Culture War Greatest Hits

Chris Hayes over at The Nation writes:

The New York Times Magazine previews a piece from this week’s issue about the strangely careening tactical path of the McCain campaign as it’s bounced incoherently from message to message over the last several months.

One thing occurred to me: The Right’s attacks on Obama over the last year have been like a tour of the Greatest Hits of the Culture War in roughly reverse chronological order. First there were the rumors of him being a secret radical Muslim, which is, of course, the most au courant culture-war wedge. Then, when that didn’t work they went with the Hollywood celebrity angle, which has a long pedigree, but also figured prominently in 2004. After that they went with the “sex education”angle, which, in the 1980s and 1990s particularly was a hardy perennial (even in liberal New York where I grew up). Next they turned the clock back even further to the 1960s, in belaboring the Bill Ayers/Weather Underground connection, and now they’re all the way back in the Cold War with accusations of socialism! I’m trying to predict what’s next. Obama supports the free coinage of silver? Obama was soft on Spanish atrocities in Cuba? Obama is a secret Jacobin sympathizer?

If nothing else, I think this election is useful for high school history teachers who want to give their students a condensed, synthesized look at the right-wing attack politics.

This is an excellent observation. I would add into that list the Southern Strategy and all of its offshoots. And now that we’ve all had another look at the Culture War Greatest Hits, you can probably hear all of he R political strategists working out plans to actually double-down on this mess in the near future, because no one expects the Republican Culture War. And certainly, McCain’s reliance on these oldies but goodies hasn’t helped either his favorability ratings or his honor. Enough so that R Congressional and Senate candidates are now running assuming that McCain won’t win (see Liddy Dole) and McCain is running presuming that R congress people won’t win.

A Republican party that reorganizes around its moderates will smartly leave this culture war stuff back in the 20th century where it belongs. But I won’t hold my breath for that.