Monday, March 4, 2013

Is there a culture war

Is there a culture war?


The article basically says that Alan Wolfe and James Hunter agree that a culture wars have existed in American politics. They disagree on whether or not one exists today and whether it has any affect on the conduct of modern politics. Wolfe insists that this culture war is purely individualistic with minimal influence on today’s politics. Hunter believes public conflict is derived from the beliefs of the elite and that culture controls politics.

While I believe that there is a cultural rift in our society, the term culture war is far too harsh to define the divide that exists. I cannot call this conflictive division a war because a large number of Americans don’t care all too much about some of the issues that “has the country firmly divided” according to the media. The whole notion of there being a culture war today is thanks to sensationalist journalism that blows issues out of proportion. There is cultural divide within America, but it is pretty much artificially created by the strong two party systems, which dominates our politics. People are forced to conform to the beliefs of the party or vote for some third party guy who has no chance.  The individual beliefs of people today are far too broad and intertwined to draw any real distinction aside from Democrat or Republican.




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