For those who can stomach it, a postmortem on the election:
during the course of this contentious Presidential election,
we have frequently heard the term “culture war.” This
was a term coined by Pat Buchanan to describe the ideological
conflict waged over “moral values” that is so deeply dividing
this nation. This cultural divide starkly deals with
the issues of God, gays, guns, and unfortunately, (because
it breaks the alliteration chain in this sentence, among
other reasons) abortions.
This
war is being waged between U.S. states that tend to be rural,
religious and conservative (the so-called “red” states)
vs. states that are more urban, secular and liberal (the
so-called “blue” states). Many people believe that
this “war” began with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980,
which also ushered in a Republican majority in the Senate
for the first time since 1956, but that’s not quite true.
Reagan won both his elections in landslides; contrast those
results with the narrow margin by which Bush won, and we
can see that the current ideological divide that is currently
plaguing this country was not nearly as prevalent back in
the early 80's. Ronald Reagan--mediocre President
that I believe he was--was a figure beloved by millions,
and not the polarizing force that many consider George Bush
to be. Even Reagan’s detractors had to admit that
he brilliantly skewered Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale
in the debates, with clever catchphrases and his roguish
sense of humor.
Then,
in
the wake of the Iran-Contra scandal, the Democrats regained
control of the Senate in the 1986 Senate election. This,
along with regaining control of the House of Representatives,
gave the Democrats a solid majority in Congress for years
to come. Republican President, Democratic Congress--it
would seem that this dynamic could have easily been the
spark that began this division. Still, in my humble
opinion, the first shots in the culture war were yet to
be fired.
So
when did this conflict first start? It started very
quietly in 1987, when the FCC overturned what was known
as the “Fairness Doctrine.” This doctrine previously
decreed that, on the airwaves, if you had an on-air personality
that was of a certain ideological stripe (i.e., conservative),
it had to be counterbalanced with someone from the opposite
end of the spectrum (i.e., a liberal co-host). When
this doctrine was overturned, a second and much louder shot
was fired in the culture war: Rush Limbaugh began
his right-wing AM radio talk show in 1988.
When
Limbaugh began his show, AM radio was moribund, losing many
of its listeners to FM rock stations. Limbaugh quickly
reversed this trend; his brand of rabble-rousing, demagogic
conservatism became an enormous ratings success and money
generator. He struck a particular nerve among white
Christian males (his key audience demographic), who reveled
in his attacks against liberalism, i.e. labelling feminists
as “femi-nazis.”
An
even louder shot in the culture war was heard during the
1994 Congressional election. By this time, Limbaugh
was heard on hundreds of radio stations, and he spawned
numerous conservative radio host imitators, who, by 1994,
were multiplying on the airwaves like locusts. They
stoked the anger that their listeners were feeling toward
the Clinton administration’s efforts to institute national
health care, and a consensus among NRA members that their
guns were to be taken away. This resulted in the “Republican
revolution” that swept the congress, not only re-taking
the Senate, but also gaining a majority in the house for
the first time since 1954. At the time, many credited
Limbaugh for the success of the “Republican revolution.”
Fast
forward to the 2004 election and we find that many of the
same listeners of conservative talk radio put Bush over
the top, but with an additional component: conservative
or Evangelical Christians. Many people thought (including
myself) that Kerry had a shot at winning, because so many
voters were angry at Bush’s policies. What we didn’t
count on was the fact that many Evangelical Christians were
also angry and even more of them came out to vote, ensuring
Bush’s victory. This flew under the national radar
because they were quieter about their anger than the left
was; they are the “silent majority” (albeit a narrow one),
a term Richard Nixon used in reference to his voting base.
I
was totally unaware of the anger and hatred that Evangelicals
felt toward liberalism until I read Frank Pastore’s op-ed
piece in the 11/5 edition of the LA Times.
Pastore is a host on a Christian talk radio station; baseball
fans may also remember that Pastore was a major league pitcher
for the Cincinnati Reds and Minnesota Twins from 1979 to
1986. I was truly stunned by the vitriol Pastore hurled
at liberalism; maybe his anger is a re-direction away from
the anger he possibly felt toward himself over his mediocre
pitching career.
In
his article, Pastore states, “On Tuesday, this nation rejected
liberalism...we must help those Democrats who truly want
to be free of this evil ideology.” What Pastore states
is less of a wish for political re-alignment, but sounds
more like the fervor that accompanies such evangelical events
as Christians converting “non-believers” to their religion,
“curing” gays of homosexuality, and casting out the devil
during exorcism rites. Pastore further writes, “Simply,
a majority of Americans have rejected John Kerry and the
left because they were wrong.” 56 million Americans
voted for Kerry--would Pastore like to put them into Evangelical
concentration camps for re-indoctrination? Pastore’s
moral absolutism sounds less like Christian philosophy and
more like the hatred spewed by Iranian Mullahs. If
Jesus were alive today, he’d be ashamed of the bile that
Pastore is spewing.
From
my point of view, it seems that the current culture war
could be more accurately termed a “Second Civil War” or
a “cold Civil War.” This fact was rammed home when
I received a map of the pre-Civil War U.S., shown below.
All the states and territories that favored slavery are
the same geographical locations that voted for Bush in 2004.
It appears that, in this Second Civil War, the other side
has won...for now.
See
you soon.
Steve
can be reached at steve@babblog.com. |
