Culture Wars

One of the things that made the presidential campaign so vitriolic this year was the craving of pro-life, evangelical, and other right-wing conservatives for a president who would push the conservative social agenda. They hoped that John McCain would appoint ultra-conservative justices to the Supreme Court and thereby create a right-wing majority that could reverse Roe v. Wade and other hated decisions.

One can tell from comments in the newspapers that the election of Barack Obama came as a bitter disappointment to these Republicans. Obama will most likely do the opposite of what these conservatives desire. Nevertheless, they seem to feel that the election was not a total loss. They point to the vote that passed Proposition 8 in California (banning same-sex marriage) and similar propositions in Arizona, Florida, and Arkansas, as evidence of right-wing vitality. It was, however, hardly a landslide. Forty eight percent of the people in California, and similar percentages in the other states, voted against such propositions.

Now everybody is speculating about what kind of Republican Party will emerge from the devastation of this election. Will the party slide further to the right, or will it consolidate into a fiscally conservative party that avoids right-wing ideology in favor of promoting smaller government, lower taxes, and less spending?.

I suspect that the thrust of the party will be more toward the kind of ideological conservatism represented by the so-called “Religious Right.” If that is the program for the next four years, I doubt that the Republicans will win many elections. This country is simply not that conservative. While the passing of Proposition 8 was a great disappointment for liberals, they can take heart in the fact that the percentage of people who support the right to same-sex marriage is growing. In a poll taken after the Connecticut Supreme Court upheld the right of gay couples to marry, 53% percent of Connecticut residents supported the ruling. Other polls have shown that a majority of the people in America oppose an amendment to the U.S. Constitution forbidding same-sex marriage.

Right-wingers might say that the passage of Proposition 8 and other states’ propositions shows that the only reason Barack Obama got elected was because of the bad economy, but there were other votes in which liberalism triumphed. In California, voters rejected a proposition that would have required doctors to notify parents before performing abortions on minors. In South Dakota, voters rejected a ballot measure to outlaw abortions except in cases of rape, incest, and threat to a woman’s health.

Over the years polls have shown that a majority of Americans consider themselves to be pro-choice on abortion. A recent Gallup poll found that 61% of Americans oppose a constitutional amendment to ban all abortions. In the presidential election, there was a sharp difference between Barack Obama and John McCain on abortion. McCain said he would favor repeal of Roe v. Wade, while Obama said he favored freedom of choice. Despite the frantic efforts of pro-life people to elect McCain, Obama won handily. It wasn’t just because of the economy. Obama’s positions on social issues appealed to the majority of Americans.

Now that he has been elected president, Barack Obama will certainly reverse many of the backward positions of the Bush Administration. I believe that he will appoint Supreme Court Justices who support the constitutional right to privacy upon which the decisions in Roe v. Wade and Lawrence v. Texas (striking down Texas sodomy law) are based. He will surely reverse Bush’s executive orders on subjects such as limiting funding for stem-cell research and the granting of new protections to health care providers who oppose abortion and other procedures on religious or moral grounds.

Obama has said that he will support sex education that includes information about contraception. He will also expand access to contraception by young people. He has announced that he will sign the Freedom of Choice Act which reverses numerous federal laws restricting abortion. I am sure that he will also stand-up for the separation of church and state. Thank heaven for the election of Barack Obama.