You really don't have to look as far as Michael Moore or Naomi Wolf and their unhinged anti-America celluloiud rants to see how, over a long period of time, even popular culture has a way of making conservatives feel, well, a bit beseiged.
Last night I watched the movie Misery, a great thriller from 1990 with James Caan and the wonderful Kathy Bates, based on the Stephen King novel. I'm sure readers might know it - the one where a famous pulp novelist, Paul Seldon, is held captive in a remote farmhouse by one Annie Wilkes, a crazy, murderous woman who professes to be his number one fan.
Annie is one of the screens most enjoyably deranged villains. But before she decides to smash Paul's ankles to smithereens to stop him getting away, we're given all sorts of little clues, over and above Annie's sudden blasts of anger, which are meant to indicate that this woman is a major loony-toon.
First, she doesn't like the swearing Paul uses in his book. Secondly, she is religious. Thirdly, she is obviously unpopular socially. And finally, when Paul is secretly looking through her scrap back of photos and momentoes, we see an old 'Vote Nixon' sticker nestling between the pages.
Well, small things perhaps. But it's indicative of a certain approach, a set of assumptions. Would anybody like to add similar observations?
