The Risks of Waging 'Culture War'

The risks of waging 'culture war'

By James Carroll, 3/9/2004

POLITICIANS who spark a culture war for the sake of their own power are playing with fire, and journalists who exploit a culture war for the sake of its unleashed furies are throwing gasoline on the flames. At the beginning of the presidential election contest, that is history's warning to America.

Ever since the graphic designers of television networks began splitting the states into blue and red factions on election night, the impression of a radically divided nation has defined the conventional wisdom. Yet the conflicts of the culture war do not concern such essential questions as the war in Iraq, the war on terrorism, tax reform, trade policy, deficit spending, jobless recovery, the overburdened health care system, or the sorry state of public education. On these complex matters Americans' responses are not readily pigeon-holed, and politicians across the political spectrum are no more able to offer easy solutions to such problems than anyone else. The nation is less divided on the momentous issues than it seems. The culture war rages less around policy than "values."

[..]

...The phrase "culture war" comes from "Kulturkampf." That word was coined in the 1870s when Germany's George W. Bush, Otto von Bismarck, launched a "values" campaign as a way of shoring up his political power. Distracting from issues of war and economic stress, the "Kulturkampf" ran from 1871 to about 1887. Bismarck's strategy was to unite his base by inciting hatred of those who were not part of it...

[..]

One need not predict equivalence between the eventual outcome of Bismarck's culture war and the threat of what Bush's could lead to. For our purposes, the thing to emphasize is that a leader's exploitation of subterranean fears and prejudices for the sake of political advantage is a dangerous ploy, even if done in the name of virtue. No, make that especially if done in the name of virtue.

link via World o' Crap