The Ballad of #MontroseMike Berry
If you regularly listen to talk radio in the Houston area, there’s a good chance you’ve heard the rantings of conservative shock jock Michael Berry. Berry’s radio show is formulaic conservative talk radio: discuss the absurdity of the liberal agenda and promote the virtues of masculinity-driven conservativism.
Berry takes painful strides to accomplish the latter. His political views are an extreme exaggeration of the virtuous cowboy trope. The answers to America’s problems are simple. More churches, less professors. More guns, less recycling. More country music and beer, less gays and modern art. Berry has even created a brick-and-mortar shrine in Houston for his philosophy: the Redneck Country Club (RCC). Though membership at the RCC is not required (doing so would be antithetical to the “redneck” credo), it is nevertheless encouraged. The membership tiers at the RCC are the objects of caricature: prospective members can choose between a .22 Caliber Membership, a .38 Special, a .44 Magnum, a Shotgun, and for the big spenders, the Big Ass Gun Membership.
Like many who haven’t served themselves, Berry displays a near obsession with veterans and militaristic strength. The RCC even pays for certain veterans’ memberships through the RCC’s “Sponsor a Veteran Fund.” However, the RCC’s website makes clear that handing out a free membership is something “ONLY Michael Berry can do.” Berry apparently announces free memberships to veterans at big shows. The gambit is obvious: by making himself the gifter of the RCC’s highest civilian honor, Berry seeks to ingratiate himself with the affections, accomplishments, and virtue of those who have actually sacrificed.
The FAQ section on the RCC’s website, clearly written by Berry, asserts that membership at the RCC is open to all: that being a redneck is a state of mind, and not about skin color. Ignoring the fact that the term redneck quite literally denotes a shade of skin, Berry realizes but discards the idea that the redneck state of mind is to promote a specific identity over others — an identity that serves as a negative and form of rebellion against cosmopolitan liberalism. This type of thinking, the elevation of the simplistic, God-fearing male conservative over the effete, non-religious, elitist liberal, is key to Berry’s assumed identity.
I find it unlikely that Berry himself is a racist. Liberals who have lobbed this at Berry in in the past for his insensitivity about Chicago murder victims (Berry enjoyed mocking some of the victims’ names on his show) may find themselves thwarted (or just confused) by Berry’s Indian-origin wife and adopted black children. And even though his public relevance depends on his continued ability to divide-and-conquer on air, Berry certainly deserves considerable praise for the charitable efforts he has pursued with his fame, including for organizations which help veterans. It may just be that Berry is bit more complex — and confused — than your typical right-wing bogeyman.
Berry is probably just the very thing he despises: a liberal. In this light, his radio show should properly be viewed as a tragedy. His show is the product of a constant battle between who Berry actually is, and who Berry wants to be. Berry is a performance artist. He is showing us his idealized vision of himself, and through his show, his country club, his vacuous support of Ted Cruz (who recently also grew a beard), Berry hopes that his assumed persona becomes more and more believable. Just take a look at Berry’s transformation from an earnest radio host to the outlaw — but law-abiding — redneck provocateur he is today:
Early Michael Berry:
Today’s, More Masculine (And Possibly More Phallic Appreciating) Berry:
Over time, the truth shines past even the most dedicated performance. One particularly notable example is Berry’s alleged 2012 hit-and-run accident in Montrose, Houston’s famous gay district. For some reason, Berry went stag to TC’s Show Bar, a bar described by the Houston Press as “nearly hidden” and “intended for transvestites and their admirers.” Video-camera footage from the night of the alleged accident showed Berry walking around nervously, drinking a beer and visiting the restroom twice in a relatively short time period. Apparently, TC’s was putting on its famous drag show on the night Berry stopped by.
The only reason the world knows about Berry’s night at TC’s is because Berry apparently hit the bouncer’s car on his way out, and the bouncer tagged Berry’s plates. Berry’s lawyer, a famed Texas defense attorney, denied that Berry was responsible for the hit-and-run, but never actually denied that Berry was at the bar.
Berry, realizing that his solo foray into a bar known as safe-haven for cross-dressers and transgendered patrons (and their aficionados) could be a threat to his radio persona, decided to nip the story in the bud on his radio show. Berry also did not deny that he was at TC’s Show Bar. His sole, rage-filled explanation as to why he was at TC’s Show Bar, alone, was that he could “get a cold beer.”
Berry’s explanation could not have been more perplexing. Berry would have us believe, that out of all the bars in the city of Houston, out of all the bars in downtown, out of all the non-gay bars in Montrose, that Berry settled on TC’s Show Bar, a bar for “transvestites and their admirers,” for his cold beer. Maybe the obvious explanation isn’t the truth, and the famous radio-host regularly picks bars at random to visit alone, for a “cold beer” that he could purchase at a gas station and enjoy at home, possibly with his wife.
You can hear Berry’s explanation for yourself online if you can get past his violent rant at the “Fake News” media. It is almost as if Berry thought that if he screamed for an hour at the liberal media, and then with a more muted, “tell-it-to-ya-straight” tone, provided his explanation of his gay bar romp, that his story would be more believable. It’s not an uncommon strategy. Alex Jones, another conservative radio host, employed it when an astute viewer captured a screenshot of Jones’ phone (which Jones showed to the camera on his taped radio show) which displayed a link to a transgender pornographic website. Barry’s (and Jones’) strategy probably worked — at least enough to keep loyal viewers from straying. Some probably still question Berry’s story/orientation, but for them, the benefits of a daily power-trip from Berry’s show outweigh the costs.
I don’t think Michael Berry is anti-LGBTQ — someone who was probably could not fathom more than a second in a famous gay bar on the night of a drag event. Again, Berry is just tragically confused. Case in point: Berry is notable for regularly featuring cross-dressing ministerial show performer Shirley Q. Liquor on his radio show. Berry, though he appeals to racists for listenership and therefore, power — probably isn’t a racist himself. Berry enjoys interacting with Shirley Q. for other reasons (many that go well with a cold beer).
For all the hate Berry showers on liberals, for their misplaced desire for a free-loving, screw-whoever-you-want and be-whoever-you-want world, it’s those liberals that work to make the world a better place for the Michael Berrys of tomorrow. Hopefully, the ones tomorrow won’t have to pretend, won’t have to lie about their gay bar forays, and won’t be forced to devote their lives to performance art engineered to suppress their true identities. They’ll just feel secure and be perfectly happy with themselves — as they should.
Maybe Michael Berry really was at TC’s Show Bar, stag, on drag night, for a cold beer. Or Michael Berry is just a little bit queer. Either way, Michael Berry shouldn’t be mocked. It’s too easy to view him as a desperate shapeshifter, who, after a failed political career as a candidate, sought power as a conservative bomb-thrower on talk radio. Frankly, it’s time to stop trying to understand him (here’s a link to another confusing #MontroseMike story where he describes being accosted, late night, in his own car by two-knife wielding Hispanic males, dodging another knife-wielding hispanic male, and taking a cab home to his wife and kids instead of calling the police).
We should stop trying to understand Berry because Berry doesn’t understand himself. Berry is trapped in a prison of his own making, and deserves our sympathy, but not our attention.