On “the culture war”

Throughout 2022, but in particular in the aftermath of the midterm election, I’ve been circulating thoughts in my head about the term the culture war and how I would approach it from a sociological lens.

There are a couple of considerations that I want to address, in particular when the term has arisen in various forms of media. The culture war is not a catch-all for non-economic political issues, they often involve fundamental rights and also connect to a material base- basic Marxism here. It is also an asymmetrical term, so I want to avoid false equivalence. The culture war is a political process often for very cynical, self-serving reasons by right-wing political elites, but those affected by it are not “another side” of it.

So I want to define the culture war as best as I can using what has been circulating in my mind:

The “cultural war” is a political process wherein issues are pressed:

  • By conservative elites, a nexus of wealthy political donors, the conservative media, and politicians and their operatives.
  • Are aimed at activating white evangelicals in particular
  • Are tied to elections, with a limited number of culture war issues in the spotlight at any one time, and they are often dropped by elites for use later
  • However, they are framed as existential threats to America that are undermining some abstract values

We see some issues wax and wane for decades- the concern today about “smut” in libraries and classrooms goes back in its modern form to about 1974, when a frenzy was whipped up in West Virginia. For my lifetime, from Tango Makes Three to Gender Queer, the thrust has gone from certain language and depictions of heterosexual intimacy to anything regarding queer themes. This is a linkage in social movement literature, which lead to bloc recruitment (when a whole group comes as a single entity). People who didn’t really care about “banned books” for the most part, when a media frenzy and money being funneled into the issue led to dramatically increased attendance and hostility at school and library board meetings. So it went from a niche movement to a central point of cultural warfare.

As you remember, 2004 was the peak of anti-marriage equality as an election strategy. So many states had ballot measures attempting to bring out more apathetic voters (again, the centrality of almost every culture war topic is activating white evangelicals). As with 2022, it’s difficult to find convincing evidence that this ultimately mattered (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ps-political-science-and-politics/article/abs/samesex-marriage-and-the-2004-presidential-election/1EF13FD3DEC005457783AF1DF79928D6). I would hypothesize that voters are, in many states, more apathetic than the media-political class. Even very red states in 2022 failed to advance abortion from the Dobbs decision to ballot measures, with a lot of vote splitting. The culture war is most felt acutely at the local level, where highly committed but numerically small ardent right-wing groups have the most leverage.

Transphobia and homophobia were an issue ushered in significantly in general and especially in regards to education, but even in reddest Utah, it doesn’t register (“other” is 13% so at most we’re talking one in ten people, probably much lower) (https://www.deseret.com/2022/7/25/23272939/heres-the-top-issue-on-voters-minds-ahead-of-federal-elections-inflation-economy-congress-president). With school policy as a whole, besides recurring concerns like class sizes and assistance to students who lag behind in expectations. Also the Uvalde shooting showed a much more existential threat to schools than any concerns about culture war issues.

I would say that the culture war is most pushed by red state politicians today, while nationally independents and liberals are often on the same page with progressive topics. Also, Democrats fell into a trap on a major issue in 2022, with Eric Adams and others raising fears of crime that the media was pushing- leading to a huge under-performance in New York. However, liberals, though often not vociferous about things, rejected the framing of gender identity and sexuality by the right and avoided it becoming the non-stop coverage by media of all types that promoted inaccurate narratives on crime.

It has been 42 years since the Christian right was fully politically activated in the election of Ronald Reagan. For a long time, before the radicalization of conservatives in the 1994, 2010, and 2016 electoral cycles, political elites generally used culture war appeals to win elections but did not have them as a serious priority. In my lifetime, more of the political right elites have gone from opportunists to true believers, bringing cultural warfare to the center of policy. Also, the media-political connection has changed with the deregulation of media in the late 1980s and the gradual move of much more extreme talk radio to television and political talking points.

To win liberation for oppressed groups, and to counter activated voters who become activists, a much more vibrant liberal-left political culture must emerge to counter the activists themselves but also the many wealthy elites who pour money into concern trolling on Critical Race Theory and who can say what in schools. Also direct action must play more of a role- the Supreme Court now has hard-right majority and is willing to rule decisively on things like abortion and discrimination that earlier courts tended to punt on. Though there is no political horizon thus far to actually counter the court through elections, SCOTUS is self-destructing its credibility and causing cracks in some parts of the Republican coalition, especially right-leaning independents. There is a time to seize the moment. The time is now.

Journey’s end


When the tired bones settle down
upon the cliffs
to see the greatest show on gaia
beyond the watercolor imagination
of an unheralded genius

so ends the day, blue keep aloft in the skies
the sun makes its retreat past mountain ranges
to illuminate other places over the vast ocean
the gold-dust scattered deepens and the far corner
becomes indigo then violet

beauty, fleeting
darkness, arrives
journey ends.

Cool in the crucible

A blacksmith manipulates a white-hot object/
Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels.com

To sit upon a cushion
mandala-embroidered
not to flush the mind of
all thought
instead to wrestle with
the self
existence as suffering
suffering as craving

the breath slots in
as the zen of assembling
furniture bought cheaply
from familiar corners of the Web
also the struggle as the parts
jiggle, pop, settle, break
breath goes in and out of rhythm

seeking not perfection
senses aflame may one day
cool in the crucible
forming wisdom
holding in one’s hands

the sacred

Rose breath

Photo by asim alnamat on Pexels.com

Under the withered tree
by the exit-ramp
heat-shimmered asphalt
I draw in sulphur
and exhale rose-breath
vibrant springtime birdsong
within primeval, ever long

I take in poison
to then speak
with loving-kindness
love, the last well run dry
while anger fills with dust
swept in, disappears
a transformation happens here.




Forgotten north

Where the sprawl of concrete
Ends
Replaced with boundless trees
The true north as the surveyor
Would tell you
Cities to towns to villages
To a gas station selling
Expired hard candy and Pepsi
The dead-straight 5 gains its
Slalom features through the mountains
Weaving between the timber trucks
Towards a state line signifying
Nothing
Heading towards the land
Of the Willamette and the Columbia
Gridlocked bridges and trolley bells
The back holding very little but
A whole new life, uncharted
Unknown
Excited
Unwritten

Eden to eternity

Photo by Francesco Ungaro on Pexels.com


No archeologist
has the power of Sol
summer soul unrelenting
court of last appeal
refuses a reprieve

the currents cease
the ripples end
the inhabitants flee
if they have the power
unearthed the hunger stones
our ancestors telling us
what we already know

the famine age
begun
beyond
the bed riven with
fissures in a kiln
crafted in greed

a mountain of gold
cannot buy a single drop
of the Loire
abundant to
sparse
endangered to
extinct
Eden to eternity

Remember eternity

Remember eternity
Where the forest grows
Dies, rots, burns
From ashes to canopy
Towering shadows,
Coolness even on a
July day blazing

Footfalls silent
Bouncing gently on the moss
Past lichen-drenched logs
In the cycle towards oblivion
Mystery abounds
Spiritual and sacred
At dusk the fairies dance
Leaving their circles to
The other side
Curiosity comes, chided by sense
That their realm is not ours

Remember eternity
Where the forest grows

Raw heart


In pain we are one
that which cannot heal
full and complete
cracked not broken
pottery beautiful when the pieces
come together through
sweat and toil

the raw heart hurts
when touched
beating reminding
each of us we are still alive
in pain we are one

rise
soar
know that each time
we take flight
the ground will never be the same
upon our return
let us love our cracks
“that whatever is given
can always be reimagined”

in pain we are one

First Episode of New Podcast: Inherent Worth is out!

Untitled design (7)

A new podcast, Inherent Worth, which talks about the intersection between the political left and the liberal religious tradition of Unitarian Universalism, is out! “Interdependent Webs” talks about environmentalism, ethical consumption, what’s essential and what’s BS in the 21st century capitalist economy, and the ups and downs of UU online worship and community-building.

Find us on Twitter at @WorthInherent and SoundCloud here.

https://soundcloud.com/inherent-worth/episode-1-interdependent-webs

It’s 1860 Again (Without A Lincoln)

THJC-HEALTH-CORONAVIRUSUSA

So, it’s an election year. The country is falling apart- both in the long-term crumbling of infrastructure, education, and health care, and the short-term of the COVID-19 epidemic killing thousands of Americans a year. The President, obsessed with “re-opening the economy” to prevent an (inevitable) massive recession just before the November election, is trying to rally people to engage in mass protest to attack sensible Democratic governors who are ignoring him and choosing to side with public health- and acting in regional cooperation (in the Midwest, West Coast, and Northeast regions to name a few) as states rather than taking advice from the federal government. Trump is seeing his authority slip through his fingers, and is thus stoking popular fury in an attempt to win it back. Whether this is just mass protest, which will spread coronavirus faster, or armed attacks, remains to be seen. What is clear is that the country has conclusively and thoroughly gone to Hell.

This isn’t the first election year that’s taken place in Hell. There was 1932, in the midst of the Great Depression. 1940 and 1944, while World War II was raging. 1968, as the Vietnam War was peaking and left-wing mass protest threatened to overwhelm a divided Democratic Party, which ultimately lost due to Nixon’s subterfuge and the racist Southern Strategy.

But this is 1860. As the prospect of an anti-slavery (or anti-expansion of slavery, which to slave owners were one and the same) candidate becoming President, states began to engage in furious rhetoric, voter suppression, and unilateral actions. A Civil War was the fallout of the election, which killed probably about 750,000 people by recent estimates. The country was falling apart, after decades of strife, compromise, and a rising and militant abolitionist movement- ultimately leading to the raid on Harper’s Ferry by John Brown, which drove the slaveholding states into an absolute fury and created a revolutionary situation.

The issue here is that the 1860 election also brought us Abraham Lincoln, one of the best Presidents we’ve ever had- a savvy politician, a strong leader, perhaps the most gifted public speaker in American political history. His strength made both the campaign season and the aftermath of the election a more optimistic time for abolitionists and antislavery states. Though from humble origins, he had by then been proven to be a masterful orator and campaigner who would transform America in his four years in office.

In 2020, we’ve got Joe Biden. Biden is not a great orator- he routinely forgets his train of thought and can barely read from a teleprompter. His leadership is lacking, as he largely disappeared from national view during the initial period of panic about coronavirus, ceding all media time to Donald Trump. And his entire career has been filled with terrible decisions (the Iraq War), racist politics (busing, the crime bill, the War on Drugs), and naked corruption (the bankruptcy bill, Hunter Biden’s $600,000 salary for a Ukrainian energy company during his vice presidency). He is not Lincoln. He’s not even George W. Bush. He has no leadership capability, and thus he might just blow this whole thing.

Screen Shot 2020-04-18 at 9.46.18 AM
Electoral College Predictions as of April 3rd

Biden holds about a five point lead, without having had to debate Trump or make any public appearances. He’s the most sheltered political nominee in history, with the exception perhaps of Reagan during his decline in 1984. Five points nationally is not much, as Hillary won by three and still lost all the key states. Swing state polls have things generally within the margin of error, especially Wisconsin. Biden looks like he will be fighting a defensive war to hold traditional Democratic states Clinton lost (Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin). Talk of taking back Ohio or Iowa seem like a pipe dream. And Florida, which would make the Midwest results irrelevant, is filled with voter suppression, attempts to overturn a voter initiative to re-enfranchise ex-felons (which likely will confuse these people and many will not vote due to that confusion), and a crooked Republican governor who will do anything to keep his state red, despite sliding approval ratings in a time where most governors have had residents rally around them. The map is small, the margins are thin, the suppression is total (remember all the 2016 suppression happenedĀ in spite of a Democratic president). Biden isn’t Lincoln. And that’s a problem when the country is tearing itself apart.