The adage amongst both conservative and progressive political operatives is that “politics follows culture”. That is often times stated as a fact without understanding the cause. When cultural changes create new demands on governments, before they react to the changes, it is incumbent upon serious people to examine the causes.
Like GLOBAL WARMING, EVOLUTION, and many other empirical claims that are observed, there needs to be an explanation for what is seen.. Many times, the logic of an experiment that tries to prove such claims is proven wrong. Sometimes creating “a scientific experiment” to explain a phenomenon takes time. I believe in Natural Selection. I can see it outside my window on “Blowers Bluff” or in a petri dish. Natural selection is not evolution. The “what” is not the “how”. To not understand the difference can be destructive and costly to a society.
What causes cultural changes? Think of the industrial revolution in the early 19th century in Europe, the growth of large corporations in our country after the Civil War, The Welfare State in our country after the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, and the growth of socialism in Europe financed by American largesse after WWII. What causes the culture to change?
Demographic changes caused by ill-defined immigration policies, decreasing birth rates, will each contribute—one on the demand side, the other on the supply side to the destabilization of social welfare programs. I believe that foremost and always there are three forces that help define the future. Religious, economic, and education—in that order. David Brooks has wrongly in my opinion pointed out that the perceived collapse in the “social order” in the Western World is what has led to POPULISIM and the rise of Donald Trump. He has rightly identified that the FAMILY is the pillar of societal order. That is an “empiric” observation. He fails to identify the cause of the “fall of families”.
Sociologists like Daniel Patrick Moynahan in the 1970’s and Charles Murray of late have both opined in their writings that the fall of the family is the cause for the rise in the socialist state. What Mr. Trump realized is that as the opportunities for working class men in America became less available, the stability of marriages in the working classes became less. Divorce rates rose in the working class in Europe and in the United States. The rise of “feminism” and the need for both spouses to have to work, it was argued, would have a deleterious impact on child rearing. It would impact on the amount of time that families could spend together, that parents had to teach their children, that children had to learn from their parents and grandparents. This it turns out is only partially true. It is true in working class families in The USA and it is true in all families in Europe and the rest of the Western World.
Educators, political pundits, and theorists have long argued that as the educational experience of people increases, religiosity amongst people decreases. When this hypothesis is tested it proves to be true in Europe, but not in America, and especially not true for families in the higher economic quintiles.
In our country families who define themselves as being “religious” are thriving across all levels of the economic strata. More children end up in good jobs, fewer abortions—this is the one outlier amongst women of higher economic means, less likely to be on welfare, and more likely to have more than two children.
There has always been a deep cultural divide between Europe and the United States, that dates back to before our two Revolutions. Our Revolution was grounded in religion. The French revolution was directed not only against the Ecclesiastical State, but also against all men and women of faith—Protestant and Catholic.
Our birth and growth as a nation has been founded on three moral pillars. Classical Western Philosophy, Enlightenment Political Theory, and foremost, on Biblical principles and the writings of the Church Fathers. Societies grounded in purely secular-humanist philosophies are doomed to failure—since the beginning of time.
There seems to be a reluctance amongst modern social commentators, especially those in the media and academics, to comment on the contributions that religion and Biblical Philosophies have on our culture. In the case of our own country’s founding, it seems that religion proceeded the culture before the culture proceeded the politics. Economics then followed.
In our first Founding Document—The Mayflower Compact the first words written:
“In the name of God, Amen”.
These opening lines frame the document as both a religious act and a declaration of allegiance to the English crown, setting the tone for the settlers’ collective agreement to form a self-governing community—based on secular and Biblical principles. God came first! The Early State Constitutions, the 1787 Northwest Ordinance that was then put into place in 1789 stated:
Article 3 declares: ”Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.”.
This links religion directly to the formation of good government and public happiness.
When religion proceeds the culture, we have good government. When humanistic progressive philosophies define a political theory—we get chaos—which is all the political left has to offer today.
Mr. Trump understands the difference and so does WE THE PEOPLE.
