Not because of any swing-of-the-pendulum, but because of lasting generational/demographic changes. That’s according to this study by the Progressive Studies Program of the Center for American Progress:
IMHO, this administration has done everything within it’s power to make sure the culture wars have been stoked to their highest since the 60s.
We have rich pitted against the poor in the changes in taxation plans to pay for “stimuless” package and UHC funding. We have racial issues, which the President himself has helped ignite, and his supporters crying racist at any hint of differing opinion or debate with his policies.
The Culture Wars have been ignited, just not by the usual sources.
How do you figure? Rich versus poor is not generally considered part of the culture war (I think you’re confusing it with the “class war”). And Obama’s Beer Summit basically put an end to all of the Gates-related nonsense. I haven’t heard anything about it since.
Anyway, I agree completely with the article and have been making a similar point on these boards for years.
The wheels came off Obama’s wagon with the Gate’s incident and he’s been skidding ever since. The beer summit did nothing to mend his relationship with middle America which he curdled by wading into the issue in the first place.
The haves vs the have nots is a central part of this administration’s Socialist leaning policies, so it is very much a culture/class war.
The rich have ALWAYS been pitted against the poor, ever since there was anyone who hogged enough resources to qualify as rich by his society’s standards. Obama didn’t start it anymore than he’ll end it. As for increasing taxes on the rich; in the long run it’s that or watch the country collapse. The rich have most of the money, and the country can’t survive the poor and middle class carrying the rich on their back indefinitely. Sooner or later, the rich must be forced to give back, or the system will collapse.
:rolleyes: But, they’re not. E.g., UHC is not socialist (though any good socialist would support it); and Obama seems to be backing away from it anyway.
:dubious: How so?
Obama’s been president for a couple of months now and I’m disappointed, nay furious, that all of the world’s problems aren’t fixed yet. When we voted for change, we meant like right-now change.
What a failure of a presidency.
/s
He’s black, duh.
His response to the Gates issue. Which I’ll admit was probably fueled more by Gates being a close friend, but the perception was otherwise. He would have been so much better off just saying the investigation was still in process and that he couldn’t make any comments.
You know, as a bleeding-heart liberal, I just don’t see it that much. Yes, there are some people who oppose Obama because he’s black, and they’re rightly called out for it, but on the whole I think most of the opposition to the Obama Administration’s policies come from actual criticism of the policies, whether honest disagreements or dishonest fearmongering. And I don’t really see his supporters bringing up race, only responding to it when others bring it up.
Race has been a smaller factor here than I expected, and I’m pleased to see it. I had my doubts as to whether the racist fringes could be ignored, and I think they’re successfully being shown to be a small but vocal minority.
How odd that when the rich get a big bonus and the poor and middle class get nothing - in fact lose out - it isn’t a class war, but when the status quo ante is to be restored when the trickle down didn’t work, it is a class war.
Any cites that the Gates affair affected anything in the long term? The issue now is that Obama didn’t call Palin and Rush on their lies about the healthcare proposal. We know historically that the Big Lie does work, especially when there is a propaganda channel that pushes it unchecked.
For the OP, I agree. I’ve lived through another culture war that came to an end. When I was starting college lots of dorms had strict requirements about mixing of the sexes and overnight stays (as in forbidden, with curfews.) Some people still needed to lie when checking into a hotel with someone not their wife. Some apartments wouldn’t rent to unmarried couples. Look at Three’s Company. The premise of that show wouldn’t exist today. Reagan was the first divorced president. Another barrier fallen. And drug use as a youth no longer matters.
In 30 years the current ones will be gone too, and I bet the Republicans will be nominating a gay candidate. I mean one out of the closet before getting seated.
What I find most interesting is the finding that “Demographic changes are generally reducing the salience of culture wars issues to politics, even when they are not shifting the distribution of public views.” IOW, WRT abortion, there might still be the same proportion of pro-lifers in the population 20 years from now as there are now, but they will no longer give that issue weight in deciding how to vote.
Wow, it must be tough to have Janeane Garafalo call you a big racist. And then to have Keith Olbermann not once challenge her assertions! Now I suddenly understand why conservatives are so upset about this issue.
Eh, maybe. You can’t just assume that people’s political views won’t change as they get older, though. We’re still struggling with legalizing pot when most voters alive now are at or under the age when pot smoking was common.
Regarding the issue of abortion, that might be because there’s little chance anything is going to happen. The Democrats control the White House and Senate, so there’s no chance a pro-life justice will be chosen for the Supreme Court. Thus, Roe v. Wade is likely to stand for awhile.
Anyway, most of the so-called “culture war” was made up of what I call “junk food issues”–the political equivalent of empty calories. They get a lot of people interested and inflamed but ultimately no have little or no importance in how the country is governed.
Well, I for one was stunned to hear that the Progressive Studies Program of the Center for American Progress is predicting a shift towards more progressive views in the cultural arena. Who could have seen that one coming?
Pretty much my first thought as well. Ok…that and the fact that BG is the OP. 
As for the OP…I seriously doubt it. All that will happen is the battlefield will shift to something else. Cultural wars are always happening…and they never end. No one ever really wins, since society is just about always in a state of flux…
-XT