At least since Pat Buchanan’s famous 1992 Republican National Convention speech that “sounded better in the original German,” Americans have been divided over so-called “culture war” issues. That includes abortion, LGBT rights, guns, and more recently such weighty matters as whether white people should be allowed to use non-white emojis (thankfully, the pols haven’t waded into this one quite yet) and whether football players should be allowed to kneel. Most culture war issues have produced political stalemates, but also plenty of paranoia, radicalization, and a cycle of escalating mutual overreaction.
Whatever the merits of the respective causes, there would be no “abortion selfies”without anti-abortion radicals; there would be no gun-nut preppers without supporters of actual gun confiscation, who really do exist. It is bad enough that such polar extremes exist, and it is even worse to contemplate their blessing on government policy. How to stop this war between the edges? Quite simply, we need a moratorium on federal social issues policy. It might be the easiest way to restore some sanity to our political process and civic culture.
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