America's Culture Wars Heating Up
Not Appreciating Condom Culture
Lebanon's Doomed Political Culture
One beneficial byproduct of the Tea Party movement, and the economic recession period generally, is the subsiding of the nation's bitter culture wars. The Tea Partiers sought to downplay social issues in order to unite a board tent under the banner of limited government. Alas it was a mere abeyance for America before old foes clashed once again.
Gay marriage and abortion are rising to the forefront of American politics and heated rhetoric, long the preferred mode of communication, along with it.
On abortion: South Dakota recently passed an law mandating numerous qualifications prior to a woman receiving an abortion such as a 72hour waiting period and an scanogram all designed to delay an abortion and along the way convince a woman against the practice, without nullifying the declared right. Opponents of the bill contest that it effectively does that by imposing on abortion certain mandates that are not required with other medial procedures and that only serve the purpose of weighing down the rights of women through numerous obstacles which may effectively prohibit a woman from exercising her right to a woman or inordinately and unjustifiably delays that right. Thus the right is/may be effectively nullified.
House Republicans want to cut all federal funding for abortion provider Planned Parenthood, including for pregnancies caused by rape. The provider has long been a focus of anti-abortion attacks and even bomb threats and death letters to its doctors.
And now a New York district, of all places, has seen a contentious anti-abortion ad go up:
Clearly abortion has once again become a highly divisive matter in American politics.
Gay marriage will again as well. The Obama administration's decision to no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act, a federal ban on gay marriage in effect and to instead instruct Justice Department lawyers to support gay or marriage equality will only rise the ire of social conservatives.
The California battle over gay marriage only continues apace with lawyers asking the constitutional amendment to be suspended as the matter continues through the courts and likely to the Supreme Court.
Given such developments it augurs that 2011 and 2012 will witness strongly contested political battles about what American life should be which go to the core of one's conscience and not easily malleable to compromise. Expect a culture war rejuvenation in the 2012 presidential election.
