Morning Line: A culture on its way out?

Sam Smith – I keep having this unfashionable notion that what we’re seeing on the right may be the last gasp of a culture that is on its way out. Still noisy, still powerful, it also feels much like the segregationist southerners of the 1960s desperately try to hold their rotten system as history cranked up the gears against them.

One of the ways you can test out such a notion is to look at the young. Evangelical churches, for example, are having a harder time attracting the young. And this, from The Hill,  provides another hint:

Amid boos and occasional cheers, Santorum defended his views on same-sex marriage and legalized marijuana, as he was peppered with questions by a crowd of college students. Santorum's support among independents, who can vote in New Hampshire's Republican contest, dropped from 6 percent to 3 percent after the college event, according to Suffolk's findings. His support from 18 to 34 year olds dropped from 9 percent to 2 percent.

That said, beyond the Occupiers, there are few signs yet that we’re on the cusp of a big change such as the 1960s. For one thing, the Democratic Party doesn’t have an alternative, its president is the weakest of their party in over a century, and liberalism has become more a private club than a public cause.

 In fact, the real change may be between the selfishness and cruelty of individuals – epitomized by the GOP right – and a corporatized and more sophisticated version of the same thing, featuring equal opportunity employment and equal opportunity oppression at the same time. Only the language will have changed.