'Culture wars' shaping election

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By

The Supreme Court case over whether to keep a reference to God in the Pledge of Allegiance is the latest skirmish in the "culture wars" that are helping shape the presidential election, much to the delight of Republicans.

From homosexual "marriage" to the immensely popular film "The Passion of the Christ," cultural issues are emerging as an important subplot in a campaign dominated by national security and the economy.

With the electorate polarized, as recent surveys show, appealing to and exciting the political base is seen as more important than usual. In 1992, President George H.W. Bush lost his re-election bid, and many analysts cited his weak support among conservatives and failure to appeal to the cultural and religious right.

But some Democrats are worried that the culture wars will help the current President Bush.

"He sort of wins on a lot of these issues without even firing a shot," said Democrat Manfred Wolf, an English professor at San Francisco State University. "It's just a feeling that a lot of people have that the country is growing soft, and they don't like it.

"The Republicans tend to cash in on this," he added. "I would hate to see the Democratic Party get caught in this, because the Democratic Party will lose on these cultural issues."

The Bush campaign agreed.

"The Democrats' position on almost all of these issues is anti-majoritarian," said a senior campaign official. "Their position is: Because we don't trust the majorities in defining marriage, or in establishing appropriate laws in their states on things like abortion or on so many other fronts, we need to step in and have an elite group of people who share our values tell the majority what to do."

For example, he said, the left warned that Mel Gibson's "The Passion," which graphically depicts Jesus' crucifixion, would incite anti-Semitism.