Icon? Icon?
Last night, while Bunny Boop was playing with the remote control to the television, she briefly landed on some 24-hour news channel. The talking heads were discussing the death of Jerry Falwell. One of them called him a "Conservative Icon."Now, I mean no disrespect to the man or his family, but I don't think he's an icon.
Ronald Reagan is a conservative icon. Dwight Eisenhower is a conservative icon. Abraham Lincoln is a conservative icon. Falwell? Not so much.
Sure, he managed to organize the religious right, but the guy had some pretty extreme views. He's no Reagan, Eisenhower, or Lincoln.
Icon is not the right word.
(Not to diminish his achievements, but as a secular conservative I take umbrage at giving him iconic status.)
