There's a lot of good food for thought in this piece, but I think it might miss an important distinction, between cultural conservatism and social conservatism. 1/
Roseanne doesn't offer a whole lot for social conservatives, or if you prefer, religious conservatives. But it never did. The Conner's weren't, to my recollection, avid churchgoers, and there was always (iirc) a bit of a disconnect between Roseanne and Dan on these issues. 2/
Sort of mimicking the Archie/Edith Bunker split. Television isn't particularly kind to these voters; even religious-themed shows like Touched by an Angel and Highway to Heaven have had more of a liberal protestant/social gospel take on Christianity. 3/
*by "these" voters I'm switching from the Conners to religious voters. Anyway, the religious voters are a GOP mainstay. What I think Trump brought into the fold are culturally conservative blue collar voters. Here, the Conners are a little more to type. 4/
While they're tolerant of their grandson's cross-dressing, they don't seem particularly happy about it, especially Dan. More importantly, the episode doesn't really revolve around the grandson's cross-dressing, but rather how to respond to bullying. 5/
Dan's response? To arm the kid. Moreover, he's *right*. The episode validates a culturally conservative view of the world as something of a Hobbesian nightmare. There's an obvious twist in that the kid gives away his knife to stop the bullying, 6/
this isn't "Michael Bay's Roseanne" where the kid goes postal on the bully. But the seeds are there. There are other themes that cross this divide between social and cultural conservatives scattered throughout the show, beyond the point of this tweet. 7/
But when I see Roseanne, I've never really seen the evangelical families I grew up with in Oklahoma. I see my very blue collar family in the inner suburbs of Cleveland. There are often subtle, but nevertheless important, differences. 8/
E.g. (to bring it full circle), while there were lots shared basic values, there tended to be much more of a "live and let live" attitude in the latter, (especially w women), and less righteous indignation/more "what the hell is going on" response to cultural changes. 9/9
Sorry, I lied. Two more thoughts. Concerns about societal structure/ones place in the world and the fulfillment of Gods will often have led to common ends, but not necessarily, and with different degrees of emphasis/fervor.
2) Jim Traficant, who sort of epitomizes the culturally conservative blue collar Democrat to me (like the Conners) was with Republicans on a lot of social issues, but was pro-choice.
