The culture wars are back, and liberals need to accept that they're actually winning.
-Brett Brownell (@brettbrownell) is video and web producer for Up w/ Chris Hayes which airs Saturday and Sunday mornings on MSNBC.
You're in Easy Mode. If you prefer, you can use XHTML Mode instead. |
Over the past decade, Americans watched in bafflement and rage as one institution after another – from Wall Street to Congress, the Catholic Church to corporate America, even Major League Baseball – imploded under the weight of corruption and incompetence. In the wake of the Fail Decade, Americans have historically low levels of trust in their institutions; the social contract between ordinary citizens and elites lies in tatters.
How did we get here? With "Twilight of the Elites," Christopher Hayes offers a radically novel answer. Since the 1960s, as the meritocracy elevated a more diverse group of men and women into power, they learned to embrace the accelerating inequality that had placed them near the very top. Their ascension heightened social distance and spawned a new American elite--one more prone to failure and corruption than any that came before it.
Leave a Comment:
I hope you're right; however, it certainly does not feel that way to me here in Alabama.
Alabama is the Berlin of the culture wars: it will only go down when it runs out of women and children to throw onto the barricades.
I have a friend who worked for The Catholic Church for many years. She has kidney disease she has had 2 miscarriages both of those pregnancies resulted in her being bed ridden and very sick. Last year she got pregnant again this time she ended up in the ICU in a coma, the doctors told her husband the baby was putting so much pressure on her kidneys she was at risk for total kidney failure and had a greater than 90% chance of death if the pregnancy continued. They were distraught when she was released from the hospital and went to talk with their priest who told her what an evil person her husband was for aborting the pregnancy and that he should have allowed God to make the right decision. Her doctors warned her that she should not risk another pregnancy and to use birth control, because her kidney function was eroding faster, she has a rare blood type so getting a kidney match was statistically very unlikely. She was told another pregnancy would destroy what was left of her kidney function.
The church told her it would be immoral for her to take birth control and that it would be just as bad as abortion, every day at work she was harassed for the decision. They actually told her if they found out she was using her health benefits for birth control they would take away her benefits. She left the church very shortly after.
The so called christians are willing to throw away the lives of women they don't care that sometimes people can't afford to have children or that having a child might kill them, as far as they are concerned if its God's will the baby will come. Its idiotic and mean spirited, not everyone is capable of being "The Duggers" and having 19 children.
My friend still cries when thinking about her inability to carry a child, but she has adopted 3 children and loves them dearly.
There is something wrong with the right wing people thinking they can impose their beliefs on everyone else while shouting about how their rights and freedoms are being imposed on.
Blaise, back in 1985 my then-wife worked for a Catholic hospital (St. Joseph's in Phoenix.) Her health insurance routinely covered contraceptives.
When, after a difficult pregnancy our daughter was delivered by C-section in St. Joe's, her obstetrician told her that she would never survive another pregnancy. Because of hospital policy, he couldn't tie her tubes off while she was "open" but as soon as she healed from the birth her insurance had no problem covering the procedure at another hospital.
Something has changed in the last quarter-century, and I don't think it has anything to do with Church doctrine.
Up is a welcome oasis in the desert of cable news. I hope Chris Hayes will get a show that's on at a more civilized hour. And at the same time, I hope he'll continue to write thinky pieces for The Nation.
A shout-out for Chris and his guests!
I am up with Up. How is your penis, are condoms a hinderence, is premature ejaculation a problem, vasestomies should not be covered under insurance, penil lengthening, testicular inplants, unless disease related, Viagra, no more insurance coverage. You will now need a physician's prescription for condoms, a physical exam, uncluding a rectal exam will be mandated, no medical consent will be needed. We women have rectal exam with our pelvics, why not you.. Are your prostates healthy, Are your sperm counts high or low, Every baby you make, you will pay for their raising, including college. How invasive do you want me to become? I want, no I demand a all female panel to discuss this in Congress, no men permitted. You decide for us, which you can't, and we decide for you, which we should not and did not. Your penis and testicles have been off topic, unless they are involved in a crime. My ovaries, vagina, use of contraception, what is in my uterus and vagina are for you to debate. How dare you! Who do you think you are? As an RN, I'm outraged. Mr. Speaker, Nancy is coming. Republicans will not be in charge soon. Start thinking about the lobbyist jobs you will soon applying for, like Rick Santorum. PA hated him. Thought he was fruitloops. As a Jew, Rabbi, we will deal with you and your job. Rabbi's are employed, hired, fired by congregations. They get pensions from their congregations, we give them salaries large enough to raise children, not rich. You do not represent me Rabbi, you are a teacher. You have religious freedom, as do I. Rabbi, May I dicuss your reproductive choice with a board of women? Why not? Have I outraged you, insulted you, invaded you somehow? I can only hope. Shame on you. Shame. No mitzvah for you.
Great show today.
Chris, I'm astonished at how good your shows are! It's really shocking, I have to say.
Many, many thanks.