Changes

The post-World War I South developed a culture based on fundamentalism and related anti-modernist tendencies. It rallied to its favorite political hero [[William Jennings Bryan]], already a leader in the prohibitionist cultural wars, when he declared war on ungodly [[Darwinism]] in the 1920s. The result was the national attention given the [[Scopes Trial]] in 1925.   

The post-World War I South developed a culture based on fundamentalism and related anti-modernist tendencies. It rallied to its favorite political hero [[William Jennings Bryan]], already a leader in the prohibitionist cultural wars, when he declared war on ungodly [[Darwinism]] in the 1920s. The result was the national attention given the [[Scopes Trial]] in 1925.   

Southern anti-modernism resurged in the 1980s, assisted by a new political mobilization behind the conservatism of [[Ronald Reagan]]. It was sponsored by the [[Christian Coalition]] and other ad-hoc alignments led by the ministers of [[Southern Baptist Convention|Southern Baptist]] mega-churches.  Northern Catholics had long opposed abortion and began mobilizing its own culture war against secularism in the 1970s. In the name of "family issues," Southern Baptists, [[Missouri Synod]] Lutherans, Mormons and fundamentalists joined in the new culture war, attacking abortion, feminism, homosexuality, obscenity, and government support for the arts and humanities.  African Americans joined the ad-hoc coalition to oppose gay rights. After 2000, stem cell research also became a culture war target. Southern Baptists, who expanded nationwide after 1945, reignited their crusade against Darwinism as taught in the public schools and lobbied for the teaching of various forms of Creationism as an alternative.  

Southern anti-modernism resurged in the 1980s, assisted by a new political mobilization behind the conservatism of [[Ronald Reagan]]. It was sponsored by the [[Christian Coalition]] and other ad-hoc alignments led by the ministers of [[Southern Baptist Convention|Southern Baptist]] mega-churches.  Northern Catholics had long opposed abortion and began mobilizing its own culture war against secularism in the 1970s. In the name of "family issues," Southern Baptists, [[Missouri Synod]] Lutherans, Mormons and fundamentalists joined in the new culture war, attacking [[evolution|evolutionism]],[[abortion]], [[feminism]], [[homosexuality]], obscenity, and government support for the arts and humanities.  African Americans joined the ad-hoc coalition to oppose gay rights. After 2000, stem cell research also became a culture war target. Southern Baptists, who expanded nationwide after 1945, reignited their crusade against Darwinism as taught in the public schools and lobbied for the teaching of various forms of Creationism as an alternative.

 

===Politics===

===Politics===

By the 1980s, educational levels more so than social class aligned culture war partisans and spilled over into presidential elections. Republicans increasingly attacked public schools, higher education, and the arts, as they became a party of college dropouts and lost its historic support among the better educated.  The injection of immigration issues into politics after 2005 opened a new front in the culture wars by reinvigorating nativist themes that had been dormant since the 1920s.  Attacking illegal iImmigration, however, has proved problematic for Republicans, as Republican nativists often denounce the Republican business interests that attracted illegal Latino immigrants in the first place with irresistible job opportunities.

By the 1980s, educational levels more so than social class aligned culture war partisans and spilled over into presidential elections. Republicans increasingly attacked public schools, higher education, and the arts, as they became a party of college dropouts and lost its historic support among the better educated.  The injection of immigration issues into politics after 2005 opened a new front in the culture wars by reinvigorating nativist themes that had been dormant since the 1920s.  Attacking illegal iImmigration, however, has proved problematic for Republicans, as Republican nativists often denounce the Republican business interests that attracted illegal Latino immigrants in the first place with irresistible job opportunities.