Ok, there’s something I’ve been wanting to say since Rod brought up Duff beer, but haven’t figured out exactly the right way to put it. And it is this: Homer Simpson is crunchy. Well, actually, he’s not. “Crunchy” as an appellation can really get in the way. What I mean is that I agree, to a point, with many of those who critique crunchiness as elitist and anti-regular-guy America. Or even anti regular-guy conservative. Homer Simpson is emblematic of a large swath of America that still practices the conservative virtues Kirk touted as best they can in the midst of a culture and system that inherently handicaps those virtues. He loves his wife and kids; Marge stays home with the baby; Homer sticks to his dull blue-collar job; he has lived in the same house for ages; no way is he going to move from Springfield; he goes to church (even if he sneaks in the football play-by-play); he frequents the local hang-outs; and so on. There is sacrifice and difficulty and real beauty and joy in his life. He successfully resists the many many temptations that promise something better (even though he can’t resist vegging out in front of the boob-tube).
So I’ll take Homer swigging Duff beer and playing for the Burns Nuclear Powerplant softball team in Springfield any day over the allegedly American dream of upward mobility and salad-bar traditionalism that The Simpsons rightly stands against.
