Let’s not make heroes of these Duke miscreants.

Whenever I hear about the problems of America’s cities, and the spirit of lawlessness that festers within them, I have to laugh. But it’s not a happy laugh; it’s like a sarcastic one.

During my youth, rural culture was king. The pop charts were full of Nashville records. The swinging’, groovy aesthetic of “Laugh-In” gave way to the hayseed humor of “Hee Haw.” The Mandrell Sisters had a hit variety show, although there wasn’t much variety in it. Chuck Norris made a movie where he played a long-haul trucker. A trucker!

Do you think any of this countrified culture was wholesome? No, it was not.

Perhaps the most corrosive to the moral development of America’s youth were the Duke boys, two Confederate sympathizer redneck cousins who distilled and distributed illegal intoxicants, flaunted automotive safety, and displayed total contempt for their county law enforcement personnel and elected officials. All this was portrayed on national television as perfectly acceptable—and indeed, praiseworthy behavior.

Now, you might say “The Dukes of Hazzard” was just mindless fun, an escapist romp. You could argue that the Duke boys were not supposed to be role models. You could even try to claim that the car chases in particular were intended as a sort of automotive slapstick, and that any savvy viewer would know better than to try to imitate the unsafe driving practices modeled onscreen.

But can you explain why so many children who grew up watching it have gone on to purchase the Sensoro Speed Trap Tracker Radar Detector and other, similar items of law-evasion equipment?

Friends, it is not America’s cities that are in trouble. It is America itself. At least in the cities, there are stop lights.

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