Culture war

For the "culture war" between the German state and the Roman Catholic Church in the 1870s, see Kulturkampf.

Rally for Proposition 8, an item on the 2008 California ballot to ban same-sex marriage

A culture war is a cultural conflict between social groups and the struggle for dominance of their values, beliefs, and practices. It commonly refers to hot-button topics on which there is general societal disagreement and polarization in societal values is seen.

The term is commonly used to describe contemporary politics in the United States, with issues such as abortion, homosexuality, pornography, multiculturalism, and other cultural conflicts based on values, morality, and lifestyle being described as the major political cleavage.

Origins

Bismarck (left) and the Pope, from the German satirical magazine Kladderadatsch, 1875

The phrase "culture war" represents a loan translation (calque) from the German Kulturkampf. The German word Kulturkampf (culture struggle) refers to the clash between cultural and religious groups in the campaign from 1871 to 1878 under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck of the German Empire against the influence of the Roman Catholic Church. The translation was printed in some American newspapers at the time.

United States

Further information: Ethnocultural politics in the United States

The expression "culture war" was published occasionally in American newspapers during the 20th century, but only joined the vocabulary of United States politics with the publication of Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America by James Davison Hunter in 1991. Hunter perceived a dramatic realignment and polarization that had transformed United States politics and culture, including the issues of abortion, federal and state gun laws, immigration, separation of church and state, privacy, recreational drug use, gay and lesbian rights, and censorship.

In American usage the term "culture war" may imply a conflict between those values considered traditionalist or conservative and those considered progressive or liberal. It originated in the 1920s when urban and rural American values came into clear conflict. This followed several decades of immigration to the States by people who earlier European immigrants considered "alien". It was also a result of the cultural shifts and modernizing trends of the Roaring 20s, culminating in the presidential campaign of Al Smith in 1928. However, James Davison Hunter's 1991 book Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America redefined the "culture war" in the United States of America. Hunter traces the concept to the 1960s. The perceived focus of the American culture war and its definition have taken various forms since then.

1990s

James Davison Hunter, a sociologist at the University of Virginia, introduced the expression again in his 1991 publication, Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America. Hunter described what he saw as a dramatic realignment and polarization that had transformed American politics and culture.

He argued that on an increasing number of "hot-button" defining issues—abortion, gun politics, separation of church and state, privacy, recreational drug use, homosexuality, censorship—there existed two definable polarities. Furthermore, not only were there a number of divisive issues, but society had divided along essentially the same lines on these issues, so as to constitute two warring groups, defined primarily not by nominal religion, ethnicity, social class, or even political affiliation, but rather by ideological world-views.

Hunter characterized this polarity as stemming from opposite impulses, toward what he referred to as Progressivism and as Orthodoxy. Others have adopted the dichotomy with varying labels. For example, Bill O'Reilly, a conservative political commentator and former host of the Fox News talk show The O'Reilly Factor, emphasizes differences between "Secular-Progressives" and "Traditionalists" in his 2006 book Culture Warrior.

Patrick Buchanan in 2008

During the 1992 presidential election, commentator Pat Buchanan mounted a campaign for the Republican nomination for president against incumbent George H. W. Bush. In a prime-time slot at the 1992 Republican National Convention, Buchanan gave his speech on the culture war. He argued: "There is a religious war going on in our country for the soul of America. It is a cultural war, as critical to the kind of nation we will one day be as was the Cold War itself." In addition to criticizing environmentalists and feminism, he portrayed public morality as a defining issue:

The agenda [Bill] Clinton and [Hillary] Clinton would impose on America—abortion on demand, a litmus test for the Supreme Court, homosexual rights, discrimination against religious schools, women in combat units—that's change, all right. But it is not the kind of change America wants. It is not the kind of change America needs. And it is not the kind of change we can tolerate in a nation that we still call God's country.

A month later, Buchanan characterized the conflict as about power over society's definition of right and wrong. He named abortion, sexual orientation and popular culture as major fronts—and mentioned other controversies, including clashes over the Confederate flag, Christmas and taxpayer-funded art. He also said that the negative attention his "culture war" speech received was itself evidence of America's polarization.

The culture war had significant impact on national politics in the 1990s. The rhetoric of the Christian Coalition of America may have weakened president George H. W. Bush's chances for reelection in 1992 and helped his successor, Bill Clinton, win reelection in 1996. On the other hand, the rhetoric of conservative cultural warriors helped Republicans gain control of Congress in 1994.

The culture wars influenced the debate over state-school history curricula in the United States in the 1990s. In particular, debates over the development of national educational standards in 1994 revolved around whether the study of American history should be a "celebratory" or "critical" undertaking and involved such prominent public figures as Lynne Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, and historian Gary Nash.

21st century

43rd President George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz were prominent neo-conservatives of the 2000s.

A worldview called neo-conservatism shifted the terms of the debate in the early 2000s. Neo-conservatives differed from their opponents in that they interpreted problems facing the nation as moral issues rather than economic or political issues. For example, neo-conservatives saw the decline of the traditional family structure as a spiritual crisis that required a spiritual response. Critics accused neo-conservatives of confusing cause and effect.

During the 2000s, voting patterns began tracking heavily with attendance at a house of worship. Those who identify as "traditionalist" or "orthodox" began voting for Republican Party candidates, while those who identify as "liberal" or "modernist" began voting for Democrats. This mostly occurred irrespective of religious sect.

The rights of transgender people and the role of religion in lawmaking were called "new fronts in the culture war" in the 2010s. Polarization of public opinion on these two topics resembles that of previous culture war issues. The abortion debate continues to be an important focal point in the culture wars around religion and gender.

Canada

See: Battle of Alberta and Battle of Ontario

In Canada, "culture war" refers to differing values between Western versus Eastern Canada, urban versus rural Canada, as well as conservatism versus liberalism. A divide between French and English is also a consistent part of Canadian society.

The phrase "culture war" (or "culture wars") in Canada describes the polarization between the different values of Canadians. This can be West versus East, rural versus urban, or traditional values versus progressive values. "Culture war" is a relatively new phrase in Canadian political commentary. It can still be used to describe historical events in Canada, such as the Rebellions of 1837, Western Alienation, the Quebec sovereignty movement, and any Aboriginal conflicts in Canada, but is more relevant to current events such as the Grand River land dispute and the increasing hostility between conservative and liberal Canadians. The phrase "culture wars" has also been used to describe the Harper government's attitude towards the arts community. Andrew Coyne termed this negative policy towards the arts community 'class warfare'.

Australia

Main article: History wars

Interpretations of Aboriginal history became part of the wider political debate sometimes called the "culture wars" during the tenure of the Liberal–National Coalition government of 1996 to 2007, with the Prime Minister of Australia John Howard publicly championing the views of some of those associated with Quadrant. This debate extended into a controversy over the presentation of history in the National Museum of Australia and in high-school history curricula. It also migrated into the general Australian media, with major broadsheets such as The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age regularly publishing opinion pieces on the topic. Marcia Langton has referred to much of this wider debate as "war porn" and as an "intellectual dead end".

Two Australian Prime Ministers, Paul Keating (in office 1991–1996) and John Howard (in office 1996–2007), became major participants in the "wars". According to Mark McKenna's analysis for the Australian Parliamentary Library, John Howard believed that Paul Keating portrayed Australia pre-Whitlam (Prime Minister from 1972 to 1975) in an unduly negative light; while Keating sought to distance the modern Labor movement from its historical support for the monarchy and for the White Australia policy by arguing that it was the conservative Australian parties which had been barriers to national progress and excessively loyal to the British Empire. He accused Britain of having abandoned Australia during World War II (1939–1945). Keating staunchly supported a symbolic apology to indigenous people for the misdeeds of past governments, and outlined his view of the origins and potential solutions to contemporary Aboriginal disadvantage in his Redfern Park Speech of 10 December 1992 (drafted with the assistance of historian Don Watson). In 1999, following the release of the 1998 Bringing Them Home Report, Howard passed a Parliamentary Motion of Reconciliation describing treatment of Aborigines as the "most blemished chapter" in Australian history, but he did not make a Parliamentary apology. Howard saw an apology as inappropriate as it would imply "intergeneration guilt"; he said that "practical" measures were a better response to contemporary Aboriginal disadvantage. Keating has argued for the eradication of remaining symbols linked to British origins: including deference for ANZAC Day, for the Australian flag and for the monarchy in Australia, while Howard supported these institutions. Unlike fellow Labor leaders and contemporaries, Bob Hawke (Prime Minister 1983–1991) and Kim Beazley (Labor Party leader 2005–2006), Keating never traveled to Gallipoli for ANZAC Day ceremonies. In 2008 he described those who gathered there as "misguided".

In 2006 John Howard said in a speech to mark the 50th anniversary of Quadrant that "Political Correctness" was dead in Australia but: "we should not underestimate the degree to which the soft-left still holds sway, even dominance, especially in Australia's universities". Also in 2006, Sydney Morning Herald political editor Peter Hartcher reported that Opposition foreign-affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd was entering the philosophical debate by arguing in response that "John Howard, is guilty of perpetrating 'a fraud' in his so-called culture wars ... designed not to make real change but to mask the damage inflicted by the Government's economic policies".

The defeat of the Howard government in the Australian Federal election of 2007 and its replacement by the Rudd Labor government altered the dynamic of the debate. Rudd made an official apology to the Aboriginal Stolen Generation with bi-partisan support. Like Keating, Rudd supported an Australian republic, but in contrast to Keating, Rudd declared support for the Australian flag and supported the commemoration of ANZAC Day; he also expressed admiration for Liberal Party founder Robert Menzies.

Subsequent to the 2007 change of government, and prior to the passage, with support from all parties, of the Parliamentary apology to indigenous Australians, Professor of Australian Studies Richard Nile argued: "the culture and history wars are over and with them should also go the adversarial nature of intellectual debate", a view contested by others, including conservative commentator Janet Albrechtsen. The Liberal Party parliamentarian Christopher Pyne indicated an intention to re-engage in the history wars.

See also

Drugs

• Drug decriminalization
• Harm reduction
• Legal drinking age
• War on Drugs

Education and parenting

• Corporal punishment and child discipline, most notably spanking
• Creation-evolution controversy
• Family values
• Homeschooling and Educational choice
• Sexual education and abstinence only education

Environment and energy

• Global warming and climate change mitigation

Gender and sexuality

• Age of consent
• Circumcision controversies
• Feminism
• LGBT rights and Same-sex marriage
• Polyamory
• Sex work
• Sexual revolution

Law and government

• Crypto wars
• Gun rights
• Immigration reform
• Law and order
• Red state vs. blue state divide

Life issues

• Capital punishment
• Reproductive rights including birth control (and its coverage by insurance)
• Right to die movement and euthanasia
• Stem-cell research
• Universal healthcare

Society and culture

• Animal Rights
• Call-out culture
• Christmas controversy
• Counterculture
• Cultural conflict
• Geographical renaming
• History wars
• Media bias in the U.S.
• Moral absolutism vs. Moral relativism
• Multiculturalism
• Permissive society
• Race, affirmative action
• Secularism and Secularization

Further reading

• Chapman, Roger, and James Ciment. Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints and Voices (2nd ed. Routledge, 2015)
• D'Antonio, William V., Steven A. Tuch and Josiah R. Baker, Religion, Politics, and Polarization: How Religiopolitical Conflict Is Changing Congress and American Democracy (Rowman & Littlefield, 2013) ISBN 1442223979 ISBN 978-1442223974
• Fiorina, Morris P., with Samuel J. Abrams and Jeremy C. Pope, Culture War?: The Myth of a Polarized America (Longman, 2004) ISBN 0-321-27640-X
• Graff, Gerald. Beyond the Culture Wars: How Teaching the Conflicts Can Revitalize American Education (1992)
• Hartman, Andrew. A war for the soul of America: a history of the culture wars (University of Chicago Press, 2015)
• Hunter, James Davison, Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America (New York: Basic Books, 1992) ISBN 0-465-01534-4
• Jay, Gregory S., American Literature and the Culture Wars, (Cornell University Press, 1997) ISBN 0-8014-3393-2 ISBN 978-0801433931
• Jensen, Richard. "The Culture Wars, 1965-1995: A Historian's Map" Journal of Social History 29 (Oct 1995) 17–37. in JSTOR
• Jones, E. Michael, Degenerate Moderns: Modernity As Rationalized Sexual Misbehavior, Ft. Collins, CO: Ignatius Press, 1993 ISBN 0-89870-447-2
• Prothero, Stephen (2017). Why Liberals Win the Culture Wars (Even When They Lose Elections): A History of the Religious Battles That Define America from Jefferson's Heresies to Gay Marriage Today. HarperOne. ISBN 978-0061571312.
• Strauss, William & Howe, Neil, The Fourth Turning, An American Prophecy: What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America's Next Rendezvous With Destiny, 1998, Broadway Books, New York
• Thomson, Irene Tavis., Culture Wars and Enduring American Dilemmas, (University of Michigan Press, 2010) ISBN 978-0-472-07088-6
• Walsh, Andrew D., Religion, Economics, and Public Policy: Ironies, Tragedies, and Absurdities of the Contemporary Culture Wars, (Praeger, 2000) ISBN 0-275-96611-9
• Webb, Adam K., Beyond the Global Culture War, (Routledge, 2006) ISBN 0-415-95313-8
• Zimmerman, Jonathan, Whose America? Culture Wars in the Public Schools (Harvard University Press, 2002) ISBN 0-674-01860-5

External links

United States

• Cultural Marxism and Culture Wars, Force Behind The Culture War 2016, .
• Pat Buchanan, 1992 Republican National Convention keynote, speech dated August 17, 1992.
• Pat Buchanan, The Cultural War for the Soul of America, speech dated September 14, 1992.
• Pat Buchanan, The Aggressors in the Culture Wars, column dated March 8, 2004.
• Focus on the Family, A Look at the Sexual Revolution in the United States
• Alkan Abdulkadir, Cultural war between China and the West

Australia

• "John Howard's Australia Day Address to the National Press Club". — John Howard's speech: A sense of balance: The Australian Achievement in 2006, prime ministerial address to the National Press Club. January 25, 2006.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link)