The New Culture Wars

Today's Photos By Jan

Forget the Dow Jones. A more accurate indicator of the recovering economy is the abrupt shift in front page political debate from financial matters to cultural ones - marriage, birth control, abortion - the usual list of the tyrannical religious right's women-hating issues. Note the rise of Rick Santorum.

There's a good new paper from Jean Hardisty and Chip Berlet on the religious right. Jean and Chip are undoubtedly the best objective researchers and interpreters of the extreme right. While the new paper focuses on the efforts of the repressive religious right to export its programs of domination, it's also a good general reminder of who we're dealing with:

http://www.jeanhardisty.com/essay_exportingrightwingchristianity.html

I believe most people in our country reject the illiberal agenda of the high-handed religious right. Our country's demographics support this. What worries me is the tendency of many of us to slip into complacency, to rely on our faith in the decency of our neighbors to reject the extremists.

Complacency is dangerous. Progressives - who tend to place a high value on diversity - will rarely mount the kind of focused campaigns that the monolithic rightists specialize in. Picture a wide flat board opposing a smaller but sharply pointed stick. If we've learned anything from the last two decades it should be that small groups with enforced belief systems can gain considerable power over others.

Complacency is also dangerous when we assume that the preposterous shenanigans of the right will discredit them, allowing us to sit back and watch them self-destruct. There's no doubt that a focus on the extremes and an unwillingness to compromise will help turn the country away from its long march rightwards. The widely circulated photo of a row of men called by Republicans to testify about birth control reveals this political tone-deafness. New Jersey's governor, in vetoing his legislators' bill on same sex marriage, has put himself to the right of Dick Cheney on this issue, who is campaigning for same sex marriage in Maryland.

What I worry about is how some on the right may look reasonable and moderate to people in the political center, in comparison to the extremists. Santorum versus Romney is an example of this. Sure, few political jurisdictions in the US will support ending access to birth control. But don't think for a moment that conservatives won't press on their core agendas, for example marriage restriction.

Over the next decade, marriage equality will spread over much of the US. But where and when is not certain, and we are contributing to a terrible injustice if we sit back and think, oh demographics will solve this problem over the long run. When anyone is discriminated against because of their personhood, and because of their private behavior, we are all obligated to protect human rights. Failure to do this is exactly how the far right divides and conquers.

Marriage is an odd institution, because it's a religiously-derived custom enshrined in civil law. I loved being a husband and a father - I recommend it to anyone who wants to give it a try. Recent news that the percentage of married mothers under age 30 has fallen below 50% makes me worried. Of course a woman has a right to choose matters relating to her own behavior and biology, including having babies whether married or not. I'm concerned about those guys out there who flounder without roles and guides, who run the risk of missing out on long-term, committed fatherhood. We don't need marriage for men to learn how to raise their children. But parenthood is a tough job: many people will be helped by new customs and even institutions to support this process. We have a lot of work ahead of us.

I don't want to be misunderstood - freedom to marry and freedom to not marry are equally worth protecting. As the rates of marriage fall, I hope we'll attend to the need to develop and evolve new ways of parenting, both for the sake of the kids who need support and guidance to grow up healthy, and also for the parents, who can learn about the power of consistent unconditional love in a way nothing else provides.

Let's stay on the case - pushing out the politicians who want to take away human rights - but also staying engaged to protect ourselves from the machinations of the non-elected religious minorities who will not stop trying to impose their medieval version of marriage and families on us all.