This is outstanding. Rational. Full of fact. Outstanding.I wrote a lengthy analysis on how Liberal Identity Politics hurts the Democratic Party.
Today I'm going to start a discussion Conservatives biggest problem that hurts their party. The Culture Wars.
How many times have we seen it? Conservatives win elections by obtaining electoral support on culture issue only over the course of the time they are in power, to become demoralized when they accomplish no progress on the culture wars. In fact they lose ground. Their excuse for that is that if the elected officials they voted for just weren't conservative enough. If they were just conservative enough they'd win the culture wars. Which is delusional as it rarely ever happens that they win these culture battles.
The Culture Wars, like Identity Politics, is a relatively recent phrase but they have been around since the dawn of our Republic. The Culture Wars in America have two defining characteristics. Conservatives start them and Liberals win them. Oh from time to time Conservatives may win a battle. Guns for example. But they have lost the overwhelming majority of the Culture War battles during the course of our history.
The reason that this is a problem for conservatives politically is, that though they often rally support to win elections using culture war rhetoric, that they almost always, with very few exceptions, lose the battle. That leaves Liberals in the position that even though they have lost the election they have won the war. They still drive the nations political agenda. That's true even now with Trumps win and Republicans control of all branches of the federal government. Liberals are still driving the political agenda in our nation. Which I'm sure chafe's at conservative partisans.
So why do conservatives start these culture wars and then proceed to lose them?
Culture wars/battles almost always begin when a group, in response to change, becomes nostalgic for the way live had been previously and begin a fight to return to what, to them, was a preferable way of living. So why then do they lose? It's primarily because the battle they chose to fight has already been lost.
There are all sorts of examples of this that can illustrate this. The Civil War being the biggest. The Slave Economy in the South was doomed once American industrial output exceeded agricultural output towards the middle of the 19th Century. Industrialization and slavery were incompatible. Industry required a large source of skilled free labor to prosper. Even before the first shot was fired in the Civil War, slavery was a lost cause.
Other examples would be the conservative anti-Catholic culture war of the 1830's through 1850's was lost before it even started. Catholics in our nation had already been mainstreamed. There was no way to deny them access to our political process.
Another example would be the conservative fight against the Civil Rights movement which started in the 1950's. They lost that battle even before they started it. When African Americans had fought to save our nation during the existential crises of WWII their access to the full franchise was assured. Fighting equal rights for African Americans at that point was already a lost cause.
Same with Womens reproductive rights. The Roe vs. Wade decision has galvanized a cutlure war not just against abortion but against birth control in general. It's a battle conservative cultural warriors have already lost. Women now have access to birth control as a constitutionally protected privacy right and can now determine when and how they will start their families and how large they will be. Conservative cultural warriors win an occassional temporarly battle on abortion but the culture war for Womens reproductive rights they started was lost before it even bagan.
Another example is the culture war on Gay rights. The culture ware was started by conservatives after there had been wide spread acceptance of Gays by family, friends, neighbors and co-workers. Again, the battle had been lost by the conservative culture warriors before it had even began.
This is also true on the culture war battle conservatives have started on Muslims and Immigrants. They've already lost the battle before it has even started. Muslims are already broadly considered our Abrahamic bretheren in the American religious milieu. Latino immigrants are already mainstreaming and to many are our neighbors, friends and co-workers. Conservatives may have won the last election on those issues but they've already lost that battle, leaving Liberals to drive the nations political agenda.
This is a great source of the anger and rancor that you see by partisan conservatives. It's a manifestation of their consistently losing the culture wars they start and liberals winning those battles and thus driving the political agenda.
So as I'm sure conservative partisans like to point out how liberal social justice warriors harm the Democratic party, and they do, I'm reasonably sure that they don't want to hear the truth that conservative culture warriors do vastly more harm to the Republican party as they are the main reason that even when Republicans gain elected office and power they still lose the political battles leaving liberals to drive the agenda even when they are out of office.
There's an old saying in politics of chose your battles wisely. That would not appear to be the case for conservative culture warriors. They appear to have a preference for starting battles they have already lost.
Bookmarks