Three Ways a Culture War Ends

This new USC polarization index has me thinking about culture wars.

Wars over values and religion—and here I’m stipulating American culture wars are secular religious battles—have only three long-term resolution paths:

1Domination: Fight it out; exterminate or disenfranchise the other side so they become powerless to oppose your agenda. Then keep them weak and defeated so they can’t turn the tables on you. (Examples: Bismarck’s original Kulturkampf reversing to Weimer reversing to Nazis. Also Argentina’s dirty war.)

2Devolution: Decentralize aggressively and reduce power of the federal government. (Examples: Lebanon. Switzerland.)

3Divorce: Split into two different nations entirely. (Examples: Ethiopia/Eritrea split, Yugoslavia breakup.)

Subtle options don’t work—a lot of people would rather die than stop doing what the other side is convinced is immoral. You see it in the CRT debates: People really don’t want their enemies’ values taught to their kids. And in the abortion debate: People really don’t want their enemies telling them when or if a woman can end a pregnancy.

In democracies, the most successful long-term strategy for a diversity of core beliefs is federalism. But that’s fragile—a demographic shift or a new, activating take on an old issue can disrupt the balance. National politics becomes focused on using the power and built-in megaphone of office to reinforce your tribe’s belief set.

For those following along: You are here. If you’ve been around a while, you can plot the lock-step decline and ultimate end of bipartisanship alongside increases in public polarization.

Chicken or egg? Doesn’t matter when the henhouse is burning.

When people get this polarized, their beliefs become global and totalizing. Only complete victory is acceptable. If America split into red and blue nations with the red nation not respecting gay rights or emitting lots of carbon? Blue America would invade. If blue America suddenly opened the borders? Red America would view that as an existential threat and try to stop it. Conquer-and-vanquish strategy has been gaining ground for decades.

I don’t have a solution. But our Constitution makes long-term, nationwide domination really hard. And we tried divorce once before; it didn’t go well.

That leaves devolution. Let people believe what they want and reflect their values in local/regional policy. Restrict, as a matter of law and cultural norm, the idea that a few people in Washington or an angry, networked mob should chart a moral course for all of us.

Won’t happen. Maybe it can’t happen. But it seems like the only path that doesn’t lead us down a much darker road.

Greg W. Brooks. First published on Facebook, Nov. 10, 2021.