How the right profits from the culture wars

[DonViejo]

Homophobia like Phil Robertson's spurs donations and sells t-shirts -- but ultimately, we all lose

NICO LANG

I’ve always heard that you never know what you truly care about until you’re tested, and I wasn’t worried about “Duck Dynasty” until I saw Phil Robertson’s face on a t-shirt. I was traveling on a Megabus back to Chicago after the holidays, nestled in the very front seat with a copy of Edith Wharton to keep me warm, when we stopped at a rest stop in Indiana. We’d been at the same location a few days before to stock up on trail mix and McDonald’s, but there was something noticeably different this time. One of the rest stop employees was diligently folding “Duck Dynasty” t-shirts on a table right near the front, proudly displayed for all to see. Each was emblazoned with a different ominous saying — these included “I’m Watching You Jack,” “I Ain’t No Yuppie,” “A Superhero Has Got to Get His Rest” and “A Family With a Cause.” I was so enraged and taken aback that I thought I was going to vomit on the floor.

At first, I found it strange that the rest stop would be bringing out new merchandise after Christmas, but I realized they must have recently ordered the shirts to capitalize on the show’s renewed relevance. Of course, they existed well before the controversy (you can find a myriad of “Duck Dynasty” products on Amazon), but the last statement in particular had taken on a new relevance. “A cause?” I asked myself. “What cause exactly are you supporting?” Throughout the scandal, conservatives have insisted that the real issue here is free speech. We should be supporting Robertson’s right to be a homophobe in the name of patriotism, but this only seems to work so long as he’s saying things that support a far-right agenda. When Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines spoke out against Bush in 2003, that rallying cry was nonexistent. If I’d visited the same rest stop a decade earlier, I would have found shirts that read: “I’m Ashamed the Dixie Chicks Are From America.” A popular seller, the shirts were used as a galvanizing force against the band, while their music was pulled from the airwaves.

Of course, it’s never been about free speech. It’s about the culture war, stupid. Scandals like America’s “Duck Dynasty” moment are about nothing more than our ability to exploit current events to further a culture of division and partisanship, igniting our old hatreds for short-term gain. Phil Robertson’s comments might seem like a liability for “Duck Dynasty” as the wave of opposition mounts, but the conservative voices of support have been just as influential as the critics. For Fox News or Republican figureheads like Sarah Palin and Bobby Jindal — both Team Duck Dynasty — men like Robertson are the core audience, down-home guys who grew up on religion, beer, guns and Reagan. Palin needs to appeal to the “Duck Dynasty” voter for her ongoing career in media pageantry, and Jindal is likely looking at a presidential run in 2016. He needs supporters — and donations.

The problem is that Phil Robertson is the product of a system that teaches us we are different in order to exploit us. Growing up, I spent my summers in Petersburg, Ky., where my father lived with his second wife, and I knew a thousand guys like Robertson. These were the kind of guys who were raised on Reagan, PBR and Remington assault rifles, who learned to be afraid of people like me in church. I grew up as a Southern Baptist, where gays weren’t just sinners — they were a donation strategy. The week newly elected San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom illegally allowed the city’s same-sex couples to be married, our pastor spewed a long sermon on the hellfire that was raining down on California. He ended the tirade with a reminder that this was why we needed to give to the church, asking for extra tips to the collection basket. Like an evangelical Don Corleone, our pastor was offering protection from the outside world — all for a low, low price.

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http://www.salon.com/2014/01/05/how_the_right_profits_from_the_culture_wars/