Detour

I recently came across an article written by Mark Gauvreau Judge in the American Spectator called Right-Wingtips, which documents a new type of American conservative called the metrocon. Actually Mr. Judge believes that this is an old species that has just recently been named; people like William F. Buckley, George Will, and President Kennedy are examples of this sub-species of conservative. Mr. Judge explains…

As most people know, a metrosexual is a heterosexual man who has good taste in art and music, and likes to pamper himself with nice clothes and expensive grooming. There’s only one drawback: I can’t stand much of the so-called common-man culture celebrated by the Right. I fully realized I’m a conservative metrosexual — let’s call me a metrocon

I guess I aspire to be a metrocon. One of the musical highlights of last year was the BBC downloads of Beethoven’s nine symphonies, my favorite class in college was the history of modern art, and I am well versed in the works of Euler, Nietzsche, and Pasteur. I guess the only thing holding me back is my lack of funding for Brooks Brothers suits and sipping Louis Roederer Cristal Champagne in my hiltop villa along the Pacific Ocean. But there is more in my life then economics, politics, and appreciation of fine wines. I love beer, country music, and NASCAR. Mr. Judge thinks this flies in the face of my metrocon status, and throws me to the dark side of American culture….

NASCAR, an absolutely idiotic “sport” which consists, as the joke goes, of “a bunch of rednecks makin’ left turns,” is hailed as red state America’s favorite pastime — and ipso facto comparable to the Olympics of ancient Greece. Actually, scratch that: NASCAR is not treated as something grand and noble, which makes it all the worse.

Mr. Judge believes that most NASCAR fans are proud of their ignorance of all that metrocons (and snobs) have a high regard for. (I know I shouldn’t end a sentence with a preposition…but I watch NASCAR, what do you expect?). I think he buys into a stereotype in this case. How does he know? Just because the stereotype of a NASCAR fan is one of a bumbling idiot, and the sport has its roots in the South doesn’t mean that a majority of its fans are ignorant and proud of it. I certainly am not ignorant nor are any of the other fans of NASCAR I know (albeit in the San Francisco Bay Area this is a small sample size). Mr. Judge goes on to skewer a song called Redneck Women…neglecting the hundreds of other country songs about family, respect, and longing to be a better person.

Do conservatives really have a monopoly on such sub-par tastes? I can think of a whole slew of rap, punk, and rock songs that have similarly ignorant lyrics. Hell even Beethoven made music, that at the time, was controversial…and some would say ignorant. Mr Judge devotes a paragraph to liberals, whom he says…

… are worse. Baby boomers still dress in jeans and T-shirts (like their NASCAR counterparts), listen to music that’s 40 years old (the Stones anyone?), and try to sound like teenagers to impress their kids. Whereas JFK — one of the great American metrosexuals of all time — looked great even on vacation, with his Ray-Bans and khakis, Al Gore just looked silly when he tried to reach the common man by wearing “earth tones.” It’s the difference between Brooks Brothers and the Gap.

But this snippet strikes me as cover for the main point of his article…how much he loathes his fellow conservatives that are average Americans with commonplace, if not anti-pedantic, interests.

I, too, share some concerns about the lot I throw myself in when I spout my conservative politics or pull the lever in a polling booth. I have very little in common with the “religious right”…abortion is not the sole issue in my life, and many would think me to be a liberal if they heard my views on the death penalty, abortion, or corporate welfare. The thought that I would ever vote for a Republican would have been laughable to my high school classmates…a story not so uncommon in many blue-state conservatives. Mr. Judge writes of his similar conversion…

This is really how I became a right-wing metrocon. As a young socialist my uniform was studied rock and roll grubbiness — mullet (hey, it was the ’80s), ripped jeans, rock band T-shirt. Yet when I sobered up and became a conservative — which also meant a return to Christianity — I began to experience the second growth that von Hildebrand speaks of. I went from Levis and punk rock to Saks and swing dancing. I poured out the Old Spice and went to Nordstrom’s for a bottle of Truefitt and Hill of London (founded, the bottle reminds us, in 1805, when Lord Nelson won the great battle at Trafalgar). I stopped wearing sneakers and white socks. Like George Will — a Hall of Fame metrocon — I began to prefer baseball to football. And I never stopped liking Woody Allen films — yes, I call them films. I didn’t stop growing — in fact, this was when I started growing. Soon, “Red Neck Woman” seemed like an embarrassing Bible Belt banshee wail. Sadly, in America being a metrocon is just too close to being a snob.

I just don’t see why Mr. Judge believes that if conservatives don’t share his new found tastes, that they are somehow uncultured dotes. He thinks it is sad that this looks like something close to snobbery. If he is so refined, how can he not see that his views are the definition of the word?

More here, here, and here.

Update: I hope this Nascar fan doesn’t disprove my arguement.

Maybe he’s a liberal…

(Thanks for the tip…Atomic Bombshell)