Culture wars have two main functions. First, to split an existing, dominant social or political coalition apart by the clever use of wedge-issues. (Not all wedge-issues are a part of a culture war.) So, a culture war reveals a latent or induces real divergence in a pre-existing coalition. So, for example, how to think about trans-issues has split feminism apart (especially in the U.K, which is itself an interesting phenomenon). Second, and this mirrors the first function, to induce or solidify unity within a potentially heterogeneous coalition (think of the role of women’s ‘right to choose’ in America’s Democratic party). So, the issue must have salience to what we may call ‘tribe formation.’
When the left side of the US culture wars is discussed, the same handful of examples come up time after time (Defund the police, David Shor, Yale Halloween costumes). This leads me to think that these cases are filling a vacant place in a conceptual scheme, in the same way as the "Republican policy wonk" used to. Given the endless parade of cultural grievances, competitive outrage and so on that characterises the political right in the US, an analysis based on concepts like polarisation needs balancing examples on the left.
When the left side of the US culture wars is discussed, the same handful of examples come up time after time (Defund the police, David Shor, Yale Halloween costumes). This leads me to think that these cases are filling a vacant place in a conceptual scheme, in the same way as the "Republican policy wonk" used to. Given the endless parade of cultural grievances, competitive outrage and so on that characterises the political right in the US, an analysis based on concepts like polarisation needs balancing examples on the left.
My position is that polarisation just is intrinsic to politics. I picked examples from the 'left' because these are most familiar to my audience.