Is this country headed for an irreconcilable culture war — something which will dwarf the best efforts of this blog to stop?

I mean, despite the soothing remarks by many bloggers, it is harder and harder to ignore the seething rage just beneath the surface of so much that passes for ordinary politics. It has become quite ordinary for simple dialogue to be only barely possible — as Paul Wolfowitz found when he addressed an audience in New York, and was almost heckled off the stage. How does one reconcile such views as people on one side who believe it is self apparent that Paul Wolfowitz and Condoleeza Rice epitomize evil, with people on the other who think "liberals" have declared "war" on "Christianity"?

Is the gap too wide?

Where do libertarians fit in this gulf? I honestly don't know (and I certainly don't sleep on the right couches), so I guess that is why I am writing about it.

Libertarians are hated by the socialist, deconstructionist left because they have a definable and articulate anti-socialist moral compass. At the same time, they are hated by moral conservatives because the libertarian moral compass is not grounded in the absolute truth the latter claim can only be found in a particular interpretation of a particular religious text.

Yet I see more and more evidence that libertarians are tiring of their "politically homeless" status, and hence, many of them would gravitate towards the socialist camp so that at least part of their agenda is embraced. Human dignity may depend on such things; John Adams observed that there is no state so intolerable as the state of not being listened to. The present administration is, rightly or wrongly, perceived by many libertarians as antithetical to just about every libertarian principle — as well as unwilling to engage in dialogue. Some Democrats (Howard Dean in particular) are seen as at least partially libertarian, and open to dialogue.

Additionally, there is a sense among libertarians of having been taken for granted by the Republican Party. ("They'll never vote Democrat!")

Yet, true libertarians are not in favor of socialism. That guarantees future trouble if they enter Democratic Party politics, because like it or not, the Democratic Party is the party of socialism.

As things stand right now, both parties favor a modern, powerful, ever-centralized American federal state. Because there is agreement that this must remain, neither party can be said to be the party of "small government." This feeds the Culture War, because each side fears the other side gaining power and using it against its opponents. Human idiosyncrasies such as sexual desire or religious beliefs, and accidents of birth such as race, have been completely politicized, with otherwise innocent individuals made to fear that they will be oppressed if the wrong side gains power. Had the federal government remained small as originally envisioned, there would not be as much fear of power as there is now. A vastly powerful federal government now is accepted as a fact of life.