Culture war’s major combat operations not nearing their end

I have a response to those still concerned about the seeming lack of political experience on both presidential tickets. Wendell Wilkie, the Republican presidential candidate in 1940, who faced the challenge of denying then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt an unprecedented third term, never held or ran for public office.

Nevertheless, Wilkie presented a formidable challenge, according to Doris Kearns Goodwin’s incisive biography, No Ordinary Time. Roosevelt was particularly vulnerable, as he had to reconcile the nation’s slow march into World War II to aid Allied forces with a significant voting bloc that desired isolation.

A critical point emerged when Roosevelt endorsed a bill to create the first peacetime draft in American history. As Wilkie was expected to discuss the legislation during his acceptance speech, the question was whether he would withhold support in order to make the war a wedge issue or endorse it to secure its passage.

Ultimately, he threw his support behind the bill, and in essentially forfeiting the White House contributed to the movement toward our rightful engagement against the Axis Powers. While historians later labeled this a blunder, Roosevelt’s war secretary, Henry Stimson, called it “able and courageous.”

Nearly 70 years later, we have an election featuring another maverick Republican who has stated that some things are more important than winning an election. As it had been with his support for the Iraq war, the sincerity of this statement will once again be tested.

The hint of this new test comes from the subtle message of last week’s GOP convention — that major combat operations in the culture war have not yet ended.

I am not referring to the less divisive dialectic of cosmopolitan vs. small-town. Rather, it is the trio of issues that run deepest in America’s cultural fault lines: abortion, gay marriage and religion in the public sphere.

Though the convention showcased the uncontroversial themes of service, reform and peace, the party platform was substantially less agreeable, calling for a constitutional ban on gay marriage and abortion and the unequivocal application of the Equal Protection Clause to unborn children, and declaring that the display of the Ten Commandments on government property is both constitutional and “reflects the Judeo-Christian heritage of our country.”

That the nomination of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is recognized as a concession to Christian conservatives allows her to campaign loudly as a reform hawk while quietly symbolizing a deep conservatism. Throw in a smattering of subtle and not-so-subtle references to faith and life, and you have a campaign of cultural division tailor-made for a change election.

Favoring whispers and discreet assertions over explicit cultural comparisons and ballot measures, this allows McCain the dual presentation of change agent to swing voters and arch-traditionalist to the base.

There was reason to believe this wouldn’t happen. National security, immigration and the economy dominated the GOP debates. Gary Bauer and Pat Robertson were replaced by Mike Huckabee, who spoke mostly about domestic policy. Most importantly, McCain’s top two choices for vice president were reportedly Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, both of whom are pro-choice.

In Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), however, Republicans clearly saw an opponent whose personal profile they could paint as nebulous; a perfect opponent for a culturally divisive approach that relies on the prism of traditional versus unknown.

Yet the common message of the conventions was an acknowledgement of what we need to accomplish; our future depends on developing intellectual-capital supremacy and being more than a consumer-nation fiefdom in the global economy. It depends, too, on America being the key arbiter of international peace and security.

The next presidency will have to sell a robust military presence and pro-growth policies to Democrats, and robust multilateralism and dogged federal government investment in education and healthcare to Republicans. This is an agenda that cannot be sustained by a 50 percent-plus-one majority.

We have much more to fear from a McCain candidacy than a McCain presidency. The expected make-up of the 111th Congress and McCain’s political sensibilities will prevent the more divisive elements of the GOP platform from becoming public policy.

But a culturally discordant campaign will eviscerate the broad unity necessary to confront our challenges, in a way that a graceful concession speech will not easily repair. This will be the gathering threat, not to American existence, but to American excellence.

Mikhail is a former staff writer for The Hill.