The election and the culture war

Certainly, there is much to endorse in the Commonweal post, by my colleague Cathy Kaveny, to which Michael links here.  A few thoughts, by way of friendly amendment:

We should not forget that culture-war rhetoric, a "Manichean world view," and a "take-no-prisoners-and-admit-no-doubt strategy" is at least as prevalent on the left as it is on the "Religious Right."  It could well be that this election saw "the middle" move from the GOP to the Democrats in part because of what they perceived (with the help, of course, of a media not bothered by the Democrats' rhetorical extremism) the Republicans' rhetorical excesses and policy overreaches.  Still, the Democrats' base has long been and remains as animated by loathing, by "good and evil" talk, and by "admit no doubt" as any right-wing pundit or blogger. 

Cathy suggests -- and I wish I could agree -- that this election shows that "the viewers" are saying that "[a] delight in demonizing the opposition" has to go.  Certainly, it *should* go.  But, this delight is at least as prevalent among Democrats as among Republicans, among "liberals" as among "conservatives" (read both "The Nation" and "The National Review"; both "Kos" and "The Corner"), and so it is not clear why a move to the Democrats entails or reflects any sweeping rejection of the "demonizing" strategy.  (It reflects, I suspect, war fatigue, and disgust with Foley and Abramoff.  Sadly, it probably does not reflect moral revulsion over excessive interrogation tactics.)

While I would not want to abandon the power (both rhetorical and descriptive) of John Paul II's "Culture of Life," I can certainly join Cathy in hoping that people and politics are animated in the future by a careful engagement with "Deus caritas est."  That said, it is not clear to me that such an engagement will or should lead reasonable, thoughtful, nuance-seeing Catholics to abandon or mute efforts to protect unborn children from abortion and to correct the constitutional-law errors that, at present, hinder such efforts.

I agree entirely that Mary Ann Glendon’s Abortion and Divorce in Western Law is a powerful work, one that, were it read by all citizens and policymakers, would dramatically improve things.  But, I would be surprised if Professor Glendon did not prefer the Republicans' approach to abortion over the Democrats'.  And, again, the "humane" and "gradualist" approach endorsed in that book requires for its success -- indeed, requires for its initiation -- the correction of the Court's removal of abortion from the arena of dialogue, persuasion, and compromise.  Let's agree that our approach should include carrots as well as sticks, that it should be sensitive to nuance, that it should not be tainted by demonization -- can we also agree that a necessary first condition for all this is for those on the abortion-rights side of our politics to repent of having enshrined in the Constitution their own exclusionary demonization of pro-life citizens?

UPDATE:  Here's something else, by Ryan Anderson, who blogs at First Things:

And that is a lesson to take away from this election. Mud-slinging, attack campaigns, partisan politics, and the blame-game work in a handful of cases in the short term, but making positive, clear, consistent, defensible arguments, with charity and prudence, will prove more successful long term. (It should be noted that George Allen in

Virginia

did the former and not the latter. He also lost.) Catholic bishops can lead the way. It isn’t a question of Republican or Democrat; it’s a question of certain moral truths and the common good. The clear principles of Catholic social thought and the rationally accessible—and highly persuasive—lines of argument from natural-law philosophy provide better grounds for discussion of how to order our lives together. Morlino, Chaput, and Sheridan know this. The electorate seems to be listening and responding.

This is also why a Republican like Michael Steele was able to perform so remarkably well in the blue state of

Maryland

. Moving into the future, particularly the 2008 election, this will be the trend. Politicians from both political parties will be more conservative, including Republicans, who, during their two-year exile, will sober up and embrace more fully the basics of political conservatism. They will lead the way with clear, positive, and rationally persuasive arguments making the philosophical case for a principled conservative polity—and social issues will play a central role.