Brian: You’ll note that I said Rove was selling this ideal to Americans, not that it actually existed. I do agree that the period from 1945 (end of WWII) to about 1972 was unique and won’t happen again in our history. Combined with popular mythology, many folks (especially the middle-class white ones) have a prelapsarian view of the 1950s, thinking about President Eisenhower, leafy suburbia, and America at the height of her power. From a sales perspective, this is powerful imagery, and I think you’ll begin seeing a move away from the more strident rhetoric and towards a more controlled message that promises a return to those type values. Whether its true or not isn’t the issue. That was a period when America had its shit together (in the minds of a lot of people) and things were easy to understand. We’re in a period of wrenching societal change and people are scared to death. Selling an image of Mom, apple pie and playing Little League baseball under a waving American flag is going to resonate deeply with many, especially those longing for simpler, more prosperous times.
Also, Beck and Limbaugh aren’t conservatives, the way that Maddow and Olbermann aren’t liberals. All of them are entertainers, and represent the worst strains of the American political personality.
