A “Dukes of Hazzard” fan fest in rural Virginia is a nostalgic walk through a culture war minefield.
By SUSANA RAAB and SARAH HOLDER
Just the good ol’ boys, never meanin' no harm,
Beats all you've ever saw, been in trouble with the law since the day they was born.
So begins the theme song of “The Dukes of Hazzard,” the decades-old television show chronicling the campy, cornpone antics of southern mechanics and their orange, Confederate-flag adorned Dodge Charger, lovingly christened “The General Lee” (as in Robert E.). In its own time, the show was a throwback to an era of “Lost Cause” nostalgia. Now, some three decades after its final new episode aired, the series draws in fans pining for its its uncomplicated outlook of life—as happened recently at a two-day, neo-Confederate “Dukes of Hazzard” festival in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains.
In the 1970s and ’80s, Ben Jones played one of Hazzard County’s good ol’ boys, Cooter Davenport. By the 1990s, Jones had been elected a congressman from Georgia. And by the early 2000s, Jones emerged as an entrepreneur, opening Dukes of Hazzard-themed museums, restaurants and stores. To promote his restaurant—which bears the "Cooter" name and proudly displays the kinds of Dixie-land memorabilia some liberal southern cities are slowly denouncing—Jones created an event that brings him and thousands of fans—many of whom are Trump supporters—back to the glory days. He calls it, “Cooter's Last Stand.”
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