The Culture War to End All Culture Wars

I find it infinitely amusing that the mainstream media is shocked whenever Christians and other conservatives flex their muscles. From the success of The Passion of the Christ to the success of movies that make America out as heroic, the MSM uses words like "unexpectedly" or "surprising" to describe their success. They seem equally befuddled when movies that pan Christianity and show America as inherently bad tank.

Take the success of the aforementioned "Christ", when Mel Gibson made that movie, he could not get a studio to back him and did it on his own. It was a mega hit. While Bill Maher's anti-religious (read anti-Christian because he doest have the balls to be anti-Muslims) Religulous was released, critics loved it and were stunned it wasn't the hit they expected. Another example; when In the Valley of Elah was released showing the US as bad and had overtly anti-war and thus anti-Bush themes, it was a complete and utter flop while war movies that showed our cause as patriotic and right were hits. Media pundits loved Born on the Fourth of July and Platoon because they portrayed America as evil and that fit into their paradigm.

So where am I going with this?

This morning I read on the front page of the Inquirer an essay about the Phil Robertson fracas. The author wrote these words:

A & E's Duck Dynasty was the unlikely TV megahit no one understood.  

No one understood how popular it would become, setting records for nonfiction cable shows and becoming the No. 1 nonfiction show on cable, No. 2 overall (to AMC's The Walking Dead).  

No one understood how closely audiences would identify with the Robertson family of West Monroe, La., and their conservative Christian values.

And there you have it.

Of course people understood it. A & E most-likely did not, this was a show that to them was more of a joke. Let's look at the bearded redneck in hillbilly Louisiana with their camp clothes and goofy religious beliefs and laugh at them. Kind of a latter day Beverly Hillbillies without the bubbling crude. It was supposed to be a show to fill time and show these idiot southerners in their natural habitat. A Real Housewives of New Jersey set in the bayou.

But something happened that they didn't expect; people identified with the real life cast. They are unapologetic Christians and live their lives by Christian values. People watched them, listened to them and agreed. Of course, A & E being in business to make money used them to make healthy profits and pad their ban accounts but they never, ever ventured past the jingoistic side of the Robertson clan. They sold shirts that were patriotic because the characters are but did not venture into the Christian values of the family.

And it bit them in the ass.

People watch because the Robertson's are what they wish themselves to be. Individualist, patriotic, self-made and familial. They are what a large portion of this country is: moral. They represent those of us who believe that we have gone way off the rails both morally and spiritually. I saw it when watching It's a Wonderful Life last night, we want a simple life where we make enough to raise a family, own a house and take a vacation without having pro-abortion and pro-homosexuality propaganda constantly bombarding us. We want to live by our own values and not have values we disagree with thrust upon us. The Robertson's are many of us.

So A & E has themselves a dilemma. If they opt to allow Phil back on the show, they will have GLAAD and every other pro-gay group boycotting them. If they choose to not bring the show back, they will never be watched again by a group that is approximately 150,000,000 people storming. The advertisers who paid to hawk their products on the network will bolt for the exits because they don't want the bad press and a thriving network will be watched by a whole bunch less people.

This is the culture war that will have a long-term effect. Christians and those who are just plain sick of all the PC bullshit will rally and the left in this country isn't ready for it.