Culture Wars, Part I--Where We First Went Wrong

In the ongoing culture wars, conservatives continue to be routed by liberals.  The recent election proves this, where a slim majority reelected a man--Barack Obama--who has made negative net progress on the economy in the past four years over a man--Mitt Romney--who has rebuilt numerous now-successful businesses.  Now, we could argue a great deal about who on the Right is to blame for this specific failure, but the truth is that it is all of us.  We have ceded the entire war on culture and values in the name of political correctness.  To be sure, other elements are in play--which I hope to discuss later--but we have failed the Founding Fathers.

We have allowed separation of church and state to be twisted to mean virtual banishment of religion, especially Christianity, from the public sphere.  We have failed to inculcate entire generations with mores and norms that were a given for centuries in Western Civilization.  How many children or young adults can describe the framework or the meanings of even a fraction of Aesop's fables?  Would they see the ant as a horrible villain and the grasshopper as oppressed, or would they even understand that so much of the current culture encourages them to become grasshoppers?  Would they jeer the mouse for removing the thorn from the lion's paw?  What about other former cultural touchstones?  Would they understand Hansel and Gretel is an object lesson on poor planning and disobeying one's parents, or would they decry the violence of the story as too toxic for children?  Would they understand the parable of the prodigal son as the love of a father (and God) for his child, or see it as a template for endless largess for the wealthy to the poor, even if one is poor after having squandered his own wealth so foolishly?
This is the first post in a series on this topic.  Next will be Culture Wars, Part II--Schools and Socialism.

The die is cast

With the results of the most recent primaries in the books and Gingrich (unsurprisingly) supsending his campaign, the GOP primary is essntially a fait accompli, and we can get to the 6 1/2 month slugfest that is the general election.

I admit that I had many resevations about Mitt Romney, and that I still have some.  He is not the second coming of Reagan, he is not what I hope to have with Rick Perry, but he is the nominee.  Romney is not as conservative as I would like (or as Ann Coulter has been screeching from her blog for the last 4 months), but neither is he as moderate as many feared, and he has already shown a willingness to go after Obama aggressively.  There will be no McCain style, "my good friend," kid-glove treatment from the Romney campaign.

Newt Gingrich said earlier today that while he personally believes he would have been the better candidate, that even he must unite behind Romney and that defeating Obama MUST be the priority.  I would add that almost as critical is securing a majority in the Senate.  It's going to take serious work from both branches to undo the damage from the past 4 years.  There's also the minor matter of possibly as many as four Supreme Court appointments coming up in the next term, and a court packed with liberal justices for the next few decades could do tremendous harm to this country.

I will not get needlessly dramatic about the importance of this election.  The continued growth of the deficit and national debt may become an existential threat if it is not addressed and ultimately reversed, something the current administration has addressed in much the same manner that a 2 year old addresses having to go the doctor's office with a temper tantrum.  The Republic will not fall if Obama is re-elected--but I fear that American exceptionalism will be put on life support, that our economy may be crippled to the point of an entire generation being lost to rehabilitating it, and that an unconstitutional expansion of executive powers will continue, more reminiscent of Roman tyrants than the limited powers envisioned by the Founding Fathers.