I love it when neo-Confederate Southern teabaggers expound on popular culture:

Mississippi State Sen. Chris McDaniel (R), the conservative challenger to Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS), argued that hip-hop and a society that “values rap and destruction of community values” is the reason for gun violence.

McDaniel made the comments in the promo for a syndicated radio program he hosted from 2004 to 2007. Those comments were flagged Saturday by the Darkhorse Mississippi blog and reported Tuesday by Mother Jones.

“The reason Canada is breaking out with brand new gun violence has nothing to do with the United States and guns,” McDaniel said in the teaser. “It has everything to do with a culture that is morally bankrupt. What kind of culture is that? It’s called hip-hop.”

The corrupting aspects of hip-hop, per McDaniel, aren’t based on race. It promotes “destruction of community values,” he said.

“Name a redeeming quality of hip-hop. I want to know anything about hip-hop that has been good for this country. “And it’s not—before you get carried away—this has nothing to do with race. Because there are just as many hip-hopping white kids and Asian kids as there are hip-hopping black kids. It’s a problem of a culture that values prison more than college; a culture that values rap and destruction of community values more than it does poetry; a culture that can’t stand education. It’s that culture that can’t get control of itself.”

I don’t care for hip hop myself but that’s less a function of old fartism than musical preference. I was around when rap started and didn’t care for it then and still don’t. But I don’t get this: we’ve had gun violence in Murica for a very long time. Does McDaniel think they had the hippity hop music back in the pioneer days? Now that I think of it, many American Indian tribes are into chanting. Does that mean that Geronimo was a rapper? Hey, maybe Billy the Kid was the Flavor Flav of the Old West…

Also, how does this bozo explain the *lack* of gun violence in other countries where the hippity hop is very popular. Perhaps he’ll spin it into an anti-Arab or Muslim thing. That’s unlikely since people like him don’t know anything about other countries or cultures. Of course, that hasn’t stopped others of his ilk from being all ilky and shit. Anyway, I can tell when someone is speaking out of his ass and that’s what McDaniel is doing here. Dumbass.

So, the next time some white guy shoots up a school or shopping mall, we should check his iPod or CD collection for evidence of the demon hippity hop. What happens if he listens to Alan Jackson, Tim McGraw, Garth Brooks or Miranda Lambert? Are we going to blame it on Nashville? Not bloody likely, y’all. Not bloody likely.

That is all.