My friend Jane’s church has two services every week. The Sunday service is called the Seeker Service. It’s light, and the focus is on music and the positive aspects of religion. Sometimes they even have an entertaining play as part of the service. The Wednesday service is when the fundamentalist gospel happens; the hardcore stuff that might chase away new converts still questioning their faith. The concept has been hugely successful and these churches boast millions of members nationwide.
I look at Big Hollywood as a Seeker site. We are here to attract people questioning their politics, and welcome them into the philosophy we call Conservatism. We want to be a political home for those strays: people who are uncomfortable with all the flags and Greek columns that the Left has recently embraced. We want to support the new stars of Hollywood, those who have suddenly found themselves in a tax bracket they never thought they could reach, and are suddenly questioning the injustice of a progressive tax code. We want to comfort those who have grown tired of being called a racist for simply questioning the wisdom of putting a community organizer into the most powerful office on earth.
Let’s assume you are right. Let’s assume rap is awful, and nihilist and destructive to the African American community So for the sake of argument, I agree with you. Rap IS crap. Now what? Exactly what is the role of a political party now that we have such information? Do we work with the FCC to keep it off the air? Do we boycott stores that sell it? Do we file class action lawsuits against the producers of rap, on behalf of the ruined urban communities? Do we prosecute rappers for conspiring to crimes? Do we BAN it?
You see, that is the problem. All these tactics are different levels of censorship; something we, as sworn guardians of the inalienable rights of man, are supposed to abhor. There is no political solution to rap. Taking on popular music, marginalizes ourselves further from the mainstream. There should be a corner of our tent where rappers feel welcome.
If you had to create a list of reasons why people in Hollywood do not like Republicans, I’m fairly certain that right near the top would be a fear that Republicans want to censor art. There’s a rumor on the Left we are intolerant and want to muzzle free speech. The ironic truth, is the Left is far more active towards political censorship, with their speech codes on college campuses and support of the fairness doctrine. But as far as art, the Left is pretty tolerant.
It is that atmosphere of artistic freedom that finds most artists at home under their tent. And as long as we appear hostile to art, that is never going to change.
And don’t try and tell me that rap is not art. The passions that have been wakened on either side of the argument here, are ample evidence that there is something about the form, that stirs quite a bit of emotion-which is nearly a textbook definition of art.
50 Cent had conservative leanings,. He thought Kanye went too hard on President Bush and is an admitted capitalist. Now there is some serious common ground.
[Ed. Note: previous posts on this subject below]:
Ben Shapiro: Rap is Crap
Tim Slagle: Response to Ben Shapiro’s ‘Rap is Crap’
Ben Shapiro: Response To Tim Slagle’s Response To ‘Rap is Crap’
Michael Wilson: My Contribution to the In-Fighting: Rap Isn’t Crap
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