They Just Don't Get It, Once More

Stumbled across this story from the New York Times Sunday magazine, entitled "'King of the Hill' Democrats. The author, Matt Bai, seems to be familiar with the show but utterly uncomprehending of it. He somehow thinks it's a model for Democrats to follow in order to achieve electoral success, which alone just goes to show what's really going on here.

But anyone familiar with King of the Hill should know that Democrats may never be named, as Republicans aren't, but they are almost always the target being skewered. Government bureaucrats are PC twits intent on enforcing some policy that makes no sense. The show has often shown hippies up for moochers. Do-gooders are busybodies. One episode, where Hank is branded a racist because his dog attacks a black plumber, reveals all the PC folks to be wrong because the dog hates all plumbers since they make Hank (proud home handyman) upset.

King of the Hill celebrates the traditional family, guns and hunting, beer, self-sufficiency, patriotism, sports, respect for your elders and their sacrifice, traditional religious values, traditional education. pride in your home and history, genuine accomplishment over demeaning self-esteem boosting, and other values that Democrats so often attack.

Bai writes:

[King of the Hill] could easily be the setup for a mean parody about rural life in America, in the same vein as ''South Park,'' but ''King of the Hill,'' which was created by Mike Judge (who is the voice of Hank and who also created ''Beavis and Butt-head''), has never been so crass. The show's central theme has always been transformation -- economic, demographic and cultural. Hank embodies all the traditional conservative values of those Americans....

It's not about "transformation" but about renewal of traditional values in the face of the transformative. Every time Hank encounters the kind of "transformation" that Democrats and bureaucrats and the PC peddle, he defeats them -- often using their own internal problems and philosophies against them. At most, he adapts himself or his family by showing the value of the traditional and its lessons in the modern world.

Hank is a rock-ribbed Republican, I tell ya whut. Dale Gribble, his neighbor, is a Libertarian. Boomhauer is a Republican, but doesn't much care, I'm sure. Only Bill will likely vote Democrat sometime, but only because he's a softie who falls for a good line; if he admitted it to his friends, they'd blast him.

Bai also somehow manages to quote or mention pretty much only Democrats in the piece. Go read it; it's a hoot. He's either clueless or delusional.

Or as Hank would put it, "That boy ain't right."

SUNDAY UPDATE Wow! Logged in to find that a lot of folks have visited this post. Welcome to all. You can go to Pejmanesque (also cross-posted at RedState.org) and Ann Althouse to read some more insightful analysis of 'King of the Hill' and the Bai piece. Comments at both places really flesh things out, especially how very, very wrong Bai's whole thesis is.

And special thanks to Chris at Signifying Nothing, from whom all linky goodness apparently flows.

If you want some comment from Half-Bakered about the "South Park Conservatives" piece in the same NYT, then click here. I caught the author in what she likely thinks is some sly and subtle nastiness.

And thanks again for stopping by!

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