Fighting as hard as we can just to stay where we are

The Bennett controversy prompts this very thoughtful piece by Stanley Kurtz for National Review Online. Kurtz occupies a “middle ground” position on social/cultural issues, and he suggests, correctly I believe, that most Americans also occupy that ground. Under these circumstances, he wonders whether there can be “a truce between our competing cultural camps.” The answer, I think, is no. From a conservative perspective, I would argue that the assault on the cultural norms associated with even a “middle” position is so strong that, even for conservatives who would embrace or settle for that position, no truce is possible. And I suspect that the liberal perspective is similar.