Both Sides Now
Peter Beinart believes we're seeing the end of the Culture Wars. I don't take his argument too seriously. Our so-called culture wars are based on real and deep disagreements, so they're not going to end any time soon. Occasionally a particular issue will be resolved, but that just makes us move the argument down the road a bit.
Anyway, I heard him talking about this on NPR, and they announced they were bringing in another guest. Turned out to be Douglas Kmiec , a conservative legal scholar...who endorsed Obama. So that's NPR's idea of a good discussion--a liberal and a conservative who agrees with him.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:19 AM
3 Comments:
The current mood of a majority of the electorate is toward less rancor and divisiveness in public discourse and most public actors have moderated their behavior accordingly. This current mood no doubt hurts business for the bomb throwers like Coulter and Limburger (Limbrough?.... whatever) and Air America (oops that already failed) and maybe the Palin contingent but it is only symptom of how folks deal with their differences not that the differences have disappeared.
It will be interesting to note id the Christian right's attack on some sub-AG appointments (for things like having represented Playboy) has any legs.
I don't agree with this for two reasons.
First, and I thought about noting this in the post, the culture wars are about disagreement, not about the level of rancor. We could have a higher level of discourse but the "war" wouldn't stop.
Secondly, the level of rancor is as high as ever, or did you not notice the several years of people screaming at the top of their lungs against Bush and Cheney and then Palin? There's always a temporary lull when a new President walks in, but do you think that pent-up hatred miraculously disappeared? The only argument I can see you making is things are quiet as long as Democrats get their way, and I find it hard to believe that's your claim.
Things ain't really that quiet. The GOP seems to be positioning itself for a filibuster on the stimulus bill. It will be interesting to see if they feel the pressure to be less "rancorous" at that point.
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