It's tough to find common ground in a divided country, but
it's almost impossible when the emotional heat of the culture wars is
added to the mix.
The political press takes it as a
given that there is a sharp dividing line between the “social issues”
propelling the culture wars (abortion, school prayer, gay rights) and
matters of substance (the economy, foreign policy, immigration and
safety-net programs like unemployment benefits). But as the American
conservative movement has veered sharply rightward over the past 30
years, that line is no longer so clean. Today, conservatives have a
social argument for every subject of debate – everything has become part
of the culture wars.
Viewing
tangible matters through a cultural lens is not new. In the 19th
century, dime novelist Horatio Alger wrote a series of formulaic books
about poor, young, street urchins meeting some wealthy benefactor who
teaches them the value of hard work and living a clean life. Once the
urchins get on a properly Protestant, chaste path, their fortunes grow
and they end up rising to the middle-class. It's a narrative that
resonates with the right today. READ MORE
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