A TEENY-CON is a conservative who exults in popular culture even at its lowest, or especially at its lowest. Here is a good example. Mike Potemra, writing at National Review Online, has glowing words of praise for Lady Gaga, whom he has “enjoyed immensely.” He’s concerned, however, that his tastes might strike his audience as pedestrian (not immoral or anything old-fashioned like that, just pedestrian). Potemra writes:

While I take a great deal of delight in my tastes in music [he doesn’t delight in music but in his tastes in music], I know that they are untutored; and I am plenty insecure enough to be grateful for the validation of experts whenever I come across it.

The expert in this case is “none other than Elton John,” who has issued a “remarkable endorsement” of Gaga. One slickly manufactured musician has endorsed another so they must both be genuises. While this conservative commentator sees nothing wrong with his tastes in music, he is confident enough to say that Henry James is not worth reading. Judging from the supportive comments at NRO, American mainstream conservatism appears to embrace a snobbish disdain for the best and a giddy appreciation of the low.