The Driving Force of the Next Couple of Decades in American Political Life

American history can be split up into different periods, where different factors were the driving force behind our political divide. Obviously we've had regional divisions (Civil War period), ideological differences (federalists vs. states rights in the beginning), and economic (the period from FDR's election up through at least the Kennedy assassination). From 1968 up through about 2008, our country was largely divided along cultural lines. Culture took on multiple forms, sometimes governmental (the small government movement), sometimes racial (busing segregation fight), sometimes militant (the Iraq War), and sometimes truly cultural (parental warning notices on rap CDs in the early 1990s). We've fought about things like law and order, taxation, the social safety net, religion in the public sphere, the sexual revolution, women's rights, abortion, guns, and marriage equality. The divide has been between conservative and liberal views of the way we live, and that has been the driving factor in our politics- not economics and facing down Communism, as was the case in the FDR-Truman-Eisenhower-Kennedy-and even to some extent, Johnson eras.

I think we all knew that 2008 was a significant election, a game-changing election even, but we couldn't put our finger on how things had changed after that race. It's becoming clear to me. We haven't really "exited" the culture war period in America, per se, but it's morphed into something much bigger and more passionate. In the post-2008 world, we are in an "identity" based political struggle. On the right, they want to define the nation much like a European nation, like a France or Germany, in that they want a religion, a pre-dominant race, a most common religion that guides affairs, strong borders, strong businesses, and a strong military presence to project the strength of "the people." On the left, they want a multi-cultural nation that embraces diversity, different cultures, different views on religion, welcomes new and different people, focuses on the social justice that is needed for traditional minorities, and is less militant and homogeneous. We are seeing this play out in most of our major political disputes right now.

Right-wing America sees America as Christian, English speaking, defined within our borders, exceptional in the world, wealthy, and by and large, culturally white. They believe in a militarized, defined border. They are not fans of immigration, by and large. They think we don't need to have signs in Spanish, everyone should speak English. They think people should go to church on Sundays, and should embrace Christian values. They believe in very traditionalistic family structures. They think if something is a threat, be it ISIS, Iran, Russia, China, or whoever, we should fight them with our might. They believe the police are generally right, and Black Lives Matter should stop criticizing "the good guys." They think that most of the poor simply lost in the market economy, and should have worked harder. They think they're an individual, and should live in an individual world. They don't want to "help the other." They feel it's fine to be empowered by their gun, to defend their property and being.

Left-wing America sees America as the "melting-pot." They see us as a nation of immigrants. They see the Civil Rights Movement as never ending, at least not until all people achieve social justice. If there are some having their rights denied by formal or informal bigotry, they want to take that on. They embrace foreign cultures, other languages, and other religions. They embrace a poly-theist, and even anti-theist nation, where not everyone practices religion the same way. They believe in protest movements, and bringing their cause to the forefront of American debate, even when the public doesn't really want them to. They believe in collective action, and economic fairness and equality. They believe women should have all the rights that men do, and even some believe that the "female perspective" on the world is a better one in some or all cases than men. Gender and sexuality equality is important to the left.

Basically, one embraces a very defined society, the other a very open one. This dispute is not one with "shared goals," or even many shared values. The values are actually at the core of the dispute. For the millions of Americans who share some of both, and are in the middle of this, the entire dispute is a huge turn off, but the passions on both polar ends will still rule the political day. This is an identity fight, a fight over who the country really is. Is it a "melting pot" of diversity, of different cultures and ways, and fairness for all it's groups of people? Or is it "'Murrica," a Christian, English speaking, pure Capitalist, "strong" nation?

The next couple of decades are going to be very difficult for people who don't embrace identity politics and the divisions that define our nation and our politics. The idea of compromise and working together towards shared goals is nothing more than a talking point now. There isn't much agreement between the two sides on what to even work on, let alone what the outcome should be. Cold War America was about working to the most successful outcome for the good of the nation, and the disagreement was about the pathway there. This is a dispute over what America really is. I fear that the ugly rhetoric of a Donald Trump, the rise of polarizing political figures, and fighting over the basic rights that people had come to take for granted, is the new norm. I fear we'll fight more about birth-right citizenship and contraception in the decades to come. I think we're entering something ugly, and that ugly thing will last a long time. I think the election of Barack Obama, and his embrace of a more progressive, open policy agenda has awakened a backlash that will come to define American politics for a long time. It's somewhat generational, somewhat racial and religious, and somewhat fear driven. It's a struggle that is likely to leave us as divided as ever.