When you want some insight into pop culture, in particular Lady Gaga, who would you go to? You don’t go to “Access Hollywood” or “Inside Edition” if you’re “The McLaughlin Group” host John McLaughlin. No, instead you ask 72-year-old former senior adviser to President Richard Nixon, Pat Buchanan.
On this weekend’s broadcast of “The McLaughlin Group,” the show’s panelists pondered what the success of Lady Gaga means for culture in America today. Buchanan said she didn’t necessary represent the degeneration of the culture but the disintegration of the culture, in that it has broken up into segments.
“The thing is — what this does is I think is [not describe] the degeneration of the culture, but the disintegration,” Buchanan said. “Every young person I’m sure knows who she is. I couldn’t have picked her out of a police lineup, John [McLaughlin] before you showed me all those films.”
And that separation is indicative of this phenomenon, he explained.
“The culture has really disintegrated into various groups and young people are just crazy and wild about her and I don’t think our age group pays any attention to her,” Buchanan said.
However, Newsweek’s Eleanor Clift had a different take on Lady Gaga. She showered Lady Gaga with praise and called her a positive force for American culture.
“No, she does not represent the disintegration of the American culture,” Clift protested. “She has a very positive message. She was bullied in high school because she was different. And she has got a new album out with the message basically that everybody is different, accept who you are, and go forward. And she’s — took up the gay cause, the pro-gay cause. She basically embodied the energy behind that movement and got out in front and led that, and I think that was a positive thing. I know you’re on the other side of that, but she is a good voice for young people. She really is.”
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