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The conservatives have lost the culture war to the liberals. On the retreat throughout the 20th century, conservatives nevertheless won a number of symbolic victories. They were losing in real life, but the conservatives could still win in the field of symbolism. Today, even those hollow victories are turning into defeat. In the 1950s and 60s, as "Negroes" gained equality, Southern states added the Dixie battle flag to their state flags. Doing so was a racist act of defiance, and now it's an embarrassment. One by one, these states are taking the Dixie battle flag off again. As the secularists gained power, the theocrats added "under God" to the pledge, changed our motto from "E Pluribus Unum" to "In God We Trust," added "so help me God" to the federal judges' oath of office, and installed monuments to the Ten Commandments at courthouses. These victories were merely symbolic in the first place, and now even these symbolic victories are being challenged. With the threat of civil unions for gays looming, the conservatives recently jumped on the issue so they could define it as about gay "marriage." People in the States are pretty agreeable about gay civil unions, but the term "marriage" has a sacred context that the conservatives are exploiting. The difference between civil unions and marriage is, of course, symbolic. Another favorite topic for conservatives is a constitutional amendment to prohibit burning the US flag. This issue is purely symbolic, and even so the conservatives are reasonably sure that they'd lose a fight to get the amendment passed. The campaign for liberty and equality has been successful in economic, social, and spiritual arenas. In a century in which conservatives struggled to maintain an orderly retreat, you can't really blame them for grasping what victories they were capable of, meaningful or not. Symbolic victories don't amount to much in the face of practical defeat, and eventually we'll just reverse them anyway. —JoT top |
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