Is it too late to call for a cease-fire in the Culture Wars? Maybe it is; the fact that religious conservatives have retreated to calling for “principled pluralism” in recent years is likely less an indication of a newfound broadmindedness than it is a sudden realization that it’s the best they can hope for. There’s little doubt in my mind that the rabid bloodlust I see on the Left would be no less pronounced on the Right had things gone a bit differently in the last decade or two. The temptation to chase down your retreating opponent and utterly destroy him is a difficult impulse to resist. And yet, as history has shown us again and again, vengeance can only give birth to vengeance: whatever you do to your enemy now is something he’ll likely be doing to you tomorrow. And ultimately, that’s the problem: It’s easy to ask that warring parties lay down their arms, but ultimately one of them has to go first.
Here, I think, is where Larry Flynt and Jerry Falwell have the most to teach us.
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