Is There Really a Culture War?

        In the 2006 Pew Forum exchange between James Davison Hunter and Alan Wolf, as the two speakers came to agree, the debate over the existence of a culture war became more of a debate over the nature of and interpretations of this culture war. As Hunter pointed out, “the debate over the culture war in some respects is a debate between those who take the politics of culture perspective versus people like me who take the culture of politics perspective.” Wolfe refuted this use of “methodological individualism, which looks at how individuals think and act...tends to downplay the importance of more timeless and permanent institutions and structures,” or longstanding cultural traditions and viewpoints. Regardless of their perspectives on culture – whether they believed that culture drives politics or vice versa – both men seemed to agree that a culture war existed in the United States. Wolfe’s main argument was that “we're somehow divided between traditionalists, who want to get back to the old-time religion and old moral values, and more modern people, who are much more individualistic and kind of libertarian in their social views...it is not a division between red state and blue state America; it's a division inside every person...[And] the culture war in its essence is really about how conservatives within each religious tradition have found more in common with each other than they've found with liberals within their own tradition.” After discussing the religious implications of the culture war, the two speakers began to talk about the idea of the “middle” Americans who do not take a strong viewpoint on cultural issues. As Amy Sullivan of The Washington Monthly pointed out, “James [Hunter], you don't seem to think that there is necessarily a unifying philosophy that draws this middle together. And certainly your focus on the elites would show that the elites tend to be...the ones who frame the debates and drive the debates. And perhaps it doesn't matter if there is a middle that tends to agree on a lot of things...if the elites are on either side and are driving that argument, there is a culture war regardless.” Ultimately, Sullivan’s point – or rather, Hunter’s point – that a culture war will exist as long as elite citizens occupy both sides of a debate summarizes the speakers’ general conclusion.

Articles for further exploration of the culture war theory:

1. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2006/01/why-the-culture-war-is-the-wrong-war/304502/?single_page=true 
2. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/04/us/04iht-letter04.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 
3. http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,97659,00.html