If some satirist of the left had made a movie parodying the right side of the culture war a few years ago, it couldn't have come close to matching the current Republican campaign. Ezra puts it best: "I can't remember George W. Bush engaging the culture war with anything even approaching this ferocity in 2004. " No he didn't. Then again, Bush did actually have a policy agenda, it's just that the agenda was shitty and so unpopular that he tried to deflect attention by focusing on attacking John Kerry. McCain and Palin could give a damn about policy, and the culture war is all they have. To be fair, John McCain does have some inkling of a vision of where the country should go: he wants to get us into a war with Iran. But he can't say that, so it's culture war time.
I really don't think it's going to work this time, and I think it might actually backfire and thus be the end of white grievance-centered conservative politics for the conceivable future. Cue Jindal in '16, running as a post-grievance "different kind of Republican." I honestly don't see how the GOP can walk themselves back from this one: now it's unpatriotic to even suggest that innocent civilians are being accidentally killed in air strikes? That that's some kind of affront to the American soldier, rather than stone cold fact. Please, spare me, madame governor. Get thee back to your house and make sure the Russians aren't coming.
