Posted by
JP on Monday, May 05, 2008 10:52:17 AM
by Bruce Thornton [author]
According
liberals, they are tolerant, open-minded, sensitive to complexity and
nuance, and wary of simplistic explanations. So why is a column by the
liberal Michael Hirsh, in the liberal newsweekly Newsweek, so intolerant, close-minded, simplistic and bigoted?
Hirsh’s
piece sounds the alarm over the fact that “Southernism” has taken over
the “national dialogue” and has “transformed the sensibility of the
country, . . .setting the agenda for our political, social and
religious mores.” What alerted Hirsh to this “Southernization of our
national politics” was a piece in The New York Times about the elimination from the American Idol television
show of a contestant who in her last performance sang “Jesus Christ
Superstar.” According to Hirsh, this song was once the symbol of the
triumph of “the new and the openness to innovation” over “nativism and
yahooism,” but now its performance cost the contestant a chance at the
talent show finals because of its “blasphemy." [more]