South Park Conservatives
I just finished reading South Park Conservatives : The Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias by Brian C. Anderson. I've been a big fan of South Park for years - their brand of irreverent foul-mouthed humor hits a nerve with me I guess. However, I never really thought of that cartoon as a particularly pointed political satire. Maybe because I generally agreed with most of what they had to say, so it did not seem that they were going out on a limb with their message. Then some months ago I got an e-mail from a friend that linked to the original article that coined the term "South Park Republicans." That article claimed that a new brand of conservatism is growing, especially among the younger generation. It had very little to do with the preppy, staid attitudes that were the norm of conservatives just a generation ago. Suddenly, things made a lot of sense. Although the Creators of "South Park" spare no one from their ridicule, and they don't seem to have a single coherent political agenda, with a help of hindsight it is easy to see that they have an especially low regard for the lefty activist types.
Brian C. Anderson's book is not only, nor even primarily, about "South Park". And that is a good thing. When I first bought the book I was a bit apprehensive that it might get boring after a while. After all, how much can you really write about one particular aspect of one cartoon series? Luckily, Anderson focuses mostly on the subtitle of the book, and in a very detailed and well researched exposition demonstrates how the rise of new media outlets is evening the field for the conservatives. "South Park Conservatives" is a very well written book, and an invaluable resource and a reference for other sources of conservative opinion.