Culture Wars and the Party System: Religion and Realignment

Authors

Ted G. Jelen, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow

Editors

Rhys H. Williams

Document Type

Chapter

Publication Date

1997

Publication Title

Culture Wars in American Politics: Critical Reviews of a Popular Myth

Publisher

Walter de Gruyter, Inc.

Publisher Location

New York

First page number:

145

Last page number:

158

Abstract

Recent headlines trumpet stories of protest, conflict, and even violence: abortion clinics are firebombed in Florida, Georgia, and Oklahoma; Planned Parenthood workers are murdered in Kansas and Massachusetts; a Cincinnati art gallery owner is arrested for exhibiting Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs; a rap group is arrested on obscenity charges; the civil rights—or “special privileges”—of gays and lesbians become electoral issues in Colorado and Oregon; and issues of multiculturalism, freedom of expression, and “political correctness” divide many of the nation’s college campuses. To many Americans this does not seem like “politics as usual.” These stories and others like them seem to indicate that a new and different type of political conflict has swept the nation.

Disciplines

American Politics | Political Science

Language

English

Repository Citation

Jelen, T. G. (1997). Culture Wars and the Party System: Religion and Realignment. In Rhys H. Williams, Culture Wars in American Politics: Critical Reviews of a Popular Myth 145-158. New York: Walter de Gruyter, Inc..