Political Culture in America: Conservative Primacy in Today’s World

Kenneth Lee

Conservatives are now becoming more and more prevalent in United State’s political culture. The entrenched leftist bureaucrats are being replaced with conservatives. The Supreme Court has a solid conservative block in the majority. President Bush’s administration is hindering on the brink of becoming a theocratically run administration. The airwaves are being inundated with conservative radio talk shows and are poised to take over television media. Although political activism once was mainly a leftist weapon, it is now being used by right winged interest groups.

United State’s political structure is based on constituency. If a politician doesn’t have an interest to protect, than the politician doesn’t have financial backing. Thus, most policies that are debated and passed are for the constituents. To win, factions or political parties develop to stream-line interests, which lead to divergent ideologies. Democrats are leftist and often idealistic. Most democrats believe they have a moral duty to protect rights of all individuals, protect the environment, and create a more just world. Conversely, the Republican Party is often a loose coalition of self-interested groups, ranging from Corporate America to the Religious right. The Republican Party is often associated with family values, religious orthodoxy, pro-business, and often for an isolated political and economic climate.

In the past, religion and politics didn’t mix, and especially during the fifties, religion didn’t have a place in politics. At the start of the Civil Rights Movement, White Baptist pastors looked down on the intermingling of politics and religion. Reverend Jerry Falwell preached the follies of Dr. Martin Luther King’s participation in the political arena. To Jerry Falwell, religion was too holy for the shortcomings of politics. In spite of white religious outcry, Black ministers marched, protested, and spoke out against segregation to their parish.

During the Counter-culture revolution, several social breakthroughs came about: the birth-control pill, the drug counter-culture, the global threat of communism, and the rise of feminism. As the youth generation started to tear down the old social traditions of conformity and piety, the white ministers entered the political realm. In turn, an alignment formed in the Republican Party. Fundamental Christians started to donate, form leagues, protest against the "immoral" legislation, and rally for a more traditional society. Jerry Falwell, repudiating his claims, spoke out against Roe vs. Wade, and the religious right has not unaligned themselves with the Republican Party since.

Subsequently, Conservatives were gaining momentum with the help of the religious right. Fundamental Christians were now in the offensive against the Democratic Party, assuming the party culpability for the immoral mess America was in. This crystallization of constituents got Nixon elected. And in the 1980’s, another wave of social revolution became apparent. Gay Rights began to gain momentum. United States was fighting stagflation by undermining industry’s autonomy, and the Porn industry was becoming more profitable and bigger. Under Reagan’s administration, Pro-business and the Religious right got what they wanted. The government started to deregulate public industries, cut income tax by 25%, and allow industries greater latitude. To satisfy the Religious right, the Justice Department was prosecuting the porn industry and undermined gay right’s activists.

During Clinton’s administration, the Republican held House prevented Clinton from passing any legislation promised in his platform, including Hillary Clinton’s Health care program. After the widely popular Clinton administration, a bitter fight was waged for the presidential office. Al Gore, with Hollywood’s support, had a comparable war chest to George W. Bush, with right-winged Christian “breakfast clubs”. However, something unprecedented happened. The conservative controlled United State’s Supreme Court superceded Florida’s Supreme Court’s legitimacy and elected the president for Florida.

Now, there is a strong structural alignment of all three branches of government. Not surprisingly, Republican activists, Anti-abortion activists, religious activists, and Business lobbies are steam rolling in legislation, which benefits their own interests. This political alignment that took fifty years to form, and will not disintegrate until their agendas are completed, especially the Fundamental Christians. More alarming is the willingness of the American public to support a theocrat such as Bush, who asks for everyone’s prayer. At the zenith of Republican power in America, the conservatives are chipping away our secular state and imposing religiously based legislation.

Kenneth Lee is a student at Santa Monica College.