Iowa State Daily

How ironic. We often hear of politicians being out of touch with the American people, and I can see no better example than Dole’s censorship speech. I wonder when the last time Dole turned on MTV and actually listened to the musical lyrics. 2pac and Snoop Dogg are easy targets because they represent the fringe, pushing the boundaries of music as we know it, and their musical styles are not popular to the

white moral majority.

In his column (‘We don’t need censorship,’ Jun. 15), Christopher Clair makes some good analogies between violent music and that which already exists on television such as MTV’s beach exploitation. I would add the likes of HBO and Cinemax (widely pronounced as (Skin-i-max), which have been on cable for years, offering kid’s programming and adult movies as well. They’ve been spewing out the contemptuous material Dole would be clearly against, but I haven’t seen the outcries from the moral majority. HBO and Cinemax are much more subversive to morals and ‘Christian’ values than gangsta rap ever could be.

It puzzles me how HBO can offer Rookie of the Year (family entertainment) and ‘Real Sex 35’ (adult entertainment) and see no moral conflicts, especially when they try to market themselves as providers of family entertainment. They think that they can get around sticky questions by showing the racier stuff in the late evening and that parents will be able to control what their kids watch on TV. You’ve seen it, the ‘when the kids go to bed’ philosophy. In a perfect world, yes that’s true, but I’ve never known any parent who’s able to control what their kids watch on television unless they get rid of it altogether, tube, cables and all.

Ok, so Rookie of the Year is for the children, and ‘Real Sex’ is for the parents. For the sake of argument, let’s say the parents can control what their kids watch. There is an ethical question here, if the parents watch the racy stuff, is this the kind of society we want, where the pornography is spread widely to parents ‘after the kids have gone to bed’? Parents are supposed to be the foundation of moral fiber of society’s youth, or so Dole would claim, so it would make sense he would be against HBO too, right?

Well, HBO is a booming company. And growing companies are good for the economy because they provide jobs and promote growth. In our free market society, HBO has political weight.

So what about the music of 2pac and Ice T? Yep, it’s immoral, violent, but no more than HBO or Cinemax, and worse, it’s not a major player in our economy. Rap represents a society far removed from apple pie and middle America, and attacking it reaps political gains and big fat campaign coffers from the moral majority.

I guess as long as violence is good for the economy, Dole will turn a blind eye, and open it as soon he can make a political gain out of it. And there you have it, ‘politics as usual’ or ‘out of touch with America’ (call it whatever you will) – Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential platform.

Rob Ludwick

senior in computer engineering