Democrats and Republicans reverse roles

Have you noticed that it’s now the Democrats who are trying to wage a culture war?  Meanwhile, all Republicans want to talk about today is economics, which was always the interest of the New Deal Democrats. 

From Greg Forster:

The Democrats are becoming the party of culture war, a transition confirmed by the decreasing power of economic interests in the party—is further confirmed by this observation: The Republicans are becoming the party of economics. They’re not going to drop their social conservatism, but if you’ve been keeping track of the conversations about the future of conservatism and the Republican party (which are two distinct but not entirely separate conversations), maybe you’ve noticed that the conversation is all around reframing the movement’s and the party’s economic message in various ways. To the extent that social issues are discussed at all, it hasn’t really gotten beyond “don’t say stupid things about rape.” . . .

The big question to my mind is whether the GOP follows the pattern of the Democrats in the last generation and becomes a party of economic interests, or manages to find a voice for an economic ideal that can at least partially subordinate those interests. That, in turn, will probably be settled by the outcome of the distinct-but-not-separate conversation going on in the conservative movement.

via Re: It’s the Culture » First Thoughts | A First Things Blog.

Forster links to an article by R. R. Reno on how Democrats are appointing wealthy cultural liberals, despite these individuals’ conflicts with their workers, the Democrats’ old constituency.