FrancisPage

Draw The Line... Draw It Again

One year after Janet Jackson put the boob in the tube, Frank Rich's latest column in the New York Times argues we're living in a cowardly new world of self-censorship. It's aggravated by conservative family groups and the clout of President Bush's re-election.

But before you go shopping for a Puritan outfit, let's remember this: times change.

The uptight, Commie-scared 50's gave way to the free love and dope of the 60's and 70's. And then came the Reagan years, AIDS and crack. Americans once again retuned their moral center. Bill Clinton got caught in a lie about oral sex. But for a lot of us, it was no big deal. Now, imagine if the revelation about his jollies came out after Miss Jackson's celebrated wardrobe malfunction.

Rich hits the bullseye when he says morals groups are spending political capital based upon the "media horde" labeling moral values the prime issue that got Bush re-elected. Do I have to explain this again? Moral values are only one term in a complicated equation factoring in foreign policy, desire for consistency and the failure of John Kerry to find an antidote for the Swift Boat ads.

Red-state paranoia is so pervasive among Democrats, it's driving them to desperation. Take what Senator Harry Reid said right off the bat in his response to the State Of The Union address: "I was born and raised in the high desert of Nevada in a tiny town called Searchlight. My dad was a hard rock miner. My mom took in wash. I grew up around people of strong values, even if they rarely talked about them. They loved their country, worshiped God, never shunned hard work and never asked for special favors... A few weeks ago, I joined some friends of mine for a bite to eat at the Nugget, Searchlight's only restaurant."

Tell me this isn't a transparent suck-up to red-staters. It hits all the right notes: a man born and raised in a small town with hard working, God-fearing, family-values parents. And for the bonus points, Reid throws in that oh-so-tired political cliche of getting together at the local diner. I grew up in Missouri, heart of red-state America, and not once did I ever hang out at the local diner. Somebody please retire this worn-out imagery or at least update it with a more realistic location, like the Wal-Mart.

This cycle of fear and self-censorship will flame out in time. It just takes enough outrage over the people who have nothing better to do than be outraged for us. TV critic Jeff Jarvis recently exposed the form-letter sham behind at least one FCC complaint campaign against indencency. I can only hope it's the beginning of the end.