Thursday, May 16, 2019
Political Mayhem Thursday: What the Right and the Left are getting
Just because I can (and also kinda because I will be in the area anyways) tomorrow morning I am going to head over to Uncle Nancy's Coffeehouse in Newton, Iowa for a meet n' greet with Montana Governor Steve Bullock, who as of this week is running for president. Perhaps I will get to meet "Uncle Nancy" too!
That election is a long ways away, though, and we still have time to think more broadly about bigger issues.
At the broadest level, I was captivated by a book review in the New York Times by David From. He was reviewing Adam Gopnick's book "A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism." At the center of the piece, this quote from the book jumped right out at me:
“The basic American situation in which the right wing wants cultural victories and gets nothing but political ones; while the left wing wants political victories and gets only cultural ones. … The left manages to get sombreros banned from college parties while every federal court in the country is assigned a far-right-wing activist judge.”
How true is that? I was almost toppled over by the insight that the right wants cultural victories and gets political ones, while the left wants political victories but is winning the culture war. It is so true!
But isn't that unsustainable? Eventually, won't both sides see the disconnect and change either what they want or their tactics?
Or, perhaps more ominously, the right winning the political war-- and the judge-picking that goes with it-- will allow them to enforce cultural norms not held by the majority of the country. That, of course, could lead to their loss of political power but (because of lifetime appointments) not their hold over the judiciary, where culture can be capped and controlled.
What do you think?
Comments:
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I guess it means that both sides should prioritize their long game. The right has done a masterful job of that in grinding away at eroding Roe v. Wade, i.e. by angling to get conservative Supreme Ct. justices. They mis-read some things, though, such as same-sex marriage.
The left could definitely be better at the long game.
But if both sides are fighting for their long-term goals, there are still 2 polarized sides. How do we change that? How is there a way to de-politicize issues such as climate change?
Maybe we've gone so far down the culture-wars slope that there's no going back.
The left could definitely be better at the long game.
But if both sides are fighting for their long-term goals, there are still 2 polarized sides. How do we change that? How is there a way to de-politicize issues such as climate change?
Maybe we've gone so far down the culture-wars slope that there's no going back.
# posted by 
: 11:35 AM
: 11:35 AM
I'm not sure I agree with Gopnick's paradigm (which I can do with confidence, not having actually read his book and only having skimmed From's review).
On the one hand, it does not seem to explain an objective account of the cultural and political victories of the last few decades. The "left" has won plenty of political battles, ranging from abortion to gay marriage to healthcare (two out of those three, by the way, via the courts, which even today are not remotely dominated by "far-right-wing" activist judge[s]"). How exactly you measure cultural victories is a bit nuanced, but it would certainly be an overstatement to say that the "right" has not influenced culture--even if women are still allowed to run around in public without their bonnets and handmaid's cloaks (sarcasm).
On the other hand, Gopnick's paradigm seems to describe the relationship between culture and law as if they existed in different spheres. But the Constitution today says nothing more about abortion or gay marriage or guns than it did in 1791 (or 1868, or 1920), but as culture norms have shifted so to has the law. The same is true of a great many federal and state powers.
All of which is to say that, in my view at least, politics follows culture. They have a linear relationship, not an independent one. If I'm right about that, and Gopnick is right about sombreros, then we will no doubt see the Democrats passing cultural appropriation legislation in the not too distant future. But I'm not so sure that college costume parties truly represent American culture. In my neck of the woods, for example, a charming Latino-Caucasoid fusion lies at the heart of our regional culture. It may not be a perfect coexistence, but pretty much anybody can wear an orange sombrero to an Astros game. ...I've obviously forgotten whatever point I was trying to make.
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On the one hand, it does not seem to explain an objective account of the cultural and political victories of the last few decades. The "left" has won plenty of political battles, ranging from abortion to gay marriage to healthcare (two out of those three, by the way, via the courts, which even today are not remotely dominated by "far-right-wing" activist judge[s]"). How exactly you measure cultural victories is a bit nuanced, but it would certainly be an overstatement to say that the "right" has not influenced culture--even if women are still allowed to run around in public without their bonnets and handmaid's cloaks (sarcasm).
On the other hand, Gopnick's paradigm seems to describe the relationship between culture and law as if they existed in different spheres. But the Constitution today says nothing more about abortion or gay marriage or guns than it did in 1791 (or 1868, or 1920), but as culture norms have shifted so to has the law. The same is true of a great many federal and state powers.
All of which is to say that, in my view at least, politics follows culture. They have a linear relationship, not an independent one. If I'm right about that, and Gopnick is right about sombreros, then we will no doubt see the Democrats passing cultural appropriation legislation in the not too distant future. But I'm not so sure that college costume parties truly represent American culture. In my neck of the woods, for example, a charming Latino-Caucasoid fusion lies at the heart of our regional culture. It may not be a perfect coexistence, but pretty much anybody can wear an orange sombrero to an Astros game. ...I've obviously forgotten whatever point I was trying to make.
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