Rebels with a Cause: Are Conservatives Cool Again?

I took a tour of the Hollywood Forever Cemetery on a recent Saturday afternoon, visiting the graves of several entertainment legends. One of the more recent additions to the grounds is the cenotaph for original punk rocker, Johnny Ramone.

Ramone’s remains are not on the property, but the rock legend’s family and fans wanted a memorial on the well-trafficked grounds amongst other varied legends like Cecil B. DeMille, Vampira, John Huston and Jayne Mansfield.

As I admired the life-size marble statue, the friendly tour guide standing nearby said in passing, “He was a huge Republican, you know.” (And he was. He once praised George W. Bush at an awards show, and you’d have thought he relieved himself on the podium.)

RIght on cue, for most of the assembled Hollywood crowd joining me on the tour, that tour guide might just have well said, “He ate babies alive, you know — while their families watched.”

But one woman didn’t scoff or suck in a horrified breath. She shrugged and said, “It’s the only way to be cool now.”

Could that be true? For so many years, Republicans and conservatives were the polar opposite of hip. They were supposed to be the uptight, sour-faced types in buttoned-down suits and sensible shoes. They were “The Man” in movies, pitted against the innocent hippie crowd battling their corporate hassles. Conservatives were the totalitarian Empire sending its Stormtroopers against the freedom-loving Rebellion while the Death Star crept ever closer.

Has the resurgence of progressives in Hollywood and Washington made left-leaning politics so common and ever-present in the media that they lost their cool counter-culture cache? It would seem very difficult for progressives in positions of power on Sunset Boulevard and on Capitol Hill to “fight The Man” when they are “The Man.” When you’re making the rules, you can’t also be the roguish, freedom-loving pirates breaking them at the same time. And, you can’t mock Stepford Wives-ish waves of blind political obedience when it’s your own side of the aisle who sold its soul to a messiah.

Since every formation of a power block forms a vacuum awaiting a countering force, it’s only natural that the Right take on a more risky and rebellious attitude. They are the loyal opposition, and anyone who enjoys questioning common wisdom or tilting at the windmills of woolly thinking should be naturally attracted to the role of a conservative exile.

The more cultish and unquestioning the religious fervor for President Obama becomes, the more naturally inquisitive people will become uncomfortable with the resulting knee-jerk groupthink of his followers.

And, as the hard Left becomes more Draconian — using its current power base to push political correctness, global warming policies and other freedom-trampling pet causes without fear of voter reprisal for at least two years — it’ll only add to the number of rebels willing to question the value of such policies.

To steal just one more Star Wars reference, “The more the Left tightens its fist, the more questioning minds will slip through its fingers.”