Conservative Culture

TNR (July 3) has several articles on conservative culture. Rick Perlstein suggests that conservatism is a “jerry-rigged” coalition that has little ideological unity. But conservative is unified nonetheless: “you never see the sponsors of purity balls going on CNN to denounce ‘Ann Coulter Gone Wild.’” Conservatives are united not by ideas but by a culture. He defines culture as “the performances people enact in their everyday lives that outline the boundaries between those who belong and those who don’t.”

Specifically, conservatives indicate they are “in” by performing acts of courageous defiance against a dominant liberal order. Conservative instincts, he suggests, were forged in the 1960s, but what strikes Perlstein is that conservatives continue to feel marginalized and persecuted as much in 2006, when Republicans control the federal government, as in 1964. It’s not appreciating Jane Austen that marks conservatives; a conservative appreciates Jane Austen because she’s anti-liberal, because appreciating Austen is a defiant stand against the corrosions of liberalism, because appreciating Austen irks liberals (some).

Kelly Alexander’s analysis of what Republicans eat, by contrast, is silly. Is it possible that Dick Cheney does sometimes eat chicken Florentine (at $3 a serving), and that it’s not just a populist gesture? I dunno. But I sure believe that Tom DeLay really does like “Big Bend Bean Dip,” even if he also appreciates his $70 steak at Signatures.