Alex Pareene and Sarah Jaffe on Why Republicans (and U.S. Catholic Bishops) Reignited Culture Wars

Alex Pareene at Salon this morning, on the Santorum bump as the political and religious right try to reignite the never-ending culture wars over women's and gay rights in the 2012 election cycle: 

(Would it be conspiratorial to note that these divisive cultural issues began attracting a great deal of right-wing attention very soon after the release of a positive jobs report? A little bit, probably.) (Also: Remember when the Tea Party meant the GOP was going all libertarian and abandoning social issues? Ha, ha.)

When he speaks of "these divisive cultural issues," Santorum is speaking specifically of the war the U.S. Catholic bishops have sought to mount all of a sudden against the Obama administration re: the issue of contraceptive coverage in health care plans.

And writing at Alternet today, Sarah Jaffe dissects five lies the religious and political light want to tell American voters about the phony "war on religion" they claim the Obama administration is waging against believers: 

Exploiting religious divides has long been one of the ways conservatives seek to win over working-class voters, whom they otherwise don't seem to care about. Abortion, gay rights and religious education become wedge issues for politicians like Rick Santorum, who blend a kind of faux-populism with frighteningly reactionary sentiments about the rights of women and LGBT people. 

That's just it, too. The claims of “war on religion” seem to always come when a move by the administration, a court, or legislature has granted more rights and protections to those who are not straight, male and usually white. When white evangelicals and Catholics claim that Obama's declaring a war on religion, they mean on their religion.

Three of five big lies on which Jaffe focuses involve Catholic issues and the U.S. Catholic bishops.

Which makes you wonder, doesn't it, what particular group of working-class voters someone in some back rooms somewhere has recently decided it intends to target by manufacturing a made-up war against Catholics, just as the economic news from the Obama administration appears to be a little brighter.