No one seems to be writing opinion pieces quite the way I would, so I decided to do it myself.

The name? Taverns are places where one goes to discuss the interesting events and things in the world, so this is my tavern.

I will offer my views on politics, economics, and whatever else strikes my fancy.
I will occasionally publish the entire article from another journal for purposes of causing discussion.

Culture War - Conservatives Rail at the Moon and the Tides.

Robert Lorge is a Republican candidate for Senate to replace Russ Feingold. in Wisconsin. When asked on Wisconsin public radio why he was running he stated that America is in 3 wars. They are:

1. War on Terrorism
2. Trade War -- slave labor in communist China is taking away American jobs.
3. The Culture War.

Numbers 1 and 2 are the current 'dangers' or problems faced or exploited by politicians of all stripes, but it is number 3 that really matters. It is this 'Culture war' that has animated the rise of the Conservatives since Goldwater, through Reagan and Gingrich and now dominated in national politics by Bush, Hastert, Tom Delay, and Bill Frist.

Desegregation, the pill and women's associated release from sexual slavery, the drug revolution, the anti-war movement -- all of these are results of the increasingly rapid technological change and increase in Global Trade that has been occurring throughout the twentieth century.

Progressives and liberals are being blamed for ~causing~ the social changes because they have ~not~ used the police power of government to repress all this, and because they have often withdrawn government from such unwinnable conflicts. American Conservatives blame progressives and liberals for not letting America keep the American Heaven that was the 'Leave it to Beaver' 1950's. This is exactly the same kind of conservative panic and over-reaction that led to the anti-Communist excesses of the 1950's (and of which Nixon was an early political leader.)

The panic and overreaction is the response of the mass of conservatives, but the conservative politicians have identified that reaction, are stoking it, and are using it to gain their personal power. Remember that the first time Newt Gingrich ran for Congress he ran as a liberal Democrat. He was beaten. Then he remade himself as a conservative and won his next elections.

The problems America faces aren't going to get any better. America has passed it's peak as a world power and as the single most important economic power in the world. While we will remain a very powerful nation, economy and society, we have no place to go except towards a position of greater parity with Europe, China and India. The reality of that parity is much further along than our national image of it. Most Americans still see the 'Third World' as made up of peasants and farmers. They really aren't aware that half the world's population lives in cities now and that much of the world is really urban middle class. They still think in WW II images.

The 'outsourcing' issue is just the very surface of this latter set of changes, and as a nation we have no clue yet how to respond. It shows that the 'Culture War' is just a part of the overall set of problems we as a nation, culture, economy and society are facing.

Capitalism vs. Socialism/Communism is the older set of questions and answers - they no longer apply. The world has clearly passed those ways of phrasing the issues by. Current problems are much more complex. But they seemed to work (for Conservatives) before, and since when did Conservatives update their accepted panaceas to all problems?

The War or Terror is a reaction to Extreme Islamists. Yet the Extreme Islamists are the Muslim equivalent of our Conservatives attempting to deal with the same set of problems. That is why it sometimes appears that our religious fundamentalists battling are battling against their religious fundamentalists. Fundamentalist religion is one social reaction to such major social changes. Those fundamentalists of all religions agree that the real problem they face is secularism, but religious fundamentalism is really an effort to stop social change by simply willing it to stop.

The fact that social change does not stop causes them to take on more extreme beliefs which is why they become 'fundamentalists.' They are searching for the absolute basic element of belief so that it will be most effective at stopping the changes they fear so strongly. But that is only religious conservatives. There are also secular conservatives.

Conservatives of all types (secular and religious) get sucked into the myth of the social cleansing power of decisive war. That is why bin Laden attacked the US and why Bush promulgated 'Preemptive War.' Terrorism is not limited to religious extremists.

Terrorism is just another way of fighting social change that seems wrong, or fighting for social change that seems to be necessary. It takes very few people to make a big splash as a terrorist, and so not many people need to make the mistake of killing others for what they believe.

No matter what happens, though these social changes aren't going away. The only way to survive is to analyze them, understand them and adapt to them. The conservatives who can't or won't analyze the Conservatives will then blame those who adapt for the causing changes themselves.

It is two different responses to implacable social change. The conservatives rail at the moon and shake their fists, as the progressives adapt to the tides. Then the conservatives blame the progressives for the tides.

Thus - Culture War.