Our Conservative Government, Tethered To A Liberal, Global Culture

I've lost count of the articles I read discussing the inability of our allegedly all-powerful Republican government in Washington to enact a single piece of significant legislation.  By "significant, of course, I mean something beyond the naming of a new post office.  Of course, there is the tax bill that was just unveiled today and, as disastrous as it may be for Republicans in states where the soon-to-be-gone deduction for state and local taxes matters, tax cutting defines and unifies the GOP more than does anything else.  So the bill, in one form or another, is likely to pass. 

But, other than that, and the stolen Supreme Court seat, and the repeal of the Obama-era rule allowing consumers to sue banks, zip.  Not much.  And all three of these are likely to has devastating consequences for the American people.  As a consequence, the Republicans may not even be "all-powerful" in name, before very long.

In the meantime, why is it that their reach seems to have consistently exceeded their grasp?  I think that it boils down to one thing:  the disconnect between our politics and our culture.  While the former may have become consistently conservative over time, the latter has not.  And that is due, I think, primarily to the fact that culture, now more than ever, is a global phenomenon, not controlled by a single nation, but by the citizens of every nation.

This is why, despite limited consumer demand in this country, and an Administration ready to--pardon the pun--pull the plug on government support for alternative forms of energy, American auto manufacturers are all-in on all-electric cars.  Why?  Because global demand for world cars is--again, pardon the pun--accelerating.  And so-called "American" auto manufacturers are dependent on foreign purchases of their products to meet their own bottom lines.  Donald Trump can "dig" coal all he wants.  It's going nowhere.  And his coal country supporters are going to figure that out, sooner or later.

And the non-conservative nature of our culture shows up in even more fundamental ways.  Take a look at this article.  It turns out that the development of social networks through the Internet has led to an increase in interracial dating and marriage.  Even more phenomenally, the marriages that are based on Internet-initiated relationships seem to have a greater propensity for stability than do marriages that came about through more traditional ways of meeting people.

Why, then, if our culture is so liberal, does our government not reflect that fact?  I think, for the most part, it has to do with (a) the influence of "big money" in our political system, and (b) the revulsion that many progressives feel toward having any kind of connection to a system that has been polluted in this fashion.  Even by voting. 

Obama, once upon a time not so long ago, seemed to have the ability to change many of their minds about that.  Perhaps, if we're lucky, someone else like that will come along, and we can see a government that accomplishes more because it is more in line with the thinking of the people who vote for it.