The Culture Wars are Over

The culture war rages on in the hearts and minds of many in the developed world. But by and large the war is over in these parts of the world and has left those folks behind, struggling to understand why they can’t recapture the hearts and minds of their countrymen and women.

Yesterday was striking because the new members of Congress were sworn in the United States. The Democratic party celebrated the diversity of the new members, with so many women (comparatively speaking) and so many people of colour (comparatively speaking). There’s even a Native American woman — the first of her people or any Native peoples of the United States to serve in Congress. How is that even possible in this day and age that she is the first? But there she is, the first one. In contrast, the news anchors on mainstream networks were full of the contrast with the new Republican crew, made up of the usual selection of middle aged white men. In fact the proportion of Republicans elected who are white men went up, where as it went down for the Democrats.

That Republicans have been tampering with election processes and gerrymandering is now well documented. They have to play dirty to win at all, or at least that’s what it looks like, especially from outside the country where Canadian elections are boring and highly standardized across cities, provinces and the nation. The majority of the USA is not interested in the old school approach to governing nor the old school approach to social justice nor the old school approach to fiscal management. So Republicans cheat to…