The Dukes

I’ll give no prolonged meditation on the meaning of the General Lee, or pointless recounting of how important the original series was to my young character. However, I am kind of interested in relationship of the Duke’s to law enforcement authorities. It seems to me that the Dukes (in their original 1980s incarnation) represent a curious middle space in the evolution of white traditional rural culture. For a very long time, even in the twentieth century, this culture viewed law enforcement authority with a great deal of suspicion. The cops, the sheriff, and other authorities figure as the villains of many old country and bluegrass tunes. Law officers were to be feared and avoided, not respected and loved.

It’s fair to say that this has changed. In modern country, it seems to me that law enforcement authorities have almost disappeared, and when they do appear they receive the same degree of reverence as other authority figures (daddy, the soldier in Iraq, George Bush). The police officer as bad guy now mostly seems to appear in rap music. I wonder how much this has to do with the role local law enforcement played in the civil rights movement. . .

Anyway, like I suggested earlier, the Dukes of Hazzard occupy an odd middle ground. The local police authorities are still the enemy, but are more worthy of scorn than fear. Roscoe P. Coltrane serves as comic relief rather than as a figure of menace. The Dukes retain a degree of rural anti-authoritarianism, but the political import of this resistance in undermined by the corruption and ineptitude of the local authorities. If I recall correctly, state and federal authorities were usually treated with a good deal of deference by the original show.

Any thoughts? Or am I simply misremembering or misinterpreting?