“Time to throw the culture wars onto the ash heap of history” 

Our Proposal:

• Launch a multifaceted effort to tone down the culture wars

The Goal:

• Strengthen our democracy
• Remove a major barrier to progress and prosperity
• Roll back the efforts of anti-democratic forces, both here and abroad

Explanation:

The culture wars are a sham perpetrated by shameless politicians, unscrupulous business interests, zero-principles news organizations, and anti-democratic forces. The aim is to divide us into bitterly opposed camps in order to gain/retain power, increase profits, protect business interests, or destroy democracy. These culture wars are made possible because power-hungry politicians and others do whatever it takes to manipulate the emotions of people on a nationwide scale for self-serving purposes. More specifically:

1. Our politicians stoke the culture wars in order to selfishly advance their political careers, instead of doing meaningful work to move the country forward. Securing votes by riling up supporters (WWE-style) is easier and less politically risky than proposing viable ideas and working with others across the political spectrum to address the multiple challenges facing our country today
2. Powerful industries fuel the culture wars to help preserve their business models against the forces of change, regardless of the damage it does to our democracy, society, or the environment
3. “News” organizations dish up culture-war nonsense in order to gain a captive audience and increase ratings
4. Anti-democratic forces exacerbate the culture wars to gum up our democracy, with the aim of ultimately destroying it

Wild exaggerations, egregious distortions of facts, disinformation, and downright lies are examples of the weapons of emotion manipulation deployed by the above groups as they seek to exploit the culture wars for less-than-honorable purposes.

Not that cultural friction between different groups in America is not based on real disagreements, nor is it new. Being a diverse nation with a complex history, numerous instances exist of historically divisive issues, including Prohibition, women’s rights, civil rights, the anti-war movement of the 1960s, evolution, and many more. These and other vigorously debated national issues have been a hallmark of a healthy democracy, distinguishing us from wretched authoritarian governments, and have been crucial in order for us to advance together as a country. However, the bitter and ever-worsening culture wars that we have witnessed over the last few decades have become a threat to our democracy, prosperity, and even our existence as a nation. This is because extreme polarization now results in too many voters making decisions solely based on partisan affiliations and charged-up emotions, instead of ideas and a solid grasp of the issues. This has not come about by accident; it is exactly what the enemies of democracy and progress want.

One can probably point to a couple of major historical factors that set the stage for the culture wars we have today. One is arguably the end of the Cold War: after the Soviet Union collapsed, without a common “Evil Empire” enemy, we Americans tragically turned on each other, spurred on by a variety of unscrupulous people, organizations, and external actors. Instead of communism, fellow Americans with different points of view (or other differences) became seen as the mortal threat to our freedom and way of life. A crucial opportunity was lost to build on our Cold War triumph and take America to ever greater heights, and helping solidify democracy worldwide in the process.

The other probable factor is the rise of the Internet and social media. Up until around the 1990s, Americans across the country got their news from limited but widely trusted sources, such as national broadcasts and local newspapers. News organizations and journalists had multiple incentives to report facts in a credible way; most viewers for example trusted Walter Cronkite when he wrapped up his nightly broadcast with “And that’s the way it is.” As such, Americans could largely agree on the fundamental facts behind the issues of the day, which helped keep extreme polarization in check. This began to change as the Internet and social media made sources of news—both credible and questionable—widely available for free. As the conventional revenue model collapsed, many news organizations went out of business, and some others switched their business model to serving up culture war fodder. The aim of the latter is to ensure recurring revenue by getting an audience hooked on a regular infusion of emotion-stoking, dopamine-stimulating content. Due to the economics in the Internet age, presenting news in a disciplined way sadly stopped being the priority for these types of news organizations.

The result is that the combination of the Internet, social media, and infotainment journalism makes it easy nowadays for people to exist in information bubbles, which offer a non-challenging, “mega-ditto” environment that just constantly reenforces that which they wish to believe and the emotions they want to feel. Such an environment is ideal for stoking the us-vs-them tribalism that now plagues our country and endangers our democracy.

The Culture War Formula

The culture wars have become such an embedded cancer in our country that it almost seems there is a formula to exploit them to one’s own benefit. To visualize the “culture war formula,” it is helpful to consider a fictitious example in which members of a large industry group seek to protect their lucrative—but increasingly obsolete and societally harmful—business model.

Step 1: Planting the culture war seed. Members of the industry group start a non-profit organization with an appealing name like “Citizens for Freedom and Prosperity” (CFP). The stated purpose of CFP is to “promote freedom, economic opportunity, and effective government.” What is there not to like about that? They might even brazenly declare that they are in favor of changing the rigged system in Washington that favors special interests and the well-connected. (Never mind that they themselves are a well-connected special interest group.) But underneath the flowery goals, the true aim is to protect the industry’s profitable revenue model, which is increasingly threatened as less harmful alternative products become available and new legislation is proposed to encourage their widespread adoption (“New-Alternative Legislation”). With the goal of sparking a new front in the culture war and targeting vulnerable politicians, CFP thus unleashes massive advertising and grassroots social media campaigns with a simple emotion-stoking message: “New-Alternative Legislation will cost jobs, raise taxes, and take away your freedom.” Sadly, many people will believe such disinformation—in some cases simply because they want to.

Step 2: Nurturing it. Unscrupulous politicians quickly get on board, sensing an opportunity to score political points and secure the votes of those who believe CFP’s propaganda. Besides the free advertising that they enjoy by aligning themselves with this fabricated-by-CFP culture war issue, these same politicians can count on political donations from CFP and associated individuals. On the other hand, vulnerable politicians that supported New-Alternative Legislation may back down for fear of being voted out of office.

Step 3: Kicking it into high gear. Some “news” organizations and commentators get on the bandwagon, recognizing an opportunity to cash in on this issue to rile up their audience and increase ratings.

Step 4: Icing on the cake. Anti-democratic forces from around the world set up fake social media accounts to fuel the controversy with rage-inducing disinformation modeled on CFP’s advertising. The goal is to further exacerbate division in our country, get their preferred candidates elected, and further weaken our democracy.

Again, this is just a fictitious example. Needless to say, not all culture war issues are started or inflamed by industry groups; many real-world examples could be given of politicians and political infotainment “news” channels harnessing culture war issues for greedy purposes. The point is the template is more or less the same in all cases: use disinformation and other means to fuel bitter division, and then use that division to achieve self-serving goals.

Enough Already

Reining in the culture wars is an important step toward restoring the health of our democracy, spreading prosperity, and rolling back the efforts of anti-democratic forces. The Solutions Party believes the following previously-proposed ideas will be effective in that effort.

1. Eliminating reelection: if elected officials can only serve one term—with no chance of immediately transitioning to a new elected office after their one term ends—they should have less incentive to stoke the culture wars for selfish political purposes. Similarly, since the threat of being voted out of office would cease to exist, there would be no notion of a politically precarious side of a culture war issue. This would enable something that is now sadly unimaginable: politicians having the courage to stand up for what they really believe in, instead of just doing that which profits them politically
2. Certifying news organizations and journalists: let us make the terms “news organization," “journalist,” and “commentator” truly mean what they should: principled and trustworthy providers of news, facts, and opinions. Never again should these terms be associated with culture-war-stoking hacks and hucksters
3. Rating business ethics: we want businesses to be profitable, but not in a manner that causes more harm than good to the society as a whole. A highly visible way to score a business’s ethics and societal contribution should help incentivize positive business practices, and disincentivize negative behavior—such as fanning the flames of the culture wars out of pure greed
4. Establishing a truthfulness rating: use multiple human and automated components to generate a highly visible numerical "truthfulness rating" for all candidates and elected officials, similar to the business ethics rating. Penalties for a consistently low truthfulness rating would include disqualification from elections, removal from office, and financial penalties. If politicians know there are real consequences for lying or spreading disinformation, they should be less inclined to do so for any reason, including culture-war stoking. 
5. Shelf-lifeing political parties: our political parties should be vehicles for people to organize themselves around certain ideas, and to offer candidates for office accordingly, rather than what they have become: institutionalized “party first” gangs in the culture war. Putting a 12-year limit on government-recognized political parties should help reduce the mindless tribalism that our current major political parties are using to stay in power
6. Reforming elections: in an ideal democracy, voter turnout would be as close to 100% as possible, and voters would be well versed in the issues. Taking steps to realize this ideal will reduce the pernicious effects of emotion-stoking nonsense and disinformation in our elections
7. Defending democracy: our democracy is under attack by anti-democratic forces, both domestic and international. Recognizing that this is a critical junction in history that will determine the future of democracy, we must take steps to protect and promote it—starting in our own country
8. Recommitting to principles: we must recommit ourselves to being a country based on principles. We must not only demand that our politicians and news organizations do the same, but put into place mechanisms that encourage them to do so
9. Fostering decency: we must never forget that the true source of American greatness is the goodness and decency of our people. Above all, our greatness shows itself in how we treat each other: with courtesy and respect, even—and especially—when we disagree. Respectfully debating our different viewpoints is a mark of strength.The opposite is also true: disrespecting and isolating ourselves from each other is a sign of weakness.

The time has come to put an end to the culture war sham. Enough is enough. It starts by doing away with power-addicted politicians shamelessly exacerbating divisions in our country. It ends with us committing to respect each other, celebrating the diversity of our ideas, debating our different points of view with both passion and civility, deciding issues via a robust democratic process, and together moving the country forward into a new era of prosperity for all.