On Morning Joe
I was a guest on the MSNBC show Morning Joe (March 12).
We talked about the re-emergence of religion into the culture war as the Republicans have focused on issues such as birth control and abortion.
Here’s the clip:
I was a guest on the MSNBC show Morning Joe (March 12).
We talked about the re-emergence of religion into the culture war as the Republicans have focused on issues such as birth control and abortion.
Here’s the clip:
It wasn’t Nixon who called McGovern’s Democrats “the party of amnesty, acid, and abortion” — it was McGovern’s first running mate, Tom Eagleton!
The notion that religion wasn’t an important force in politics before Roe v Wade is a little odd. Note prohibition, note also the civil rights movement. A more accurate statement would be that secularism wasn’t an important force in US politics before 1970s!
I think you raise interesting points, but as a political scientist am a little disturbed by how fixed you see the categories of “liberal” and “conservative”. Which is more “liberal”: Henry Clay’s Whigs or Andrew Jackson’s Democrats? Which is more conservative: Robert Walpole’s Whigs or Bolingbroke’s Tories? Hamilton or Jefferson? You could easily argue those either way.
Chris:
Thanks for the correction, I had indeed assumed Nixon’s campaign coined it. Although i read that CREEP (the committee to re-elect the president) adopted the slogan after it was coined, and used it against McGovern.
i certainly don’t think the categories liberal and conservative are static, but i do think there is an underlying psychological basis for the left-right dimension, even as the parties shift around historically. (I explain this in detail in ch 12 of the book).