My latest on Townhall offers a tongue-in-cheek look at the vampire myth over time, how very recently it has been turned inside-out, and how we might be recovering from our late fascination with the idea of a sun-twinkling Nanny Vampire. A snippet:

Society’s image of the vampire has changed. Back when the Soviet menace was spreading through Eastern Europe, Slavic-sounding bloodsucking fiends were a cinematic horror mainstay. …

While a senator from the land of Lincoln promised hope and change and a new kind of government, “Twilight” hit the theaters in 2008 showing a new kind of vampire. This vampire sparkled in the sunlight, saved the heroine, listened to Debussy, and was moreover gorgeous and irresistible, if the subsequent (and nauseating) cultural phenomenon was any indication. His was the promise of the first post-plasma vampiricy.

The message of the new vampire is that he exists to cherish you, care for you, and even to save you from yourself and others. You don’t fear this vampire; you dream about him, bite your lip fantasizing about him, till at last you marry him, and always, always beg him to turn you into a glittery redistributor of the blood supply. Ve are ze ninety-nine perzent, ah-ah-ah!

Buffy would dust that glittery bastard faster than you could say “Obamanomics.”