scholarly journals Reclaiming the Center: The Case for a Ceasefire in America's Culture War

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-15
Author(s):  
Majorie Smith
Keyword(s):  
Political Life ◽  
Culture War ◽  
News Sources ◽  
American Society ◽  
Partisan News

Partisan news sources of all political stripes would have us believe that there’s a war raging on in American society. Increasingly prevalent is the notion that America is in the grips of what some despairing analysts (and gleeful news anchors) have labeled a “Culture War”- the ultimate expression of our increasingly polarized political life, in which the two competing viewpoints stay in their own yards, only seeking out media sources that validate their existing ideals, and lobbing attacks across the fence at the enemy camp.

Longing, Nostalgia, and Golden Age Politics: The American Jeremiad and the Power of the Past

2009 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew R. Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Golden Age ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
The United States ◽  
Abraham Lincoln ◽  
Frederick Douglass ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Past ◽  
American Tradition ◽  
Political Ideal ◽  
American Society

I assess several politically powerful ways of drawing on the past in the search for solutions to problems in the present. To probe these dynamics, I turn to the American jeremiad, a longstanding form of political rhetoric that explicitly invokes the past and laments the nation's falling-away from its virtuous foundations. I begin by focusing on the Christian Right's traditionalist jeremiad, which offers both nostalgic and Golden Age rhetoric in its assessment of the United States' imperiled national promise. I argue that, despite differences in the historical location of their ideals and the significant rhetorical power that they bring to political life, such nostalgic and Golden Age narratives represent a constraining political ideal, one ultimately incapable of doing justice to an increasingly diverse American society. I argue furthermore that there is another strand of the American jeremiad and conclude by sketching a different way of drawing on the past, a progressive jeremiad epitomized by the thought of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Such a jeremiad is also deeply rooted in the American tradition and offers a far more promising contribution to a diverse and pluralistic American future.

scholarly journals When Unfamiliarity Breeds Contempt: How Partisan Selective Exposure Sustains Oppositional Media Hostility

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Peterson ◽  
Ali Kagalwala
Keyword(s):  
Selective Exposure ◽  
The Other ◽  
Online Content ◽  
Web Browsing ◽  
Direct Experience ◽  
The Public ◽  
News Sources ◽  
Survey Experiments ◽  
Partisan News

Partisans hold unfavorable views of media they associate with the other party. They also avoid out-party news sources. We link these developments and argue that, absent direct experience, partisans assess out-party media based off negative and inaccurate stereotypes. This means cross-cutting exposure that challenges these misperceptions can improve assessments of out-party media. To support this argument, we use survey-linked web browsing data to show the public has hostile views of out-party news sources they rarely encounter. We conduct three survey experiments that demonstrate cross-cutting exposure to non-political or neutral political coverage – forms of news widely available from partisan sources online – reduces oppositional media hostility. These findings explain how perceptions of rampant bias from out-party media coexist with modest differences in the online content major partisan news outlets provide. More broadly, we illustrate how negative misperceptions can sustain animus towards an out-group when individuals avoid direct encounters with them.

One Nation under God: Making Historical Sense of Evangelical Protestantism in Contemporary American Politics

2007 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 581-597 ◽  
Author(s):  
SIMON P. NEWMAN
Keyword(s):  
American Studies ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
Religious Right ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Teaching And Research ◽  
Evangelical Protestantism ◽  
Vital Component ◽  
American Society

Commentators noted the role of the religious right in the re-election of President George W. Bush in 2004. This essay suggests that such assessments are ahistorical and flawed, and illustrates the ways in which evangelical Protestantism has shaped American political life. Examples of the intersection of religion and politics include Jefferson's election in 1800, John Brown's trial and execution, Abraham Lincoln's Civil War leadership and William Jennings Bryan's radical democratic politics. The essay concludes by arguing that if American-studies teaching and research marginalizes religion it fails to comprehend a vital component of American society and culture.

scholarly journals The Editor’s Note

2017 ◽  
Vol 98 (6) ◽  
pp. 4-4
Author(s):  
Joan Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Public Education ◽  
School Board ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Board Members ◽  
School Board Members ◽  
Local School ◽  
News Sources ◽  
Speaking Out ◽  
State Representatives

In the wake of the recent election, countless Americans have become determined to play a more active role in political life. For those interested in speaking out on issues related to public education, key strategies include identifying credible news sources, finding allies, reaching out to state representatives and local school board members, and holding officials accountable for their decisions.

American Polities in the Gilded Age

1963 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 551-561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent De Santis
Keyword(s):  
American History ◽  
American Politics ◽  
Gilded Age ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Henry Adams ◽  
Christopher Columbus ◽  
William Mckinley ◽  
American Society ◽  
Good Word

The period in American politics from Rutherford B. Hayes to William McKinley has been kicked and scuffed among historians until there is little left of its reputation. “No period so thoroughly ordinary has been known in American politics since Christopher Columbus first disturbed the balance of power in American society,” wrote Henry Adams. “One might search the whole list of Congress, Judiciary, and Executive during the twenty-five years from 1870 to 1895 and find little but damaged reputation. The period was poor in purpose and barren in results.” The impulse to spring to the aid of the underdog has brought forth champions of the cultural, literary, and technological achievements of the Gilded Age, but none to defend its political record. “Even among the most powerful men of that generation,” said Adams, speaking of the politicians, there was “none who had a good word for it.” Most historians believe that at no other time in American history was the moral and intellectual tone of political life so uniformly low nor were political contests so preoccupied with patronage.

The Changing Dynamics of Class and Culture in American Politics

2015 ◽  
Vol 663 (1) ◽  
pp. 229-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duane F. Alwin ◽  
Paula A. Tufiş
Keyword(s):  
General Social Survey ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Child Rearing ◽  
Culture War ◽  
Cultural Issues ◽  
Occupational Class ◽  
Political Identities ◽  
Political Views ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Cultural Component

This article investigates the implications of Thomas Frank’s “conservative backlash” thesis that cultural cleavages have become much more important in contemporary American political life relative to traditional socioeconomic bases for political differentiation. We frame our research within the recent literature on the “polarization” of the electorate with respect to social and cultural issues. Using Hunter’s “culture war” imagery, we examine the extent to which opposing cultural forces on issues of abortion, gay rights, women’s extra-familial labor force participation, and child-rearing have become more important in shaping political identities and party preferences. We use data from twenty-six nationally representative surveys of the General Social Survey (GSS) from 1974 through 2010, and we find evidence of polarization in the liberal-conservative identities of respondents. We find that occupational class had a clear and consistent relationship to political views, which is relatively stable over time. We also find that cultural views are related to political identities, and that most features of the cultural component in our analysis are increasingly associated with liberal political views. Our results favor an interpretation of a changing role of cultural orientations in shaping political identities and provide tentative support for Frank’s “Kansas hypothesis” as revealed in the GSS data.

scholarly journals lexical Means of Language Personality (Based on the Material of Speeches by American Politicians)

2020 ◽  
pp. 89-92
Author(s):  
Irina Sergeevna Golovanova ◽  
Elena Valerevna Bolotova
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Republican Party ◽  
English Language ◽  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
New York Times ◽  
Political Life ◽  
World Language ◽  
Political Speeches ◽  
American Society ◽  
The Guardian

The authors of the article outline that in modern linguistics, the role of human character in language and speech is studied, new concepts such as the conceptual picture of the world, language portrait, speech portrait, the ratio of language and speech, etc. are defined. The relevance of the article is presented in the linguistic description of the speeches by politicians of the Republican party in connection with the increased international interest in political life. The language features of speeches by American politicians are reviewed. The goal-directed factor of the research is to determine the lexical features of political speeches that characterize representatives of the Republican party as well-known political figures. Methods. Accordingly, the description of the lexicon of politicians, which acts as a lexical analysis in this work, is the main method of research, which is inextricably linked with semantic analysis. The language base for the research is English-language publications, such as The Guardian, the Washington Post, and the New York Times. The results of the study are associated with the identification of words used in political speeches that show the attitude of Republicans to the needs and values of American society, special abbreviations, expressions related to political, military, and social spheres of activity. It is concluded that the lexical and semantic characteristics influence the formation of ideas about the communicative and personal qualities of politicians.

The Twilight of Social Conservatism

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Dombrink
Keyword(s):  
Millennial Generation ◽  
American Politics ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
Culture War ◽  
Moral Majority ◽  
The Core ◽  
Social Landscape ◽  
Core Elements ◽  
American Society ◽  
Social Conservatism

This book examines the ongoing contests and shifting political and social landscape of America in the Obama era as it applies to the core elements of the “culture war.” It considers a central disjuncture: the liberalization of American society on many measures, at the same time as the enormous conservative pushback that continues, and a political polarization that still characterizes us in America in 2015. This book concludes that these “wedge issues,” successful in American politics for three decades, have lost their power. This “unwedging” is what characterizes America in 2015, especially amidst the effect of the rising importance of the millennial generation – a decidedly more secular and progressive generation on these issues. As one religious conservative leader recently wrote, such shifts in American society suggest that like-minded religious-based social conservatives should now view themselves as a “prophetic minority” rather than a “Moral Majority.” It seems improbable that these wedge issues will soon regain their potency.

scholarly journals When Unfamiliarity Breeds Contempt: How Partisan Selective Exposure Sustains Oppositional Media Hostility

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
ERIK PETERSON ◽  
ALI KAGALWALA
Keyword(s):  
Selective Exposure ◽  
The Other ◽  
Online Content ◽  
Web Browsing ◽  
The Public ◽  
News Sources ◽  
Survey Experiments ◽  
Partisan News

Partisans hold unfavorable views of media they associate with the other party. They also avoid out-party news sources. We link these developments and argue that partisans assess out-party media based on negative and inaccurate stereotypes. This means cross-cutting exposure that challenges these misperceptions can improve assessments of out-party media. To support this argument, we use survey-linked web browsing data to show that the public has hostile views of out-party news sources they rarely encounter. We conduct three survey experiments that demonstrate cross-cutting exposure to nonpolitical or neutral political stories, forms of news widely available from online partisan sources, reduces oppositional media hostility. This explains how perceptions of rampant bias from out-party media coexist with more modest differences in the online content of major partisan news outlets. More broadly, we illustrate how negative misperceptions can sustain animus towards an out-group when people avoid encounters with them.

scholarly journals The Russian-Jewish New York, the Balfour Declaration and the Revolution in Russia in Leon Kobrin's Play Back to Your People!

2018 ◽  
pp. 25-43
Author(s):  
Galina Eliasberg
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Cultural Models ◽  
Political Life ◽  
American University ◽  
Anti Semitism ◽  
Political Views ◽  
The Social ◽  
Jewish Immigrants ◽  
American Society ◽  
Generational Conflicts

The article analyzes Kobrin’s play Back to Your People! and the Yiddish press reviews of its performances in New York at Boris Thomashevsky’s Peoples Theater in December 1917 by A. Cahan, I. Vartsman, B. Gorin and others. Critics defined the genre of Kobrin’s play variously as “national drama”, “sentimental melodrama”, “modern sketch” and “tendentious drama” but unanimously noted that it was a direct response to the landmark events of 1917, including the Russian Revolution and the Balfour Declaration. These events triggered nationalist feelings and had a significant impact on Jewish socialists like Kobrin, whose writing and political views were strongly influenced by Russian populism. The play depicted a dramatic clash between two cultural models: an American banker as a “self-made man” and the Russian-Jewish intellectual and Zionist leader. It reflected the issues of inter-generational conflicts, Jewish assimilation and anti-Semitism in America. Kobrin portrayed representatives of conservative and liberal circles in American society and demonstrated different attitudes towards the tragedy experienced by European Jewry during the First World War. The depiction of the younger generation allowed Kobrin to show the American university milieu, the work of the settlement house movement and the educational institutions for the Jewish immigrants. The play touched upon the social, intellectual and political life on the Lower East Side.

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