Cultural Note

Any listener to Morning In America knows that music is a large part of the show. You won’t hear the music we play on the radio’s Top 20, but from time to time we like to feature new, upcoming artists. The artists we pick, like Taylor Swift or Julianne Hough, are extremely gifted musicians, but they also represent an unfortunately small sector of the music industry that conveys positive and ethical messages in their music. We highlight their music to combat the steady stream of garbage that follows your kids through the television and internet and into your home.

Within the past couple of months there has dawned a new front in the counter-culture war – music videos. Now, music videos have been around since MTV’s birth in 1981, but they were largely innocent, dance routines with weak subplots. Granted, it’s hard to make a particularly offensive movie in under four minutes, but in the past couple of months, several extremely offensive music videos have found ways to break the traditional MTV mold and shock even the most culturally desensitized. There are no ratings or warnings on these videos. They are floating free on the ocean of internet music sites with only a few blogs slapping on the weak label of NSFW (Not Safe For Work).

Three music videos in particular standout from the crowd. The most popular is the video for the song “Telephone” by Lady Gaga and Beyonce, two of the most famous female pop stars around today. The 9-minute video (the song is only about 4 minutes) features nudity, extremely offensive language, violence, and disturbing themes. On a movie rating scale, the song is a PG pop song about girls not wanting to answer their phones while they’re dancing. The music video is a hard R-rated short film with lesbian make-out scenes and overtones of misandrism.

The next culprit is rap/ hip-hop artist Erykah Badu and the video for the song “Window Seat.” In a nutshell, the female African-American rapper strips down in the streets of Dallas in Dealey Plaza, the same area where JFK was assassinated. Besides the obvious nudity, the video makes perturbing references to the actual assassination. What was the public reaction? One Washington Post blogger called it a “big, bold artistic statement.”

And the most recent viral earthquake came a few days ago with the release of M.I.A.’s video for her new song “Born Free.” The female British singer, who is the daughter of a former revolutionary from Jaffna who trained in Lebanon with Palestinian militants associated with Fatah, is popular with many teenagers and her music was featured in the soundtrack to “Slum Dog Millionaire.” Music fans that go searching for her newest work will be shocked at what they find. The video for “Born Free” runs over 8-minutes and chronicles soldiers, wearing U.S. flags on their sleeves, busting into settlements and rounding up red-headed children and then taking them off to the desert to kill them. This obvious, political parody of American forces overseas features sex, nudity, strong language and extreme violence that would make an R-rated film blush.

We all know that “sex sells,” but this latest trend is capitalizing on a new mantra – “controversy sells.” Most of these videos have been banned from MTV and YouTube, but they are still available all over the web for any curious observer. Parents know the difficulties in keeping inappropriate movies out of their home, but music videos presents an even more serious problem. There are no industry ratings or warnings and young adults who hear a favorite song on the radio will often go online to look up the music video. Sadly, videos of these flavors tarnish the innocence of music videos as a medium and ultimately, our children. Of these three videos, it is interesting to note that they are performed by female artists. Is this the new breed of feminism that we support?

Common Sense Conservatism

I spent Easter weekend with some of my relatives, all who are staunch Democrats. They listen to NPR, watch CNN, read the NY Times and even consume a little Michael Moore on their free time. Worst of all, they know I work for Bill Bennett. So naturally, politics always seems to rear its ugly head at family events. I don’t visit my extended family very regularly, so when I do, it feels like they’ve been storing up political ammo to use against me. This time the gunfight was over tea partiers.

Their side of the conversation went something like this:

“How can you listen to Rush Limbaugh and other conservative talkers?! There practically provoking race riots against the President.”

“The Republicans are the party of ‘No’ and they hate everything the Democrats try to do.”

“Republicans are all radicals now and anyone they disagree with, even in their own party, they want to throw out.”

Now, these conversations do read a lot like MSNBC talking points. Do the liberal media try and paint tea partiers as radical, racist, and even violent demonstrators? YES. Do they take isolate incidents of extremism and generalize about the entire movement? YES.

BUT, as a conservative, I started to ask myself, “Do we do more to squelch these allegations or more to fuel them?”

Recent events have again brought this question to my mind.

This week Tom Coburn called Nancy Pelosi a nice person and admonished those who said she was not, especially those who do not know her. The outrage on the show this week from listeners was ludicrous. Callers slammed Coburn saying that Pelosi and the Democrats are evil and we are in a fight for our freedoms and shouldn’t bother being nice. The overwhelming response from callers was against Bill, who took the side of Coburn in this argument.

I understand that most conservatives have reached their boiling point over the long months of health care debate, but that is still not reason enough to warrant the type of hatred and cynicism that I’ve seen lately.

I’m not saying we should get in bed with the Democrats or bend over backwards for them, but remember that Republicans represent a mere 30 percent of the electorate. To win elections, we must make alliances and draw independents and Democrats to our side. If we forget that, we will be in the permanent minority.

Granted, we cannot sell ourselves out or sacrifice our principles. However, we can show some civility, and an occasional kind word about an opponent is not betrayal. We should stand on steely reserve and conviction, not cynicism and hatred.

Ronald Reagan, the champion of tea partiers and conservatives, reached out to work with the Democrats. So much in fact, we still have REAGAN DEMOCRATS today. Reagan did not sell out, but he treated Democrats with respect and that made him the most popular president of my generation and an example we should not forget.

Breakfast Runs

World Famous Ben's Chili Bowl at 6 a.m. We will always go to great lengths for great food. That is our breakfast motto here at Morning In America.