I'm busy as hell today, but Davis Harsanyi has a great culture war piece in the Denver Post, titled "Giving up on God (sort of)." The question is "Do we need God in politics?":

Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker recently penned a provocative column titled "Giving up on God," wherein she suggested that the Republican Party ditch G-O-D. The piece so rankled James Dobson (Ph.D in Divine Insight) that he compared Parker to that seditious bum Benedict Arnold.

Among factions of conservatism, there is a general willingness to co-exist and -- sporadically -- win elections. Dobson, conversely, employs a saintly litmus test that marginalizes large swaths of his own party. He has redefined "traditional values," an essential ingredient for Republican victory, to mean "illogical rigidity."

...if California voters proved anything, it is that voters don't feel the need to vote Republican even if they happen to recognize the stability provided by the millennia-long need to be hassled by a clingy do-gooder from the opposite sex.

And, despite perceptions, Barack Obama did not support gay marriage. In fact, few national Democrats of note explicitly back gay marriage -- notwithstanding their demonizing conservatives. Democrats have made social issues irrelevant by simply ignoring them.

[...]

Sure, there are citizens who oppose gay marriage -- not out of bigotry or irrational loathing, but out of a sense of tradition and faith. The problem is that the Dobson Wing hinders Republicans from offering any feasible counter-solutions. Dobson not only opposes man-on-man matrimony but civil unions, as well. He opposes adoption for gay couples. Let's face it; he opposes the existence of gays.

Good luck with that.

Interested as I am in the culture war, I'm afraid that the plumbing war, the roofing war, and the retaining wall war all must come first!

So read it all!