Fight the power

I'm in Jersey with my in-laws for the holidays, and TV here has been playing a neatly bullying commercial for buttons, magnets, and bumper stickers you can buy reading, "It's OK To Say 'Merry Christmas' To Me!" This particular battlement in the War on the War on Christmas is being manned by the service organization Catholic Daughters of America (or more precisely, as this military supply site specifies, the "Pope John Paul II Court of Catholic Daughters of America"). The commercial caps off the smug sanctimony—those oppressive liberals want to drive Christmas and Christians from the land, but at least you can stand in the gap!-by offering the products in lots of ten.

It's a perfect encapsulation of a certain strain of American conservatism: the discourse through which dominant groups loudly and defiantly announce their own supposed marginalization, then trumpet their own stalwart courage in refusing to be cowed.

Dig, for example, this devotee of the campaign posting at a message board for GOPUSA—the folks who brought you "Jeff Gannon"—who tells her pals about the availability of this nifty product, and also asks:

Have any of you read "The Marketing of Evil"---it's about how well the Gay movement and the abortionists, etc. planned out their strategy so well to take over so much of our nation. In the article about the book, it tells how many churches and pastors are using it--By using it, I mean to educate their members.