Purple Haze
23 Pages Posted: 27 Apr 2010 Last revised: 29 Apr 2010
Date Written: April 27, 2010
Abstract
In this age of vitriolic politics, it is vitally important to understand and try to defuse the culture wars. Red Families v. Blue Families makes a timely and important contribution to this effort, explaining why the culture wars over the family continue to resonate and also offering potential solutions for moving beyond the red-blue divide. This Review argues that Cahn and Carbone offer tremendous insight into the culture wars, even if their descriptive frame of red families versus blue families has its limitations. The Review further contends that although their proposed solutions of changing the subject and embracing family law federalism may work in some circumstances, these solutions are of limited assistance for some of the most important family law reforms. This Review builds upon the insights of Red Families v. Blue Families to develop a pragmatic approach to the political divide that neither avoids true differences nor retreats to balkanized localism.
Keywords: public law, legal theory, family law, political theory
JEL Classification: I30, I31, K10, K40
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation