Move Left

This is fortuitous. The day after my post noting that the pharmaceutical industry has discovered that the American citizenry has turned (somewhat) left, we learn that the team behind FOX's "24" drama has figured it out. According to one comentator, "the producers are trying to adapt to a new political reality" and the United Kingdom's Telegraph explains

As the hero of the television action series, Bauer became a modern icon of rugged American values and a fictional flag waver for the Bush administration's determination to defeat terrorists.

The intelligence agent, played by Keifer Sutherland, has never been afraid to torture or shoot to kill while tackling villainous foreigners intent on waging war on the American homeland....

When the series returns for its seventh season on Sunday night, Bauer will mouth the views of Mr Obama, who has vowed to end "enhanced interrogation", also known as torture, and close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

And in an apparent bid to get in tune with the new president, the new season opens with Bauer facing a congressional investigation probing his use of torture and summary executions in previous series. "It's better that everything comes out in the open," Bauer says, echoing Democrat demands for greater transparency over US counter-terrorist tactics.

"We've done so many things in the name of protecting this country, we've created two worlds. Ours and the people's we've promised to protect. They deserve to hear the truth and decide how far they want to let us go."

The article focuses on the displeasure on the right, particularly of the out-manned (out-personed?) Hollywood right, that the program, previously imparting conservative values, now apparently is moving toward the center. Obviously, that would not be occurring because those responsible have had a sudden change of heart, but rather that they believe the market has. the entertainment industry is malleable and will throw principle overboard for profits every time. Here again it demonstrates the essential, underlying ethos of American conservatism, as noted by Thomas Frank: "Fundamentally amoral, capitalism is loyal to no people, no region, no heroes, really, once they have exhausted their usefulness..."