Cultural conservatives should savor their victories

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Conservatives have recently won significant battles in America's ongoing culture war, without ever celebrating – or even noting – their victories.

Consider, for example, this year's just concluded celebration of Thanksgiving. The ferocious fringies who so often protested the holiday in recent years somehow retreated (or disappeared altogether) in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Remember the Native American activists who angrily insisted that Thanksgiving should be a day of mourning and repentance for the slaughter of indigenous peoples? Remember the animal-rights extremists who tried to guilt-trip the nation over our annual Holocaust of turkeys? And where are the militant separationists who worried that discreet mentions of God in public proclamations or school Thanksgiving programs amounted to a dangerous assault on the Constitution?

Undoubtedly, some of these malevolent malcontents whine on (harvest moon) just as pitifully as they have in previous years, but their voices seem faint – and altogether irrelevant – in 2001.

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As recently as last November, politically correct pundits warned us not to focus too intently on Norman Rockwell images of Thanksgiving, since single mothers or gay couples or transgendered communes would celebrate the holiday in non-traditional style. This year, that Norman Rockwell vision of a happy extended family, eagerly welcoming its turkey (no, it wasn't tofu), appeared everywhere – and the artist himself earned new, respectful attention (and museum shows) from previously skeptical critics.

A Time/CNN Poll reported in early November that 62 percent of Americans "felt the need to spend more time with family members," while an amazing 75 percent indicated that they felt "more appreciative this Thanksgiving than they have in the past."

Everywhere you turned, encouraging signs suggested a new cultural consensus. Americans flew the flag on cars, front porches, office buildings, airport terminals – and those benighted officials who tried to ban Old Glory as a "divisive" symbol quickly retreated in face of overwhelming sentiment. The Pledge of Allegiance made a startling comeback after a decade of disrespect, with even the New York City School Board voting (unanimously!) to encourage its recitation every day, in every class.

From the Oval Office to the local PTA, Americans cited God more freely and fervently than any time in recent years. Alan Dershowitz waxed apoplectic when clergymen mentioned the name "Jesus" during the Bush inauguration, but the far more frequent references to Christ during the nationally televised memorial service in Washington drew no audible objections from anyone.

In Harvey, Ill., in suburban Chicago, teen-aged "Prayer Warriors for Christ" took the initiative to conduct services in the local high school during school hours and drew support from a unanimous city council. Perhaps because these idealistic students happen to be poor and black, the usual watchdogs stopped their snarling and made no attempt to shut them down.

Even in the realm of pop culture, progress seemed undeniable. The three conspicuous hit movies of the year – "Shrek," "Monsters Inc." and "Harry Potter" – all happened to be G or PG-rated family fare of reasonably high quality. Even hysterical denunciations of "Harry Potter" by a handful of ill-informed religious enthusiasts might represent a hopeful sign; if the benign Harry Potter series represents today's greatest threat to our children at the moment, then we are a fortunate nation indeed.

On three key issues, cultural conservatives appear to have won their arguments: patriotism, faith and moral relativism.

After Sept. 11, patriotism came into vogue not only due to the inevitable "rally-round-the-flag" instinct, but because the war on terrorism helped place America in a more mature perspective. For the first time since the end of the Cold War more than 12 years ago, this country faced a clearly identifiable enemy – a hostile force pledged to our destruction. This meant measuring our society not against some abstract ideal of perfection, but in comparison to the real world lunatics among Islamic extremists and America-haters in general. In this context, of course the USA looked great.

Concerning the new acceptance of public displays of faith, our situation demonstrates the essential wisdom in the old adage that there are no atheists in foxholes. While facing enemy attacks, of course we turn to God – and discover that our easy-going, pluralistic, but unmistakably Christian orientation may have its faults, but still offers a vastly more benevolent religious approach than the murderous fanaticism of our adversaries.

Most significant of all, the current crisis proves that trendy moral relativism amounts to so much bankrupt baloney. The multiculturalists want us to believe that all religions, all societies, deserve equal respect; we have no right to believe that this superficially favored republic might be considered superior to a tribe of illiterate bushmen. This position never made sense, but it became totally untenable after Sept. 11. No one took issue with the president's characterization of suicidal mass murderers as "the evil ones." The sudden, virtually unchallenged acceptance of discussions of absolute good vs. absolute evil, in itself represented a major advance for cultural conservatives.

This recent progress – particularly regarding patriotism, faith and moral relativism – hardly represents a definitive success in the struggle for America's soul.

Hollywood constitutes a huge question mark, despite the studios' recent decision to cooperate with the White House in boosting the war effort. University campuses, moreover, remain a festering fever swamp of delusional, America-hating leftism. Nonetheless, conservatives should take heart and inspiration from the gains in recent weeks, and steel their spirits for the campaigns ahead.

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