Conservatism, defender of the fat

Megan McArdle writes:

Making information, or fresh vegetables, available, hasn't worked--every intervention you can imagine on the voluntary front, and several involuntary ones, has already been tried either in supermarkets or public schools. Americans are getting fat because they're eating fattening foods, and not exercising. How far are we willing to go beyond calorie labelling on menus to get people to slim down? These aren't just a way to save on health care; they're a way to extend and expand the cultural hegemony of wealthy white elites.

So, being in shape is elitist, and being fat is...what? A beloved cultural touchstone of the American heartland?

Actually, Ive seen conservatives moving in this direction for a long time now. I remember back in 2004, watching Bill O'Reilly give a long self-righteous speech about how being fat is not so bad. And I remember thinking to myself: What happened? Didn't conservatives once disdain people who let their bodies go? Wasn't looking good and being healthy a small-town American virtue?

Maybe this isn't true at all; maybe American conservatives were always defenders of fat slobbiness. But making "fat is beautiful" a cause celebre seems especially ludicrous in this age of morbid obesity. It is conservative faux-populism - singing hosannas to anything exurban white folks do, just to obscure the fact that conservatism is all about helping rich people - taken to its absurd extreme.

And so Red America has become a nation of land-whales, waddling in their crocs and sweatpants from their air-conditioned living rooms to their jumbo SUVs, driving to Chili's for a jumbo chicken-fried-chicken dinner with an appetizer of onion rings, then belching their way back to their urban assault vehicles as they return to their depreciating McMansions for another episode of reality TV. Maybe they pause for a minute to fantasize about an alternate reality in which they look like Sarah Palin. Maybe they wonder why they don't. But then the commercial break is over, and the beautiful people are back on the big-screen.

Sexy, conservatives. Very sexy.