Since the dawn of the 21st century, one concept that has become increasingly prevalent in politics today is the idea of “Kulturkampf,” or culture war in German. Although it was first used to describe the political conflict between the Catholic Church and the Protestant Kingdom of Prussia in the 1870s, it has now come to refer to politics behind the ballot box that is driven by social and cultural politics. We have seen the prevalence of this “Kulturkampf”, from the promotion of “trad-wife” content and religious supremacy, to some extent, on the conservative side of the political aisle, to issues like legalising abortion and LGBTQ+ policies on the liberal side of things. However, this is where the left fails to recognise that they cannot counter a reactionary style of social politics.
The Appeal of Social Conservatism
As we have seen at home and abroad, the idea of an “us vs them” rhetoric is easy to get people to feel a mix of emotions, predominantly fear, to vote for social conservatives. This rhetoric is able to do a couple of things, including: foster religious/racial supremacy amongst those who strongly believe in it - and therefore increase the prevalence of demonstrations, peaceful or otherwise, which can devolve into racism and religious extremism which can result in places like India where the Hindu vs Muslim divide has made the far-right BJP the ruling party in the nation since 2014. There is no single explanation for why this phenomenon occurs worldwide, but I think it stems from the idea of control and a sense of moral supremacy.
ScienceDirect does mention that “the psychological need for control is stronger among political conservatives", which does suggest that conservatism itself has been studied as a motivated reaction to address and satisfy the need for control, as it has been shown that many members across the political spectrum tend to embrace social conservative values as a compensatory control strategy. Think about the republican movement back in France, when a counter-enlightenment thinker named Edmund Burke declared: “[But] the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever.” in The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke where he lamented that the glory of Europe that was, in his eyes, built by tradition and hierarchy - the two things that social conservatives still hold on dearly to this day, were being destroyed by the French Republic's goals of: Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité. In a more recent example, during the campaign for Brexit, a slogan named for the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union economic bloc, the slogan “Vote leave, take control” has already given away the whole idea: they perceive that control is lost, and therefore they need to "retake control” by voting Leave.
In multiple ways, the idea of control, or lack thereof, naturally evolves into an idea and a claim of moral supremacy. If there is a perception that state control has been lost over issues like: border(s), tradition(s), religion, or the usually cited “accelerated pace of social change”, then regaining it often requires framing one’s own worldview as not just preferable, but morally superior. This is why social conservatism frequently carries an undertone of absolute and objective morality. The appeal lies in the promise of order, as well as grounding that order in values deemed timeless, sacred, and even expected from society. An example is the United States, where the rise of the Religious Right from the late 20th century onwards was driven by the belief that traditional Christian values and morality must guide public life, in terms of societal expectation and policies. Opponents, mostly liberals, were viewed not merely as wrong but as immoral for eroding family values, faith, and patriotism. Similarly, in India under the BJP, Hindu nationalism has presented Hindu identity as the moral foundation of the nation, casting Muslims and Christians as outsiders who threaten the purity of the cultural order. There is one underlying, fundamental root cause that ties everything together: the aim of social conservatives to become the only “legitimate” moral order, thereby elevating its concept of moral supremacy over others.
Fortunately, or unfortunately - as the left, we cannot counteract these feelings as they are not rooted in reality - which makes us on the losing side of this kulturkampf. Instead, we must fight back via economic policies that are generally and statistically proven to be failures in their own right like the rising inequalities during Thatcher and Reagan's leadership in both the United Kingdom and United States respectively. In other words, fight the Kulturkampf with Klassenkampf.
Embracing Klassenkampf and Keynesian Economics
Klassenkampf is defined as: class warfare or class consciousness and it is a very important part of leftist literature. In fact, it is so important that Marx declared in the opening line of The Communist Manifesto, “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” Yet the modern left has largely forgotten this principle, drifting towards the political centre and sacrificing much of its bold action and visionary policies under the guise of “electability”, a promise that has never arrived, and in fact is the root cause of the erosion of much of the trust in much of the modern-day social democratic/democratic socialist parties from the Democratic Action Party to many Social Democratic Parties in much of Europe.
In Germany, the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD) under Gerhard Schroder, embraced the Hartz IV reforms in the early noughties. Named after Volkswagen’s HR director, Peter Hartz, these reforms drew criticism from left-wing groups for the abolition and restructuring of some unemployment benefits, which some perceived as lowering the dignity of work. They also severely impacted East Germany in its effort to catch up to the West in economic terms. In recent times, however, former Chancellor Olaf Scholz has moved the SPD further to the centre, making Germans feel that the SPD represents the unemployed. This has led many Germans to believe that working-class issues are no longer a priority for the SPD, a shift from its traditional base.
Closer to home, however, the Democratic Action Party has largely abandoned their original democratic socialist/social democratic ideals according to an FMT article and its former MP in Mr. Kua Kia Soong. In both cases, they argue that socialist ideals, which was the foundations for which the party stands, have become increasingly shunned and the ideology has been largely marginalised in the modern day and age. Again, this can be attributed to the party's shift to the centre of the political system to appeal to more voters. However, as Mr. Kua argues, “abandoning socialism risks DAP becoming indistinguishable from rivals, losing its relevance”. In fact, it seems to be that Mr. Kua is supporting is more of a policy shift within the party to be more like Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayoral race and Pedro Sanchez's PSOE in Spain.
Zohran Mamdani has been emphasizing economic policy and class warfare by emphasising his his platform of: affordability, a USD30/hour minimum wage, and higher taxes on the richest 1% of New York City, as per reports by the BBC. He has also expressed solidarity with many unions supporting him including teachers unions, auto workers unions and even healthcare workers. Mr. Mamdani is running a campaign for the people of New York City - and he's doing it via Klassenkampf. Even though the billionaires and the ultra wealthy are running multiple attack campaigns against him, he still leads in the polls by a considerable margin.
One of the only European Social Democrat Parties to buck the trend of shifting to the right is the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) under the leadership of Pedro Sanchez. According to Renewal, a Social Democratic journal, he has revived the Spanish Social Democracy via implementing the following: Large increases to the Minimum Wage, implemented labour-friendly labour market reforms and invested in green technologies. This has resulted in a stronger economic forecast, lower unemployment and real wages are up and he is accomplishing this even with keeping up with the conservative PP in the polls. After two terms in government, this is still a great result for the left, and it shows that banking on Keynesian economics as a leftwing party actually works.
Writer's Final Thoughts
Just as there was a shift towards neoliberalism in the wake of Thatcher and Reagan in the 80s, there must be a socialist correction in the the subsequent years to come. Leftwing political parties need to shift away from emphasising on social issues too much, as they have done in countries like the United States and instead focus on the bread and butter issues and take the fight to the conservatives on economic issues. Do not fight Kulturkampf with more Kulturkampf, fight Kulturkampf with Klassenkampf!
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