Monday, November 18, 2024

The Culture War and Identity Politics

If I had to blame any two issues for the loss suffered by Democrats in the last election, (other than the perception of a bad economy) those mentioned in the title of this post would be the ones. It isn’t just me saying it. A lot of Democrats now going through introspection are saying the same thing

I have often made the observation that the country is divided. I still think that’s true. But I am beginning to believe more than ever that the ‘Moral Majority’ (a term coined by the late Evangelical preacher, Jerry Falwell) actually is the majority.

One of the more prominent Democrats, Former President Bill Clinton, seemed to make this very point, yesterday. 

Once again showing that a candidate’s identity (in this case - as a man or a woman) is more significant that their qualifications as a leader - a mainstream media reporter asked Clinton if he thought a woman would ever be elected president.  

Clinton who as of late has been quite thoughtful and honest in responding to loaded questions like this said yes. But that a conservative Republican woman would have a better chance of being elected than a liberal Democratic woman. That was followed by his observation that the electorate has moved to the right. 

Is there any question that if Nikky Haley would have been the Republican candidate she would have won by an even  bigger landslide than Trump? ...as polls had indicated during the primaries? Harris didn’t lose because she’s a woman. She lost because she focused on identity politics and was on the wrong side of the culture war. A war the moral majority is now driving rightward - to the chagrin of  LGBTQ and pro abortion warriors. They believed that the majority of the voting public was with them. But they were wrong.

I hate to use the term since it has become a pejorative of sorts associated with Trump supporters. But Making America Great Again is what the majority of Americans want when they say the country is headed in the wrong direction. They want to go back to a time when their morals were the morals of America. They are not America’s morals now.

I have recently discussed the LGBTQ aspect of the culture war and why most Americans do not share the views of LGBTQ advocates the way Democrats, the entertainment industry, and the media do. Regardless of how hard they try to influence them..

The view most Americans have about abortion is another cultural issue that has been misunderstood by Democrats. 

Most Americans support unfettered access to abortion. As do I. But I don’t believe that most Americans would support aborting a fetus because of inconvenient timing. Or because of an accidental pregnancy by a teenager that forgot to use a condom.

We live at a time and in a culture where  casual sex  is now the norm. So much so that adolescents are almost expected to engage in causal sex. I would be willing to bet that the majority of young men and women in this country have had sexual relations before they get married.  

Parents are thus advised by health professionals to teach their children about the use of condoms if and when they engage in sex. Sexual hygiene is part of a public high school curriculum. The assumption is that most adolescents  WILL at some point have sex. This is the world in which we now live - unless you are a devoutly religious person that does not believe in sex before marriage. A concept that is practically ridiculed these days.

I don’t know what the number of teenage pregnancies are these days. But I’ll bet there is a heck of a lot more now than there were in the 50s.

I believe the majority of Americans would like to go back to a time where casual sex was not the norm. A time where morals like that mattered. A time where a teenage pregnancy was a lot less common. A time where waiting for sex until marriage was the norm instead of just hoping your children are using condoms.

Democrats are beginning to realize that they were on the wrong side of the culture war. And if they want to ever win a election again they need to reverse course and pick a candidate whose policies respect the morals of the majority. 

The majority of Americans revolted against a culture that has gone way too far in the wrong direction. They voted for a man like Trump because - despite his character -  they believe he would change the direction of the country (i.e. make America great again). 

This is the new reality. And that’s a good thing.