The left is way too hard on the 1950s (if all subsequent decades had brought as much economic success as the 1950s we'd be well into the Crystal Spires and Togas period by now) but one area where they have a point was the very dull and somewhat creepy "family-friendly" box that almost all pop culture was forced to fit into. Like the singing political ads.
To me, that seems to be one of the best aspects of the 1950's, along with a strong respect for traditional religion and the family in all major institutions, including the media. We just don't see that anymore. But yeah, I agree the singing political ads go to far.
The 1950s featured higher rates of juvenile delinquency, premarital sex, and recreational drug use than any previous period of American history. Additionally, the new pop culture espoused by "rock n' roll" was anything but traditional or family-friendly. The 1950s was truly revolutionary in every single way imaginable and the
Leave it to Beaver aesthetic that the decade is remembered for today is mostly a product of Culture War-era, Republican-inspired historical revisionism.
On balance, the country was probably much more conservative in the 1970s-1990s than the 1940s-1960s
