Watching the news today, I was having flashbacks of 1998-2000, when people were talking about "moral values" being so important after Bill Clinton's.. adventures. And also after Columbine, there was this massive effort to stop violent video games and certain songs, even though that had nothing to do with it. It kind of felt like some 1920s Southern Christian Great Awakening. So America had to elect the morally righteous George Bush to save us from the wrath of Bill Clinton's adventures.
Then Sept 11th happened and most of politics afterward 2001-2011 was concerned with foreign policy. Then the economic crisis of 2008 started and then economics as well as foreign policy (due to us still being in Iraq) were the main issues.
Then we left Iraq in 2010, Osama Bin Laden was killed in 2011 and suddenly foreign policy is such a small issue in this 2012 campaign. And now the economy is finally beginning to bounce back. I know it's better now, because now we have the luxury of being able to be distracted. Distracted by disagreement over cultural issues, such as Rep. Todd Akin's comment, the GOP's no rape exception on abortion, Santorum's crazy statement of the week during the primaries, the recent increase in discussing the legalization of marijuana, etc. Even this week Paul Ryan said that he's happy to "cling to guns and religion."
It feels like the Culture War is back for this election. But this time it feels like the GOP is on the losing side.
Longer discussion here:
https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=157898.0
