at Buchanan, Bill Bennett and the rest of the Sunday morning crew on the NBC program "Meet The Press" don't have much use for the Constitution in the aftermath of last week's tragic shootings at a Littleton, Colorado high school. The two field commanders in the religious right's "culture wars" were joined by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), Tipper Gore, Attorney General Janet Reno, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and child psychologist James Garbarino, author of the book "Lost Boys" and a fast-rising star on network programs articulating the supposed causes of senseless violence.

   Of particular note was the hostility which Buchanan, Lieberman and especially Garbarino displayed toward contemporary American society, which all three men portrayed as the equivalent of a nation in moral crisis. Participants gave their opinions on the Kosovo crisis, a topic which provided a weird synchronicity for the next topic of discussion -- the violence in Colorado. Buchanan and Lieberman exchanged barbs over the question of armed intervention, but when the subject shifted from foreign to domestic policy -- "kids killing kids" -- there was a sudden convergence of opinion. Analyses and proposed solutions were chilling in the extreme.

   Tipper Gore, wife of Vice President Al Gore, was one of the first culture mavens to sound the alarm over the content of musical lyrics when she helped to form the Parents' Resource Music Center, and wrote the book "Raising PG Kids In An X-Rated Society." Her thoughts on the Littleton incident consisted primarily of sweeping generalizations concerning the alleged causal links between "violent entertainment" and actual incidents of violence, and cliches such as "We got to step up to the plate here. This is a wake up call..." Gore stopped short of calling for censorship and government intervention concerning "violent" of offensive books, cassettes, videos, lyrics and other cultural materials, though, suggesting that communities "organize themselves" to ask youngsters questions. Gore also adroitly sidestepped direct questions about companies such as Viacom, the entertainment conglomerate which owns MTV and Warner Brothers, and which distributed the film "Natural Born Killers" -- one of several movies now under attack by media commentators and professional "experts" as a possible causative factor in youth violence. Gore again echoed her refrain that all of this was a "wake up call from our kids..."

   Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a cofounder with Bill Bennett of the Empower America group, was more direct in demanding that government enter the culture fray. When asked by host Tim Russert if he supported a White House summit of entertainment industry CEO's on the question of media violence, he termed the suggestion "a very constructive and important step for the president, the vice president, indeed for the bipartisan leadership in Congress..." There was no discussion, though, of companies -- including small producers -- who might refuse such a summit "invitation," or break ranks with government "guidelines" regarding the content of films, lyrics or other forms of communication. Next, Russert asked Bill Bennett, former Secretary of Education and now one of the foremost religious conservative culture gurus, about gun control, and the possibility of "control on the internet," or putting an end to the sale of video games and music videos to kids. Oddly, Bennett said that he had "no objection to looking at all those fronts."

   Bennett was first to employ metaphors comparing violent movies to tobacco. He proposed that entertainment companies be grilled with "very hard questions" and singled out "you know, the Levines, the Bronfmans, the people who run Viacom." He then leaped into the religious agenda, discussing the alleged "Trench Coat Mafia," the affinity group of students from Columbine High School linked to the shooting.

   "If these kids were walking around that school in black trench coats, saying 'Heil Hitler,' why didn't somebody pay attention? I guarantee you if little Cassie Burnow, the little girl who was asked, 'Do you believe in God?' and she said, 'Yes,' and was then blown away -- if she and her friends had been walking through that school carrying Bibles, and saying, you know, 'Hail the Prince of Peace, King of Kings,' they would have been hauled into the principal's office."

   Conversation became more incendiary when Dr. James Garbarino spoke up; a child psychologist at Cornell University, Garbarino has recently authored the book "Lost Boys: Why Do Our Sons Turn Violent And How We Can Save Them," and has emerged as a "faith and values" advocate. In addition, he has put forth some of the most disturbing proposals for dealing with the alleged epidemic of youth violence, and frequently employs terms such as "toxic" in describing the cultural climate. He has also pushed the limits of hyperbole, declaring "Parental smoking is child abuse," and speaks for the need to use product liability laws and environmental anti-pollution statutes as a way of bringing legal action against offensive media providers. Garbarino has garnered considerable media exposure due to the Littleton shootings.

   He described youngsters who turn violent as 'disconnected," adding "They also often exhibit a kind of spiritual emptiness which leaves a void." Garbarino then charged into his favorite them of comparing certain human behaviors with "epidemics" and "pollution."

   When asked about the "bad seed" theory of child behavior, Garbarino recalled his days as Father Flanigan's Boys Town, gushing "There's no such thing as a bad boy. There are difficult boys..."

   Radio commentator and presidential candidate Pat Buchanan then chimed in, seizing the rhetorical baton from Garbarino and comparing "polluters who were putting poison and filth" into a river with "the entertainment industry who poison our culture and pollute our culture from which everyone has to drink."

   "The fundamental problem is the poisoning of our culture," Buchanan opined, adding to his list of problems "that God and the Ten Commandments and Christian instruction and all moral teaching had been removed from these public schools, and into that vacuum has gone the law of Satan."

   Tim Russert then read his guests some lyrics from a Marilyn Manson song which included references to guns. "We have a First Amendment," he added, then asked the panelists for their ideas on reconciling the two. Garbarino mentioned product liability and pollution laws, and the need to "protect and nurture children," but did not directly address the civil liberties aspect. Bennett then cited the "costs of bad parenting," and praised his wife who last year, during a trip to the beach happened to see three youngsters wearing T-shirts with skulls and the caption "We love death," and verbally accosted the children. "When it comes to your kids," said Bennett, "you know, don't mind your own business. Mind their business."

   Unable to control his enthusiasm for the topic, Buchanan again chimed in citing the Southern Baptist Convention boycott of "anti-religious themes that they found on television." He called for boycotts of corporations "that produce this kind of garbage and filth."

    "Let's shame them. Let's shame them," interrupted Bennett.

   Sen. Lieberman supported Bennett in this endeavor, mentioning the game Doom, Marilyn Manson and movies such as "Basketball Diaries" and "Natural Born Killers."

   Without citing his own role in this insidious process, Lieberman added, "We're coming dangerously close in the entertainment industry, much as we prize our liberties, to the point where they're going to invite legal restrictions on their freedom because they're beginning to yell 'fire' in a crowded theater when there is no fire and they're going to be held accountable."

   Like a modern day Reichstag fire, the claim by religious right culture warriors and their political allies (both right and left) that America is in the midst of an "epidemic" of violence is the latest excuse to undermine civil liberties, free expression, and, of course, the separation of church and state. Parallels with the 1950s cold war hysteria should not be ignored; in that decade, a slew of legislative proposals to combat "godless communism" were hastily enacted. The wording of the Pledge of Allegiance was altered to include a reference to "One Nation Under God," and belief in a supernatural deity became a litmus test of political worthiness and personal wholesomeness. But in the wake of the cold war and the "fall of the wall," Marilyn Manson, the fictitious characters in video games, and American youngsters sporting a "Goth" fashion look, have replaced Lenin and Stalin as the great enemies of Christian civilization. Now, the fact that a small handful of disturbed students -- 2 thus far in Colorado, a minuscule number that perhaps accounts for the media fixation in finding accomplices -- is becoming the new reason for why religious ritual must be put back in the public schools, or why police, parents, school authorities and, yes, even students themselves must be enlisted in the service of a new "snitch" culture to monitor personal behaviors.

   Hyperbolic descriptions, metaphorical mixing -- which Dr. James Garbarino is developing to a fine art with his constant refrain against "pollution" and "toxic" culture -- and sheer demagoguery seem to dominant the media discourse about the Colorado shootings. Facts, and constitutional guarantees of free expression (even for Marilyn Manson and Viacom), are quickly becoming secondary considerations. Garbarino is at least blatantly honest; Lieberman, Bennett and Buchanan continue to flirt with a call for overt government censorship and culture control by instead proposing the "shame" game.

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