BY COLLIN LEVEY Thursday, October 5, 2000 12:01 a.m. EDT
It was his most shocking performance yet. Hard-core rocker Marilyn Manson announced this week that he may vote Republican. He told Talk Magazine that "If I had to pick, I'd pick Bush, and not necessarily by default."
Lord knows, the GOP could use a little celebrity cachet. With George W. Bush as the party's first baby-boomer nominee, there is already a looser, hipper vibe. But can Republicans make it happen with Marilyn Manson?
After all, he's just the kind of musician conservative moralists love to hate. He wears fake boobs and freaky goth makeup on stage. He was Lynne Cheney's poster boy of moral depravity. Joe Lieberman once called his band "perhaps the sickest group ever promoted by a mainstream record company."
In other words, the best thing Mr. Manson might do for the Republicans is keep his head down. But let's think about this. Large numbers of young voters are floating listlessly between the parties these days. And Democrats certainly have scrambled to claim select Republican issues like welfare reform and fiscal sobriety for themselves. Maybe it's time for conservatives to steal some of the Democrats' cachet.
It's true that Republicans have not always had the best of luck with celebrities. The Dems get the stylish and glittery folks, while Republican celebrities reinforce the party's image as a bunch of yahoos. Ted Nugent, for example, has lately been advertising his friendship with Govs. John Engler of Michigan and Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin and Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia as a way to flog his new book, "God, Guns and Rock & Roll." But that's just not the same as having Barbra Streisand over for knishes and show tunes.
And when Republicans try to appropriate pop-cultural icons on their own, historically it hasn't gone well. Everybody remembers that President Reagan picked up "Born in the USA" as a sort of patriotic anthem, only to receive a tongue-lashing from Bruce Springsteen. And when conservative journalist Fred Barnes called "The Simpsons" a brilliant social satire, creator Matt Groening bristled that "Republicans think they own everything. Now they think they own Bart Simpson."
Things haven't gotten noticeably better recently. Former Rep. Bob Dornan, a colorful California conservative who was ousted in 1996, last year tried to jumpstart his comeback rally with the Chumbawamba song "Tubthumper." When the band got wind of it, they issued a statement calling Mr. Dornan a "right wing, racist, anti-abortion bigot" and "a complete idiot."
So. Clearly some work needs to be done here if the Republicans are ever going to give the Democrats a run for their money in the celebrity endorsement sweepstakes. Part of the problem is the defensiveness of entertainers, who get snubbed by Hollywood friends if they are seen playing footsie with the "evil" party. But Republicans could also take a lesson from Sen. Jesse Helms, whose recent meeting with Bono of U2 over Third World debt relief became a big bonding fest. "I couldn't disagree more with Sen. Helms on some issues," Bono was quoted as saying afterward. "But I know he's a tough guy on a lot of things, and I don't need softies for friends on this one."
Come to think of it, mutual respect is not a bad base for a relationship. What Mr. Manson likes about Republicans is probably what a lot of celebrities secretly like: low taxes, less government, fewer lawsuits. (Now if they could only connect the dots.)
A popular Eagles song, "Get Over It," riffs on the culture of ambulance-chasing lawyers and trendy victimhood, both Republican themes. And in his meeting with Mr. Helms, Bono noted that the problem with debt relief is that "the bureaucrats get in the way." Just last month, tennis honey Venus Williams took Bill Clinton to task over her tax bill when he called with Wimbeldon congratulations.
But even celebrities with these conservative instincts aren't eager to endure cocktail-party scorn for associating openly with the Republican Party. At least Mr. Manson, by all evidence, doesn't give a damn what anybody thinks. In some ways this might make him a more powerful symbol for the youth vote that both parties use celebrities to reach.
The MTV babies Messrs. Clinton and Gore try desperately to co-opt are smarter than the Democrats think. And just in case Mr. Manson really does have the insidious influence on tender minds that Mrs. Cheney and other Republican culture warriors think he does, maybe it's time to call a cease-fire and take advantage of it.
Ms. Levey is an editorial page writer at The Wall Street Journal. Her column appears on alternate Thursdays.
Leo Casey United Federation of Teachers 260 Park Avenue South New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869)
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has, and it never will. If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. -- Frederick Douglass --