Professor Bainbridge...on law, politics, religion, culture & food
Government and the Culture Wars
My former law teacher, Bill Eskridge has an interesting essay in the latest issue of the Northwestern law Review entitled How Government Unintentionally Influences Culture (The Case of Same-Sex Marriage), in which he argues - using anti-gay marriage efforts as a case study - that government intervention in the culture wars is not only unavailing but often counterproductive insofar as the goals of proponents of such intervention are concerned. It’s an interesting argument that I suspect a lot of libertarians are going to find congenial and a lot of social conservatives are going to find worrisome.
The anti-same sex marriage effort is probably a weak case study to present for this effect, because much of the vigor of the effort is frustrated anti-abortion anger.
I don’t see much talk about the drug war in this vein, for instance.
But most “marriage benefits” should probably be replaced with child-rearing benefits.
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Perhaps it’s just the circles I travel in, but these criticisms always seem to be made only of social conservatives and not their opposites. Are liberals lecturing the radicals about how their legal provocations make it easier for Republicans to siphon off voters and solidify the identity of the Religious Right? Does any prominent progressive dare to say that a focus on gay issues distracts from supporting labor unions, or providing health care?
The cultural left has always claimed inevitability for its programs. These counsels of inaction to social conservatives, even when they come from SocioCon allies, too often echo that claim.