Is pleasing Republicans necessary for a hit show? You betcha. Why the GOP matters more to mainstream TV than you know
According to months of data from leading media-research company Experian Simmons, viewers who vote Republican and identify themselves as conservative are more likely than Democrats to love the biggest hits on TV. ...To Hollywood, the data suggest a potentially disquieting idea: The TV industry is populated by liberals, but big-league success may require pleasing conservatives.
The Republican domination of culture- whether it is TV shows, news, or political personalities, is a major factor of our time.
The Democratic party is culturally divided. Our party is made up of three groups - working class whites, minorities, and progressives. These three groups all vote Democratic, but other than that, they don't have a lot in common.
The working class whites vote Democratic because the Democrats bring home the bacon. There are a lot of them in the Midwest and in the parts of Massachusetts that voted for Scott Brown. They know their interest, and they stick to it. Minorities vote Democratic because - well - the GOP has had a fractious relationship with minorities, most recently the divisive debate over immigration reform. Sometimes the conservative position on immigration gets mixed up with racism, and often enough it is racism. Progressives vote Democratic because they like to think of themselves as critical thinkers. They are secure in who they are and their identity, and they have decided that the overall approach of the Democratic party in terms of a more intellectual, and objective approach to scientific and policy debate, combined with an inclusive and compassionate values orientation, fits themselves.
But either of these three groups is large enough to lay claim to an "American culture." As noted in the article, Democrats might have the advantage in youth culture:
Younger shows are more likely to be popular with Democrats, as is just about everything on the CW, as well as animated comedies like the Fox hit Family Guy. Republicans vote strongly for reality-competition hits, but such popular youthful docusoaps as Jersey Shore and Kourtney & Khloe are best appreciated by Dems. Likewise, left-wingers have a stronger affinity for certain veteran crime procedurals, including The Closer and Law & Order, as well as anything that appeals strongly to women.
And womens' culture is often so cleanly ghettoized out that the Democrats' advantage among women comes through.
Republicans, on the other hand, are more homogenous. Overwhelmingly white, middle class, and middle educated, since the early 2000s at least, to be the default American has been to be a Republican. I had hoped that this might change once a Democrat came back into the White House (after all, during the Clinton years, the religious right ended up marginalized), but it has not. Sadly, I think this is because while a black man can become President, he cannot yet have the oft-unspoken of Presidential power of cultural arbitration. This would require most Americans to identify with Obama on an emotional level.
For Democrats, this is not a good state of affairs. Culture influences political frames and vice versa. To think otherwise would be naive to the extreme. Republicans enjoy a spot at the center of American culture, while the fragmented and frustrated Democrats can only nibble from the outside edges.
The Republicans have captured all of the highest echelons of American culture: the white middle class, the family, the flag and Constitution (as reinforced by the tea party), and of course patriotism.
UPDATE: I understand this sort of thing may be frustrating for some people here. The point of this diary is to open up a discussion about a topic that I think is (1) interesting on its own merits, (2) important, because of the role culture plays in political framing, and therefore public opinion, (3) underexplored. If this is true, it certainly is not the end of the world, but it gives the other side certain advantages.