Culture war casualties

[T_i_B]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1185691,00.html

Welcome to the culture wars - the daily indicators that the polarisation in US politics has both spawned and is being fed by a huge cultural rift that extends from the airwaves to the altar and from the bookshelves to the bedroom. Alongside concrete issues like the economy, the war and healthcare, a bitter battle has emerged over individual lifestyle and moral values, oscillating between the personal, racial, social, sexual and religious, which is shaping the battleground for the forthcoming election.

This is not new to American politics. When the Democrats ran a Catholic, Alfred Smith, for president in the prohibition era of 1928, Republicans raised the threat of "Rum, Romanism and Ruin". In 1968, as feminism, black power, free love and the anti-Vietnam war movement gathered pace, Richard Nixon pledged his support for "the forgotten Americans, the non-shouters, the non-demonstrators. Good people who work, save, pay their taxes and care".

But this time around it seems particularly intense. The nature of the conflict is ill-tempered and ill-defined, ranging from the outrage over the flash of Janet Jackson's breast during the Superbowl's half-time entertainment, to the supreme court challenge to the term "one nation under God" that all children recite every day in schools. But the outcome is specific and crucial. In an election as close as this promises to be, whoever wins the culture wars - or is perceived to win - is likely to win the presidency.

It has seen not only the injection of cultural issues into politics, but also, increasingly, the politicisation of culture too. When a George Bush lookalike asks to use the toilet in Whoopi Goldberg's sitcom, Whoopi, she says: "I can't believe he's in there doing to my bathroom what he's done to the economy." In November, CBS pulled a mini-series about Ronald and Nancy Reagan after pressure from conservatives, who threatened to launch an advertising boycott because it was too critical.