The culture war is over
Predictably, conservatives tended to ignore this inconvenient truth about the culture, persuading themselves that winning elections — and ostensibly passing conservative laws (though they did that less frequently) — were what mattered. (Or maybe it was that they convinced themselves that because they could win elections — because the American public supported their politics — it implied a “silent majority” of Americans were still traditional, salt-of-the-earth types.)
In the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, Republicans did quite well electorally. Simultaneously, however, our society became coarser, more permissive, less traditional, and more socially liberal. And while politicians won elections, our young people turned to Hollywood for guidance. For every Republican elected, there were 10 films or songs (many of them quite good, actually) selling sex, drugs, and violence. Of course, this all comes down to that clichéd line about the breakdown of the family unit. It’s clichéd because it’s true.
Now: In the wake of the House GOP’s capitulation on the Senate-passed fiscal cliff bill (which does nothing to rein in entitlement spending), some prominent conservatives are beginning to notice that today’s electoral and public policy defeats are a natural byproduct of having lost the culture war.
Blowback
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Not an accurate term. A better term would be socially stupid because all “socially liberal” means is you’re cool with supporting people with the fruits of others labor.
darwin on January 3, 2013 at 1:55 PM
Hidden agendas…hidden agendas…hidden agendas…
Blake on January 3, 2013 at 1:55 PM
We’re well past the tipping point.
We’ll have to fight again for our freedom, because we did not water the tree of liberty.
The odds of winning are slim.
Rebar on January 3, 2013 at 1:56 PM
Not Hardly Matt.
reddevil on January 3, 2013 at 1:57 PM
Modern liberalism=a steady march through the institutions while wearing fabulous shoes.
RedRedRice on January 3, 2013 at 1:58 PM
Conservatism in general is dead. The Repubs wanted to oust the social cons to get elected because “everyone hates socons.” Now the Repubs will want to oust the ficons to get elected, because everyone is going to hate the “ficons.” Republicanism has become opportunism because our politicians are incompetent at selling their message to the American people.
melle1228 on January 3, 2013 at 2:00 PM
That’s why we must let it burn. It’s the only wakeup call left to us. And it might be too late even for that. The US may already be a corpse rather than in a coma.
Thomas More on January 3, 2013 at 2:02 PM
Indeed. We need our own steady march with equally fabulous shoes and rigid ideological conformity.
Punchenko on January 3, 2013 at 2:02 PM
The only chance for freedom on the American continent, is for the red states to leave the union and form a new nation under a new, explicitly anti-progressive, Constitution.
Do the red state governors have the balls to do this? Signs point to “no”.
Rebar on January 3, 2013 at 2:05 PM
I should’ve resolved to avoid any and all Matt Lewis pieces in the new year. Seems like he’s trying out for a spot on the cocktail circuit with each one.
changer1701 on January 3, 2013 at 2:07 PM
Obama won the vote by a couple million and we’re supposed to declare defeat?
Nah.
We haven’t lost the culture war, we’ve lost the electoral war, and electoral victories are fleeting.
blatantblue on January 3, 2013 at 2:07 PM
With hetro marriage rates collapsing and nearly half of kids being illegitimate, the future doesn’t look good.
IR-MN on January 3, 2013 at 2:07 PM
I agree with the illegitimate kids part.
When it comes to the “divorce crisis,” I’m a bit more skeptical. Huge portions of divorced people end up remarrying.
blatantblue on January 3, 2013 at 2:11 PM
Like the war on crime, it never ends. Lighten up and find something awesome and enlightening.
thebrokenrattle on January 3, 2013 at 2:12 PM
This is why I think Rubio might have the perfect message for 2016. He frequently talks about the family break down.
terryannonline on January 3, 2013 at 2:16 PM
You know what doesn’t care about how ‘stylish’ or ‘cool’ something is? Economic math. When the producers money runs out (already happened) AND the fiction that it hasn’t is apparent (soon), then the system will collapse into hyper-inflation and subsistence living (at best). Maybe Hollywood can convince people that’s cool.
michaelo on January 3, 2013 at 2:16 PM
What a sad feeble attempt to gloss over all of American History. I suppose there was no culture war when arguing the Constitution and that pesky slavery problem. And the recent unpleasantness AKA the War of Northern Aggression, that had nothing to do with cultural beliefs. The Gilded Age, there was no push back from anarchists and union men over the proper way to run a government or business. Ignore Leon Czolgosz,that man never existed. In the 1920’s no one ever did burney (blow), or had an abortion, or proclaimed themselves an atheist. Nope, none of these issues ever existed before the 1960, and now they’ve been finally been decided, and the conservatives have lost.
.
Yet another provincial urban elitist his convictions validated by his ignorance.
LincolntheHun on January 3, 2013 at 2:17 PM
There needs to a better coordinated effort amongst the makers to impose biblical conservative morality upon the takers in this country.
That is the definition of small government conservativism.
Pablo Honey on January 3, 2013 at 2:17 PM
The root of the problem is the media.
MOST of America doesn’t even know the details of a single scandal by Obama.
Most have no clue what our kids our taught.
Most don’t know what ‘poor’ is anymore.
If all most of America hears is progressive thought how could we possibly win anything?!
We must stop complaining and organize together and take over or replace the media.
Ghettos can organize why can’t we do the same?!
Or do you just want to watch the world crumble hoping to get slaughtered last as long as ou can watch TV?
Fight or roll over? Let it burn can be a part of it.
GardenGnome on January 3, 2013 at 2:18 PM
This is one of the scariest sentences I have ever read.
Shump on January 3, 2013 at 2:19 PM
Look at the garbage on network TV. Sex, violence, gore. It’s disgusting. I suppose you could get inured to it after awhile, but why would you want to. It’s beyond me, the sensitivities and sensibilities, or lack of them, in those who watch that stuff and enjoy it, or can even tolerate it.
Paul-Cincy on January 3, 2013 at 2:22 PM
Disagree. Kathy Griffith gave Anderson Cooper a kiss to the crotch of his pants during NBC’s New Year’s Eve party. If we had already lost the culture war, it would have been another man.
Ted Torgerson on January 3, 2013 at 2:22 PM
^^^ Junior communist
darwin on January 3, 2013 at 2:24 PM
I agree with that.
Also, if one takes a look at the entertainment industry, it is wrought with very typical stuff:
“Middle class” worship; plots that contain the EEEEEEEVIL business magnate or tycoon, EEEEEEEVIL corporations trying to raid the public trust, EEEEEEEEEVIL, mean-spirited Christians who live in constant hate of everything, and the poor “little guy” fending all of this EEEEEEEVIL off.
blatantblue on January 3, 2013 at 2:25 PM
“Hollywood” will just try to convince people that everything wrong with our country and civil society is “unregulated capitalism,” greed, racism, bigotry, Christians, “flyover country,” Big Oil, “rich” people, etc.
The low-information, apolitical, and aliterate voters will believe it, never questioning why it’s alright for “Hollywood” Lefties to live one way and insist on the proles living another. Please see: Barbra Streiand, Micheal Moore, Tom Morello, Al Gore, Matt Damon, Oliver Stone, etc.
visions on January 3, 2013 at 2:26 PM
I mean, hell, look at any Law and Order episode.
When they inject religion into their plots, it’s always some poor Muslim being attacked for being Muslim, or some Christian doing something evil and unlawful in the name of Christ.
blatantblue on January 3, 2013 at 2:26 PM
Isn’t there a direct cause and effect between government financed welfare that funds and so encourages single motherhood, and 95% of the gun-related gang violence in the inner cities? We create fatherless children who then, lacking any strong male figure guidance, go out and shoot each other. We do that through our social policy. We do that. We are the authors of that carnage.
Paul-Cincy on January 3, 2013 at 2:26 PM
Pic of the Day: Obama’s War on Women Continues
Resist We Much on January 3, 2013 at 2:32 PM
Conservatives are defenders of individual liberties and nature’s law as we are able to observe it, and are the sentinels of these liberties as they are recognized in our Constitution.
For example:
When a conservative declares that he is unwaveringly opposed to abortion, its because he has observed that what is contained within the mother’s womb is an individual human being, completely deserving of all the rights and privileges of any other citizen of the United States. The conservative expects citizens to act in a responsible way when it comes to human sexuality – he is not a prude, but he also knows that actions have consequences and that killing human beings is something that should not happen in the furtherance of someone’s “right” to sleep with whomever they wish, whenever they wish.
When a conservative declares that he is unwaveringly opposed to gay marriage, it is not out of hate or disgust for persons that are homosexual, it is due to the observation that a) nature designed us a certain way – we are dioecious beings – and that b) we are highly social animals that require a very long period of maturation requiring both the father and mother’s efforts in order to bring a child to adulthood in a healthy and well-adjusted manner.
And so on and so on, ad infinitum.
So, if these over-paid clowns actually want to have a conversation about conservatism, they can start by actually correctly state the conservative’s argument.
turfmann on January 3, 2013 at 2:34 PM
Oh, come on — we lost this last one 47 to 51. Stop sniffing into your hankies. We’re still near as dammit a 50/50 nation.
And, anyway, sex, drugs and violence are neither liberal nor conservative, in the legislative sense. How why would a cultural fondness for sex, drugs and violence convince people to vote for a nannying, intrusive state?
This is silliness.
S. Weasel on January 3, 2013 at 2:43 PM
The whole term “culture war” is meant to trivialize what is essentially a leftist indoctrination program meant to institutionally hollow out and break down the country.
Doomberg on January 3, 2013 at 2:43 PM
There might be some nice real estate in Venezuela freeing up soon…
Fallon on January 3, 2013 at 2:46 PM
You just can’t see Valerie Jarrett’s hand up Obama’s… um, back.
Fallon on January 3, 2013 at 2:53 PM
As James Earl Jones might say, “THIS was CNN“.
Ladysmith CulchaVulcha on January 3, 2013 at 2:55 PM
Sure a 50/50 nation – with 16.5 trillion in debt and no way to prevent complete bankruptcy and hyperinflation, where Wickard, Kelo, and obamacare are the law of the land.
Rebar on January 3, 2013 at 3:07 PM
I miss the good old days when movies were wholesome fantasies and there was usually an affordable whørehouse just the other side of the tracks.
Seth Halpern on January 3, 2013 at 3:09 PM
You’re forgetting it’s liberal women. There’s a good chance some of those men are women.
Rocks on January 3, 2013 at 3:15 PM
Conservatives have lost the culture war becauase they put their faith into un-principled men who TALKED about small government to win votes – but who did exactly the opposite once elected.
They NEVER held these men to the promises they made. They made “excuses” for why certain things couldn’t have been done. They continued to elect the “lesser of two evils” and, over the course of 50 years – that practice only pushed the nation farther to the left. Conservatives STILL refuse to acknowledge that G.W. Bush and the Republican Congress (from 2000 to 2006) are primarily responsible for the economic meltdown because they KNEW Freddie and Fannie were problematic but did not have the courage to stand up to the Democratic MINORITY and force changes. Conservatives still complaing about Obama’s spending – ignoring that, prior to ObamaCare – it was G.W. Bush and the Republicans who brought us the biggest expansion of the entitlement state since LBJ – MEDICARE PART D – and they gave that to us … UNFUNDED. All of that – all of that – was simply added to this nation’s debt.
Kudos to the Dims. At least when they got total control – THEY CONTROLLED. They rammed ObamaCare down our throats like a horsepill – they never flinched. Our side? Couldn’t even muster the courage to cut government a little when we had control
We should all “enjoy” this loss – we’ve earned it.
HondaV65 on January 3, 2013 at 3:24 PM
Honda finds a nut. A good one too.
Paul-Cincy on January 3, 2013 at 3:48 PM
???
KS Rex on January 3, 2013 at 3:49 PM
Republicans have a serious image problem. It has been officially painted that we want to control people’s behavior all because of our politicians’ poor communication skills and truly wacky statements.
I don’t care what a politician thinks about gay marriage or abortion, just don’t look at me to fund it! Leave me alone and I will leave you alone… Live and let live. Maybe that doesn’t make me a Republican then?
Democrats really are the ones about controlling behavior- guns, food, cars, money, sex, healthcare, religion, and no Republican politician has been able to make that argument.
lucyvanpelt on January 3, 2013 at 4:16 PM
As opposed to the wh0rehouses sponsoring 80% of the movies and solidarity marches down Main Street, I’m thinking is his meaning.
MelonCollie on January 3, 2013 at 8:06 PM