It’s Only A "Culture War" When They Lose

Steve, with respect to a bunch of social reactionaries being shocked, shocked that Obama would follow through on his explicit campaign promises regarding the abortion gag rule and stem cell research, asks:

Obama has weighed in on some culture-war issues, lifting the global gag-rule, beginning the process to scrap “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and yesterday ending Bush-era restrictions on stem-cell research. All of these steps, to my mind, were encouraging.

But they were also entirely predictable. Candidate Obama said he would take these steps, and sure enough, President Obama is doing just that. It makes sense for conservatives to voice their disapproval, but why are they shocked?

The answer, of course, is that Tony Perkins et al. aren’t surprised at all. Rather, they understand that the Politico is a sucker for stories about how liberals are “inflaming the culture wars.” Apparently, there was no culture war inflammation when George Bush enacted his silly (and ludicrously incoherent) stem cell policy, but for Obama to reverse this policy certainly does. It doesn’t make any sense, but that’s not the point; these cultural reactionaries understand their media audience.

And this is yet another reminder about why talk about ending the culture wars doesn’t make much sense. People disagree about issues; that’s what politics as about, and glossing over this fact has the distinct tendency to perpetuate existing injustices.