of history, and the debate is between conservatives and libertarians.
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