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Liberals Are Losing the Culture Wars
The Atlantic ^ | November 4, 2015 | By Molly Ball

Posted on 11/04/2015 9:55:48 PM PST by Brad from Tennessee

In Tuesday’s elections, voters rejected recreational marijuana, transgender rights, and illegal-immigrant sanctuaries; they reacted equivocally to gun-control arguments; and they handed a surprise victory to a Republican gubernatorial candidate who emphasized his opposition to gay marriage.

Democrats have become increasingly assertive in taking liberal social positions in recent years, believing that they enjoy majority support and even seeking to turn abortion and gay rights into electoral wedges against Republicans. But Tuesday’s results—and the broader trend of recent elections that have been generally disastrous for Democrats not named Barack Obama—call that view into question. Indeed, they suggest that the left has misread the electorate’s enthusiasm for social change, inviting a backlash from mainstream voters invested in the status quo.

Consider these results:

*Ohio voters rejected a ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana by a 30-point margin.

*Voters in Houston—a strongly Democratic city—rejected by a 20-point margin a nondiscrimination ordinance that opponents said would lead to “men in women’s bathrooms.”

*The San Francisco sheriff who had defended the city’s sanctuary policy after a sensational murder by an illegal immigrant was voted out.

*Two Republican state senate candidates in Virginia were targeted by Everytown for Gun Safety, former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s gun-control group. One won and one lost, leaving the chamber in GOP hands. . .

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; US: California; US: New York; US: Ohio; US: Texas; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: 14thamendment; 2016election; 2ndamendment; abortion; anchorbabies; anchorbaby; banglist; california; carlyfiorina; deathpanels; election2016; fourteenthamendment; gaykk; gaykkk; governormoonbeam; guncontrol; h1b; homosexualagenda; houston; jerrybrown; jimgilmore; johnboehner; johnkasich; libertarians; medicalmarijuana; mikebloomberg; mollyball; moonbeam; newyork; newyorkcity; obamacare; ohio; sanctuarycities; sanctuarycity; sanfrancisco; secondamendment; speakerboehner; speakerjohnboehner; tedcruz; texas; theatlantic; trump; virginia; zerocare
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1 posted on 11/04/2015 9:55:48 PM PST by Brad from Tennessee
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To: Brad from Tennessee

Sorry Molly, but the last last name I would want to have is yours—and mine is even worse!


2 posted on 11/04/2015 9:58:18 PM PST by Fungi
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To: Brad from Tennessee

Far be it from me to sooth the angst of the left,
but I don’t see much of a cultural shift in an
off-off year election. The parasites are sill
out there and every four years they come out
from under the refrigerator. They put Obama
in for another term even with the knowledge from
his first term that he wasn’t going to do a
damned thing for them. It’s a quadrennial
stamping of their gimme card, and it shows
no signs of abating.


3 posted on 11/04/2015 10:01:27 PM PST by sparklite2 (All will become clear when it is too late to matter.)
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To: Brad from Tennessee
Poppycock.

Hate crimes institutionalized. Gay marriage. Gay scoutmasters. Common Core. Affirmative action for transgenders. Gays in the military. Psychologists coming out against Christianity...

We slow them down upon occasion, but the net direction is obvious.

4 posted on 11/04/2015 10:02:33 PM PST by Carry_Okie (Dupes for Donald, Chumps for Trump)
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To: Brad from Tennessee

They’ve got Hollywood, TV, the news, and they are educating your kids.

We keep hanging on hoping for the next election. They are setting up to run the table.


5 posted on 11/04/2015 10:03:22 PM PST by marron
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To: Brad from Tennessee

And the GOPe insists we conservatives abandon our fight over social issues.

Looks like we abandoned the GOPe instead.

And won some fights in the culture war yesterday without ‘em.


6 posted on 11/04/2015 10:03:31 PM PST by Vision Thing
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To: Carry_Okie

When we slow them down at the ballot box, they win in the court system.

The real rot is through liberals running education and the media. They control the minds of the young as they form and then they destroy the nation.


7 posted on 11/04/2015 10:03:55 PM PST by TigerClaws
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To: TigerClaws

Correct. Liberals control every institution of public education except the Internet and talk radio: from laws governing day care to public schools, universities, human resources departments, advertising, popular entertainment...


8 posted on 11/04/2015 10:06:56 PM PST by Carry_Okie (Dupes for Donald, Chumps for Trump)
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To: Brad from Tennessee
" Ohio voters rejected a ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana by a 30-point margin.

*Voters in Houston, a strongly Democratic city,rejected by a 20-point margin a nondiscrimination ordinance that opponents said would lead to men in women's bathrooms.

*The San Francisco sheriff who had defended the city's sanctuary policy after a sensational murder by an illegal immigrant was voted out. "




It's unfortunate that after all the effort American citizens put into these elections to help the public make the right decisions on ballots, there's still an obamian Supreme Court willing, ready, and able to usurp the will of the people.
9 posted on 11/04/2015 10:12:14 PM PST by clearcarbon
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To: TigerClaws
There are whole counties and even entire states where, if conservatives and Christians removed their kids, the government K-12 system would completely implode.

Yet....Conservatives and Christians insist that their child's godless socialist-entitlement K-12 government school is “different”.

10 posted on 11/04/2015 10:14:40 PM PST by wintertime (Stop treating government teachers like they are reincarnated Mother Teresas!)
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To: Brad from Tennessee

Really? You could’ve fooled me.


11 posted on 11/04/2015 10:16:58 PM PST by Politicalkiddo ("This is the way the world ends--Not with a bang, but a whimper.")
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To: Carry_Okie
Nearly every teacher in this nation from pre-K through college and graduate school was trained by godless Marxists in Marxist run colleges and universities. This includes both government and private schools.

Scary!....Yet, education seems far down on the list of priorities for conservatives and Christians. The proof is in how many of their kids go to these “schools” ( indoctrination camps really).

12 posted on 11/04/2015 10:18:00 PM PST by wintertime (Stop treating government teachers like they are reincarnated Mother Teresas!)
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To: Carry_Okie

Psychologists coming out against Christianity...”

I have a client who is a Christian counselor in Houston. Woman called for appointment for couples counseling - when asked for some history she simply responded that it was for relationship issues. Client says the words gay or lesbian were never mentioned nor was the sex of the other party. My client doesn’t do couples counseling of any kind because she is not trained in that area and simply stated that fact but offered to refer the caller to someone else. Caller said no thanks she would find someone else. Two days later my client received notice of lawsuit because of discrimination.

She is going to close her practice in Houston and has hired an attorney. It is not over. We might have had more votes than the other side but it’s still an ongoing problem and every day there is just another issue that pops up.

My grandson’s senior high school teacher talked about the KKK today. Grandson asked her if they were also going to discuss the Black Panthers since he knows they arose during that era. She was not at all happy with him.

We haven’t won squat. Every day it’s something else.


13 posted on 11/04/2015 10:26:55 PM PST by Grams A (The Sun will rise in the East in the morning and God is still on his throne.)
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To: Brad from Tennessee
Democrats have become increasingly assertive in taking liberal social positions in recent years, believing that they enjoy majority support

They do have majority support where it counts -- on the Supreme Court.

14 posted on 11/04/2015 10:29:10 PM PST by MUDDOG
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To: Carry_Okie

Libs are losing the cultural war elections, but winning the cultural war judicial decrees.


15 posted on 11/04/2015 10:31:57 PM PST by kevao (Biblical Jesus: Give your money to the poor. Socialist Jesus: Give your neighbor's money to the poor)
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To: Brad from Tennessee
Liberals Are Losing the Culture Wars

I can't help but think that God has something up his sleeve ...

16 posted on 11/04/2015 10:35:02 PM PST by Slyfox (Will no one rid us of this meddlesome president?)
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To: marron

” They’ve got Hollywood, TV, the news, and they are educating your kids.”

And that is why even when we win elections we lose. We on the right keep focusing on winning elections, but the left understands that controlling those forces that you mentioned is even more important.

We have to expand our horizons beyond elections and start taking back those other battlegrounds.

(By the way to your list you can now also add the bureaucracies, the armed forces, sports, and they’re also making great inroads into religion.)


17 posted on 11/04/2015 10:39:21 PM PST by aquila48
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To: Brad from Tennessee

This is why liberal SCOTUSes hold off their social change decrees for years until they think there will be no backlash.

Five libs on the court imposed same sex perversion on marriages all 50 states, assuming NO backlash.

They would have done it 10 years ago if they had thought it was safe.


18 posted on 11/04/2015 10:44:17 PM PST by sickoflibs (Donald Trump : 'It will be wonderful. It will be glorious., You will be amazed, Just wait"')
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To: marron

It’s a lesser evil. Don’t worry, I have it on good authority we will hold feet to the fire.

Soon. Not this election which is the most important ever in the history of elections ever unlike last election which was the most important election ever even more important than the propr election which was the most important ever. And so we gotta elect liberal Republicans no matter what. Because they can win. But we’ll just keep our powder dry. For mow. Till it’s really needed. Like 3D chess.

But soon. Maybe next election.

Soon though.


19 posted on 11/04/2015 10:48:34 PM PST by Norm Lenhart (Existential Cage Theory - Embrace it)
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To: aquila48
By “taking back” those institutions perhaps the best strategy should be to completely shut them down and build new ones from the ground up.
20 posted on 11/04/2015 11:04:15 PM PST by wintertime (Stop treating government teachers like they are reincarnated Mother Teresas!)
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