A virus (from the Latin virus meaning "toxin" or "poison"), is a sub-microscopic infectious agent that is unable to grow or reproduce outside a host cell. . . . Mechanisms at the cellular level primarily include cell lysis, the breaking open and subsequent death of the cell. In multicellular organisms, if enough cells die the whole organism will start to suffer the effects. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus

In this strange new pro-woman tableau, feminism -- a word that is being used all over the country with regard to Palin's potential power -- means voting for someone who would limit reproductive control, access to healthcare and funding for places like Covenant House Alaska, an organization that helps unwed teen mothers. It means cheering someone who allowed women to be charged for their rape kits while she was mayor of Wasilla, who supports the teaching of creationism alongside evolution, who has inquired locally about the possibility of using her position to ban children's books from the public library, who does not support the teaching of sex education. From Zombie Feminists of the RNC, by Rebecca Traister

These days we hear much from the political right about the "culture war." In fact, there is a culture war, but it is often fought it ways that are much more insidious than many people realize. When people start comparing Sarah Palin to Hillary Clinton something has gone very wrong with American political discourse. Sarah Palin is not the new Hillary Clinton. She is the new Ted Nugent. Let me tell you what I mean.

Unlike liberal ideas, many conservative ideas are very unpopular, and are contrary to the interests and well-being of the average person. So in order to sell these ideas, conservatives need to package themselves in a way that makes their ideas palatable. Namely, they package themselves to some extent as liberals -- by appropriating the language, interests, and iconography of liberal culture and then presenting conservative ideas in that context. This strikes liberals as fundamentally contradictory, but it works.

One fellow who is particularly good at that is Ted Nugent. Nugent is a foul-mouthed hard rock guitarist who at first glance would seem to be the living incarnation of almost everything the right opposes in the "culture war." But his cool rocker persona provides him an audience for a largely right-wing agenda -- pro gun, pro war, anti-homosexual, topped off with obscene scorched-earth criticism of liberal politicians, and even -- believe it or not -- support for Mike Huckabee.

(The above photo, taken from Huckabee's official web site, presents him as a cool dude, playing his electric guitar, just like Ted does, only with clothes on.)

Nugent becomes the "rebel conservative" -- in effect rebelling against the very culture that makes his kind of career possible. (We've seen that all before in the movie "Bob Roberts," in which Tim Robbins plays a right-wing folk singer, living off of a musical legacy created by people such as Woody Guthrie, in order to sell a message that Guthrie and others would have despised.)

This is a clever way for conservatives to overcome a big problem. Their ideas are so unpopular that it is difficult for them to "reproduce" on their own. Thus, they attach themselves, virus-like, to liberal culture and live off of that culture, even as their ideas would destroy that culture in the end. To put it simply, they are parasites living off of a host. In that sense they don't actually create culture themselves; they live off of the culture that others have created.

Nugent is only the best-known example of that. The last few decades have seen the rise of "Christian" rock bands. Today we even have fundamentalist Christians sporting tattoos and body piercings. Now even religious fundamentalism can be "cool" through appropriating elements from the non-fundamentalist, liberal culture.

But back to Sarah Palin. She has a life and a career that is only made possible through feminism, even has she holds beliefs and advocates policies that run completely contrary to feminism. Like a virus she lives off of the host of feminist thought and culture, using it to promote herself and her ideas, even as those ideas and her religion would eventually kill the culture on which she thrives. Because of the close relationship between virus and host it can be difficult to discern the difference between the two, and an attack on the virus may also be perceived as an attack on the host. As Palin incorporates the "DNA" of the feminist host into her own being, it becomes difficult to distinguish between Palin the right-wing fundamentalist and Palin the feminist. Sufficiently replicated, it redefines feminism, and in my view, effectively kills it.

Of course the conservative viral agent always runs the risk of criticism from the larger conservative community. This is because a viral agent necessarily adopts certain elements of liberal culture. But you can't infect the host without being somewhat like the host. I suppose one could look at such criticism as an occupational hazard.

This is how the culture war works today. Some conservatives attack liberal culture directly. Others simply infect it. In the long run I think the latter strategy will be more effective, and I would not be surprised to see more of the same.