Suing for peace in the culture wars?

Daniel Henninger:

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For those of us who monitor the political currents to discern direction in the nation's life, this was one of the biggest weeks in the campaign.

Remember the culture wars? This week the Democrats sued for peace.

On Friday evening, email queues lit up everywhere with people reacting to Barack Obama's thoughts on life being nasty, bitter and short in small-town America. Time was not long ago that a Democratic candidate could have said such folk cling to guns and religion and are hostile to "diversity" with nary a peep from his party. Not now. Obama was repudiated. Crushed. Media analysis suggested the damage could last til November.

Before midnight, Hillary was paddling down Whiskey River with the boys at Bronko's. Then on Sunday evening, the white flag really went up over the culture war's battlefield.

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Sen. Obama: "Religion is a bulwark . . . Somebody like myself whose entire trajectory, not just during this campaign, but long before, has been to talk about how Democrats need to get in church, reach out to evangelicals, link faith with the work that we do . . . There is a moral dimension to abortion, which I think that all too often those of us who are pro-choice have not talked about or tried to tamp down. I think that's a mistake . . . A comprehensive approach where we focus on abstinence, where we are teaching the sacredness of sexuality to our children."

Some bloodless analysts have said for several years that Democrats had to say this to win because, you know, a lot of people "go to church." And yes, what candidates seeking votes say may be false, faked or fantastic. What remains is the fact that these two, in competition for votes, have conferred political legitimacy and respect on this swath of America.

Set aside the controversies over the name-brand religious-right leaders. Whatever one calls these people – Reagan Democrats, the religious right, values voters – their main beef was not with the election returns but with the manifest evidence that the big-city elites thought their beliefs and their lives were stupid. That is what died this week.

Whatever he meant to say, Barack Obama's small-town "cling to" statement was the Final Condescension. Hillary's trip from Bronko's bar to Messiah College ratified drinkin' on Saturday night and prayin' on Sunday morning.

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This is a cease fire and not a peace agreement. It is like what Hamas would like to have with Israel. Their objectives have not changed, just their rhetoric and means of achieving them. They are following a carefully crafted tightrope walk devised by Democrat strategist to wink at one constituency while deceiving another. They may get away with it until they start governing and making appointments that reveal their core beliefs.