The Squishy Center

One thing that I remember reading in that brouhaha after A&E caved to pressure to reinstate Phil Robertson after he shot his mouth off about homosexuality was an anonymous network source telling a FoxNews.com writer that several ABC and CBS network executives were fuming about how A&E knuckled under. The source then asked what this meant for moral standards going forward.

I'll put aside the irony of how people on my side were laughed at for asking the same questions about morality 10 or 15 years ago. There's too much schadenfreude there to be of interest to any of you.

Still, he does raise a good point (unintentionally, I'm sure). You see, 50 or 60 years ago, the terms "conservative" and "liberal" were basically economic definitions. The words themselves assumed a common worldview. The issue came down to basically what you thought the government's responsibilities were to the economy.

Obviously that's not the case anymore. I find that when you use the word "worldview", peoples' eyes glass over and they lose all understanding of what you're saying. When you instead say "morality", they're able to follow you a lot easier. I don't know why and I choose not to fight it. It simply IS.

People say that the United States of America is made up of two countries. The "union" is strictly theoretical. That's a premise I tend to accept because it's certainly descriptive of the last several Presidential elections, all of which rose and fell on the voting preferences of 6 or 8 "swing states". The residents of reliably blue states and reliably red states drew their lines in the sand long ago. So let's hope the people in Ohio want tax cuts, eh?

Obviously it comes down to religion. That's the root problem. But the manifestation is morality. There are two moralities at play in America. Two very different and mutually exclusive definitions of right and wrong. And ultimately one or the other will become the dominant moral force in American public life.

That sounds extremist to a lot of people who call themselves moderates. The squishy center. To people like them, I sound like a freak. But history bears me out. There is no center. The center today will be either left of center or right of center ten years from now. It's not a fixed point. It's a self-defeating philosophy And ultimately it doesn't exist.

One side or the other will come to be the decisive moral voice. And for now, it seems obvious which way the winds are blowing. But, as I said before, it's rarely liberals who schism.