I've seen surprisingly little from the cultural conservative klatch about Sunday's Golden Globes, which seemed to be awarded disproportionately to drug addicts (Trent Reznor, Aaron Sorkin), actors playing drug addicts (Christian Bale), homosexuals (Jane Lynch), actors playing homosexuals (Annette Bening), Homosexuals playing homosexuals (Chris Colfer), and movies or TV shows depicting homosexuals in a positive light (The Kids Are All Right, Glee) -- and that's not even getting into Boardwalk Empire, or Paul Giammatti's character in Barney's Version, or Burlesque, and so on.
Probably the "Hollywood is destroying our culture" folks are waiting until the Oscars to get riled up. Besides, then we'll presumably be distant enough from the Giffords shooting that conservatives can go back to openly questioning cultural influences on individuals' actions.
The most striking silence on that issue, since the shootings, has been Mike Huckabee. Huckabee, I would think, is a natural authority to turn to, because after the Jonesboro school shooting in his home state of Arkansas, he authored a book examining the possible causes of school shootings.
That book, Kids Who Kill, is tough to get hold of these days, and it's been about four years now since I perused it. My recollection, however, is that, while more thoughtful and nuanced than its critics made out (or at least, hedging in its conclusions), the book pretty much offers an affirmative answer to the provocative question on its cover: "Are we reaping what we've sown?" And the reaping was mostly about the cultural acceptance -- with much blame placed on Hollywood -- of cultural "deviancy" like drug abuse, pornography, and of course homosexuality.
It's very possible that Huckabee has rethought the issue in the years since writing that book, but you'd think he'd at least have something thoughtful to say about Loughner and the tragedy, especially with his soapbox of a potential Presidential candidate. Perhaps I've missed it; I've only heard him saying the same trite "don't blame Sarah" stuff.
Speaking of whom, Sarah Palin has also been silent about the Golden Globes, despite the fact that Hollywood comes under repeated, withering attack in her new book, America By Heart.
Of course, Palin has been busy suffering at the stake since the Tucson tragedy. If you didn't catch her extended interview last night on Hannity... well, I don't know that I'd actually recommend watching it, but it was some pretty magnificent political theater. Hannity kept asking her, in essence, "How hard is it to be you?", and she kept answering, in essence, "This isn't about me, but since you ask, I've never done anything wrong and my critics all suck."
It did not strike me as a performance of someone actually running for high office. First of all, you'd expect her to at least give a phony "if anyone was offended, I'm sorry..." apology over her earlier "blood libel" comment. More importantly, you'd think at some point she'd start rhetorically placing herself in the company of actual political figures, rather than with the sideline yammerers Limbaugh, Hannity, and Levin, to whom she compared herself last night.
But then again, it's hard to read Sarah Palin's mind -- which is what makes her such a fascinating political figure. And she clearly likes to remain as mysterious as possible. It has now been over a month since a Palin retweet left the world baffled about her position on gay rights, including Don't Ask Don't Tell, and Palin has still not deigned to clear up the confusion.
So, maybe for all of Palin's Hollywood-blaming in America By Heart, she's actually a big fan of Glee and the Golden Globe gays. Maybe some day we'll find out.
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