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Sept. 29, 2014 12:20 p.m.

Several times in recent years, Ive argued here that the political left or at least the center was gradually gaining ground in Americas so-called culture wars and inevitably would have the upper hand.

One of my arguments challenged an article of faith among conservatives that political and cultural liberalism is a phase of youth and that people tend to move to the right as they grow older. As a senior citizen myself, Im living evidence against that notion.

And now, THIS EDITORIAL in The New York Times notes that a growing number of Democratic candidates for public office are no longer reluctant to raise certain issues in their battles with the Republican Partys militant culture warriors:

Not long ago, it would have been unusual for a Democratic senatorial candidate in Iowa to run a powerful abortion-rights television ad like the one recently broadcast by Representative Bruce Braley.

The ad lists in detail the anti-abortion positions taken by Mr. Braleys Republican opponent, Joni Ernst. In the State Senate, the ad says, she sponsored a personhood amendment (declaring a fertilized egg to be a person) that would have the effect of outlawing abortion even in cases of rape or incest, and would also ban many common forms of birth control. Ms. Ernst is even shown saying at a debate that she favors criminal punishment for doctors who perform abortions; the ad describes her position as radical.

(Snip)

In Colorado, Senator Mark Udall, a Democrat, has sharply criticized the views of his challenger, Representative Cory Gardner, about womens reproductive rights, running an ad that points out the dangers in the Life at Conception Act that Mr. Gardner has helped sponsor in the House. Senator Kay Hagan, Democrat of North Carolina, continually reminds voters that her opponent, Thom Tillis, has worked to make contraception less accessible.

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The tide has turned in Americas culture wars

Red Ice Radio - Frank Salter - Radicalization of Social Sciences Culture Wars
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Frank Salter Radicalization of Social Sciences Culture Wars
Frank Salter is an Australian academic and researcher at the former Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology. He is a political ethologist, studying political phenomena using the methods...

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Frank Salter Radicalization of Social Sciences & Culture Wars - Video

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After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

One of the truly bizarre claims we hear from the Christian right is that gay people are somehow in league with Muslim fundamentalists who want them dead (and vice versa). Its the kind of claim that should result in people pointing and laughing at you wherever you go for the rest of your life, but it pays handsomely on Planet Wingnuttia. Fake ex-terrorist Walid Shoebat is the latest to make this moronic claim. [Read more...]

Bryan Fischer burnished his credentials as a Christian fascist by demanding that the United States do immigration Gods way and force all immigrants to convert to Christianity before entering the country. Remember, when ISIS forces people to convert or die, its an outrage. When Christians do it, its just Gods way. [Read more...]

The ability of the right wing to declare that up is down and black is white never ceases to amaze me. Disgraced former House Speaker Tom DeLay provides a textbook example, calling President Obama anti-war and saying hes a member of Code Pink, a group that has been hammering him since the moment he took office. [Read more...]

Larry Klayman, the dumbest lawyer in America not named Mat Staver, was on an American Family Association radio show with Tim Wildmon on Monday and he called for the military to rise up and remove President Obama from power. At what point is this open sedition? At what point do they start arresting people for this? [Read more...]

Pat Robertson displayed the hypocrisy and idiocy that weve all come to expect from him in response to a viewer who asked about the differences between violence in the Bible and violence in the Quran. His simpleminded explanation: The Bible is from God, while the Quran is from Allah. So I guess that explains it. [Read more...]

Larry Pratt, head of Gun Owners of America, a group so extreme that it considers the NRA to be a bunch of simpering wimps, went on Gordon Klingenschmitts show and said that Democrats are pushing for gun control because theyre afraid of being shot and thats a good thing because they should be afraid of their constituents gunning them down. [Read more...]

Andrew Sullivan finds another example showing how phony the Republicans alleged concerns about spending and debt clearly are. They suddenly discover the cause of fiscal responsibility when a Democrat is in the White House, but even that convenient epiphany magically disappears when its time to go to war, when they grab the pom poms and start cheering. [Read more...]

For nearly 20 years, the leader of the Chicago diocese of the Catholic Church has been Archbishop Francis George, who is deeply ignorant and paranoid (this is a man who says allowing gay people to get married will be just like Sharia law never mind that hes agreeing with Sharia law in wanting it outlawed). Pope Francis I is now replacing him with a far more liberal leader. [Read more...]

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Dispatches from the Culture Wars Thoughts from the ...

Challenges facing the Catholic church in America require leaders to be "real" and not "get caught up in living in our own little bubble of an idea," newly appointed Chicago archbishop Blase Cupich told NCR in an interview Sunday.

The 65-year-old pastor's ascent to the Chicago archdiocese -- the nation's third largest and historically one of its most important -- has captivated the Catholic world in the United States and represents a potentially important shift in the direction for the U.S. bishops' conference, observers say. One privately called it an "ecclesial earthquake."

Indeed, on the hot-button cultural issues that some have faulted the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for "obsessing" over since the time of Pope John Paul II, Cupich has earned a reputation for offering calm, cool, caring commentary.

Additionally, he has shown an ability to communicate Pope Francis' messages on economic markets and to balance the full sweep of Catholic social teaching.

"This is a Pope Francis bishop," said Georgetown University's John Carr, who for 20 years served as director of the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development at the USCCB. He said Cupich has "humble ways, a powerful commitment to the poor, a collaborative style, [and is] nonconfrontational."

Carr, who attended seminary with Cupich in the late 1960s and early '70s, described a man who believes in the power of dialogue and seeks to understand people where they are in the world.

"He has experience with Native Americans in South Dakota, he has experience with migrants in eastern Washington -- that's a part of him now," Carr said. "He has always been smart, always a leader. He's principled. He listens, he learns, he reads, he prays, he leads."

So it comes as no surprise that Cupich's ascension has energized progressive Catholics who want to see Pope Francis' style permeate the American church. The feeling in the air is that he represents a new day.

But what will it take to break past the culture wars within the bishops' conference?

A compare-and-contrast between Cupich and the man he is replacing, Cardinal Francis George, who was president of the bishops' conference from 2007 to 2010, gives a sense of what the new archbishop may be up against.

Link:

As Chicago archbishop, Cupich may face culture war mentality