Political Tactics: Downplay the Culture War Pro Tempore?

I tend to side with Kari Lake on the wisdom of a pro tem tactical downplay as we head for 2024. But here is the other side of the argument. 

Put simply, the big mistake in thinking the culture war isn’t the most critical issue heading into 2024 is that all of American politics is now one big culture war. The culture war is the only issue because the cultural war is everything now. When one side stakes its claim to political power on offering abortion up until birth and transgender operations for 8-year-olds, and holds out these policies as proof of its moral authority, we’re way past arguing over how to get the economy back on track. There’s no going back to that kind of politics.

Tucker Carlson hit on this at the end of his big speech at Heritage recently. He compared the values of the political left to the values of the Aztecs, who sacrificed children to their bloodthirsty gods — and he wasn’t wrong. Our politics, he argued, have shifted profoundly in a relatively short period of time. Instead of arguing over the best means to bring about an agreed-upon common good, we no longer agree about what the common good is.

As for Tucker Carlson, his defenestration, and what our boy is fixing to do about it, see Megan Kelly. 

The level of political polarization in this country is astonishing. An article at The Nation begins like this: "The horrific murder of Jordan Neely on a New York subway spoke volumes about the tolerance of racial violence in the American social order."  What planet does the author live on? The planet Unsinn. 

See our earlier discussion on the tactical question. 

Comments

[Joe Odegaard]

We must oppose all evil, and never let up.

[Joe Odegaard]

Aztecs indeed.

Saint Michael defend us in battle, protect us against the wickedness and snares of the devil; God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do thou, Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God cast into hell Satan, and all the evil spirits who prowl through the world seeking the ruin of souls.

[Jon]

I find myself frustrated with how totally you seem to lump all of the political left-of-center in the same ugly camp. I’m a liberal, socially progressive, and I don’t think your approach to this is fair! I read your substack from time to time, and I’ve just stumbled across your blog. While we don’t agree on a lot of these issues, I’ve come with an open mind to learn and to hear your viewpoint. Yet you seem to trash “people like me” at every turn. Now, I know a lot of young “leftists” are pro-establishment hacks, and I’m surely not in the same group as them, as I’m more in-tuned with anti-establishment populist progressivism, but I felt the need to comment and challenge your seeming generalizations that I found across this blog.

I hope to hear from you soon.
Jon

[BV]

Jon,

I don't have a lot of time at the moment, but I will invite you to state what you are for and against with respect to social, political, economic, and cultural questions. Perhaps we can find some common ground.

Actually, I do not lump all leftists together. There is a spectrum of positions. My target is the extreme or hard left. I myself am a classical liberal which puts me in opposition to the extreme or hard right including throne-and-altar reactionaries and certain alt-righties who deny that there is any sense in which "all men are created equal."

I suspect you find my polemical tone offensive. What justifies it is the fact, if it is a fact, that conservatives of my kind are at war with, among others, the leaders of the Dem Party in the USA.

More later, and I hope my other readers chime in.

[Ian M.]

[Tucker Carlson] compared the values of the political left to the values of the Aztecs, who sacrificed children to their bloodthirsty gods — and he wasn’t wrong. ...

Indeed. Though in fact, the values of the political left are worse than those of the Aztecs. Human sacrifice at least gestures at the real meaning of sacrifice - whereby man attempts to mediate the Divine by offering his entire self, and a fellow man acts as a superior symbol for this than an animal - but grossly offends against the moral law by murdering his fellow man. Modern abortion, in contrast, is done purely to cater to the self-indulgent whims of sluts and sybarites. Human sacrifice, ironically, depends on a view of human life as valuable (one does not offer what is worthless to the gods), whereas abortion depends upon a view of human life as valueless. It is a rather remarkable 'achievement' for our society to have discovered and adopted a more degrading view of human life than the cult of Moloch's.

[Vito B. Caiati]

Ian M.,

Your eloquent, well-reasoned comment, motivated by righteous anger at the monstrous evil of abortion, gets to the heart of the matter.

[BV]

Ian,

Your comment goes a lot deeper than Carlson's, and I agree with it, and with Vito's agreement with it.

[Ian M.]

Thank you, Vito and BV.