Politics and ‘Culture Wars’

Two insightful pieces by two good writers: Roger Scruton states that meaning endures when attached to the search for identity, but that the retreat of Christianity from public and private life is dangerous to self and community. So we must return to the gifts received from our Judeo-Christian tradition. Second, Rod Dreher on the ‘culture wars’:“In America, the culture war will never die, only wax and wane across multiple battlefields. When you live in a large, diverse, pluralistic democracy, it comes with the territory.” I agree with him that Obama’s conciliation is a matter of style, and that substantively, he’s very solidly on the ‘cultural left.’ A creepy partaking in the style of princes, however, only goes so far – the messiness of human political organization will grind on. These months have been a reminder of the limits of rhetoric: politics is most often plays and pay-offs for the support of power, and as we have seen in the closed door rush to pass the (likely to be) biggest spending bill in U.S. history, none do it better than politicans well versed in the Chicago Way.