An interesting image--the jagged edge of kitsch:

Jan Saudek, Coca-Cola, 1971

It reminds me of the kitschy Republican talking heads I saw on the talk-show media- (Fox News) (the low end of the culture industry),during the congressional elections. I was taken back by both their snappy, cutting attacks on the "cut 'n' run " liberals and the authoritarianism.

Over at Democracy Now Sidney Blumenthal sketches the cultural background of conservative kitsch:

The conservative kitsch cultural industry is centred in Washington, where Republican political power has protected philistinism from the ravages of cosmopolitanism, unlike in New York, Los Angeles or Chicago....Unlike the kitsch before and during the Reagan era, the Bush warriors' kitsch lies beyond unintentional camp. Their kitsch lacks more than irony or self-consciousness. It is deliberately sarcastic, mean-spirited, fearsome and fearful. Their unbridled bullying reveals their deep fears within. Their personal disintegrations expose what they fear most about themselves.

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