like a storm rolling across the plains
I was talking with a group of very conservative men the other day and for some odd reason, I was struck with an epiphany. I looked around me and realized that these are the men that compose the middle class of America, the working man of the 21st century. They may not work with welding torches or die-cast metal, but they are the men who leave the suburbs and venture into the city daily, climb the glass and steel towers and work-work-work till the day is done and he can trudge back out to the manicured yards and the baseball diamonds that mark the domain of the middle class.
For a moment, I saw the faces of my grandfathers floating around these men. They would have blended right in (except for being dead of course) with the American ethics of God, country and family. But had this collection of men, ghosts and ideals been transported to a voting booth, the outcome would be quite different. My ancestors were Democrats. They looked at that as the party of the working man, the union endorsed politicians who would protect America and her precious role in the world. The flesh and blood men would pull the Republican lever with barely a thought. These men cared about prayer in schools, abortion, homosexual agendas and good versus evil.
I wondered then for a moment before the epiphany hit me, ‘how did the Republicans steal the middle class?’ Two words: culture war.
By casting the conflict in values that defines this society as a ‘culture war’, the sides in this conflict necessarily polarize. The middle class then is torn between the party that represents social and economic progress for their class and the party that represents moral clarity on the battlefield of the ‘culture wars’. Hence the Republican party can continue to maintain its traditional association with the plutocrats and monied interests that fund its victories and split if not dominate the middle class who now vote on value issues like abortion and gay rights.
It is a brilliant strategy and surprisingly did not work in the last election with Gore out-polling Bush by half a million votes. I am not sure why this new coalition of money and morality doesn’t secure a solid majority at the polls, perhaps the college educated, thinking, urban middle class has grown large enough. I however can feel nothing but pity for the middle class conservative who believes in God and country and passionately support men who reshape both in their own image.
For a moment, I saw the faces of my grandfathers floating around these men. They would have blended right in (except for being dead of course) with the American ethics of God, country and family. But had this collection of men, ghosts and ideals been transported to a voting booth, the outcome would be quite different. My ancestors were Democrats. They looked at that as the party of the working man, the union endorsed politicians who would protect America and her precious role in the world. The flesh and blood men would pull the Republican lever with barely a thought. These men cared about prayer in schools, abortion, homosexual agendas and good versus evil.
I wondered then for a moment before the epiphany hit me, ‘how did the Republicans steal the middle class?’ Two words: culture war.
By casting the conflict in values that defines this society as a ‘culture war’, the sides in this conflict necessarily polarize. The middle class then is torn between the party that represents social and economic progress for their class and the party that represents moral clarity on the battlefield of the ‘culture wars’. Hence the Republican party can continue to maintain its traditional association with the plutocrats and monied interests that fund its victories and split if not dominate the middle class who now vote on value issues like abortion and gay rights.
It is a brilliant strategy and surprisingly did not work in the last election with Gore out-polling Bush by half a million votes. I am not sure why this new coalition of money and morality doesn’t secure a solid majority at the polls, perhaps the college educated, thinking, urban middle class has grown large enough. I however can feel nothing but pity for the middle class conservative who believes in God and country and passionately support men who reshape both in their own image.
1 Comments:
Here is an article in USA Today that provides some research concerning the role of religion and the "culture war" in American politics.
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dave, at 9:56 PM
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