This Just In: USA Today Prints Decent Article!

Bob: The culture war currents on abortion, guns, gays and press-bashing have plagued American politics for the past two decades. They’re hard to tamp down because they so predictably rally and agitate the bases of both parties. Although Barack Obama got roughed up a bit on his “bitter” comments about small-town Americans clinging to their guns and religion, I think the emotion we saw at the Republican convention—and since—is simply the release of pent-up feelings among the cultural right that once again dominated Republican delegations, but is not reflected in the country in 2008. What say you?

Cal: It depends on what “country” you’re talking about. There are still a lot of people where I travel who are tired of politicians telling them they are not taxed enough and that their views don’t matter. I don’t like the term “culture war” because it is too simplistic, but if people are going to use it, let’s remember who the aggressor in this war was. The church-going, hard-working, flag-waving citizens didn’t start it. The federal courts, made up of unelected and unaccountable judges, lobbed the first grenades and then carpet-bombed the institutions many believed were serving the country and most of its citizens quite well.

Bob: I think the “who started it” game is the antithesis of a common ground-seeking discussion. Just as with the Iraq war, it doesn’t matter how we got in that matters, but how we get out.

Cal: Fair enough, but let’s agree that there is a disconnect—at the very least—in this country over cultural issues, and this disconnect, whether we like it or not, is fanning the partisan flames.

Bob: It’s worth noting that until Palin’s nomination, every major poll has shown that cultural issues are a low priority among voters whose concerns have been laser-focused on the lousy Bush economy. If these issues were voting issues in 2008, then surely we would have heard more about them in Denver from the left of the Democratic Party. To the contrary, one of the major convention speeches was given by pro-life Sen. Bob Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania, whose father, the late governor, was stiff-armed at the 1992 Democratic convention because he was pro-life.

Cal: The Democrats were smart enough to play to their strengths, which is why cultural issues weren’t on the DNC radar. Face it, Bob, the party is to the left of mainstream America when it comes to same-sex marriage, abortion and, yes, even faith. Obama has made inroads on the faith issue, but this newfound religion on the left likely feels, to many voters, like political opportunism.

Bob: Here’s the truth about this so-called culture war, Cal. People who live in big cities might not have grown up shooting guns and hunting, but they’re familiar instead with gunfire on urban streets. People in small towns across the country may not go in big numbers to Ivy League schools more popular on the left coast and right coast, but their education is no less meaningful or valuable. Out-of-wedlock pregnancy is neither a red-state nor blue-state problem. It’s an every-state challenge. The folks attending a synagogue in Manhattan may be a world apart from the small church in Topeka, but the aspirations, fears and needs of the congregants are more aligned than not. This campaign started with the hopeful rhetoric of healing a country. That should be the focus of a President McCain or a President Obama. The divisions of the past eight years—indeed, the last 16 years—must be put behind us.

Cal: The question, as always, is “How?” Cultural issues are like lava, which often runs beneath the surface before emerging in an exploding volcano. They are erupting again because Barack Obama and Sarah Palin have come to symbolize the two sides.

Bob: If the culture wars are erupting again, then the vast majority of the news media missed the story. Now I know you’ll say the media are dominated by the “east and left” coasts, and all they know about Middle America is what they see when they fly over it. That old line doesn’t work because the media are so much broader now because of cable television and the Internet.

Cal: Let’s just say that many in the news media have inadvertently shown their colors merely by their reaction to the Palin nomination. Instead of just asking legitimate questions about her record, they’ve treated her like an alien from another world—She hunts?! She has FIVE kids?! Herdaughter’s pregnant?! She presided over a wedding at the evil Wal-Mart?! She went to aPentecostal church?! She’s pro-life?! She must be a nut job. As though any of the things I just mentioned should eliminate her from consideration for the vice presidency. And the support that is building for Palin around the country is not just because people can relate to her, but also because people have seen the hyperventilating coverage as well. The unfair coverage didn’t do Obama—who personally has been rather dignified about the Palin pick—any favors.

Bob: I couldn’t agree more, but a fair view of this latest eruption should be laid at the conservative base of the Republican Party.

Cal: The GOP doesn’t determine this country’s demographics, with about 30% of the country living in small towns. The GOP doesn’t tell the 4 million NRA members that they had to sign up. The GOP has no power over the beliefs of the 78 million evangelicals in this country. And frankly, the Republicans have embraced the faithful for years, not just for political seasons. So it’s not surprising that more than half of the country—52%—see the GOP as friendly toward religion, as opposed to only 38% for the Democrats. Finally, it doesn’t help when the party’s new standard-bearer, Obama, was caught in San Francisco disparaging those small-towners—yes, like Palin—who “cling” to that very religion.

Bob: The danger, of course, is that this cultural wedge will become an immovable political wedge. You and I agree that whether one favors brie cheese or Velveeta shouldn’t matter. What matters is health care and the economy and national security and controlling government spending and the environment and policies that benefit all Americans. There is common ground to be found on many of these issues, but it has to be done in quieter moments of reflection and with honest give and take. We’ll never find consensus in the heated atmosphere of a presidential election.

Cal: There are plenty of common ground avenues both candidates could go down on the cultural issues if they had the will. Instead, they’ve chosen a dead-end road. We’ve discussed many options in our column, including the volatile cultural issues, but you and I know that waving a red shirt gets the political bulls far more excited than “boring” ideas that lead to resolution of problems. This campaign has elevated the idea of common ground more than any we’ve seen in recent years, but it now appears the professional agitators have gotten hold of the candidates. They’ve replaced handshakes and goodwill with hand-to-hand combat and ill will.

Bob: Then let’s put it to the candidates and, perhaps especially, to their surrogates: Embrace the politics of division at your peril. Lob the culture war grenades, and the independents and moderates—the majority of our populace—will run away from the percussion, not toward it.

Cal: Amen to that.