Did conservatives just lose the culture war?

A lot of pundits have noted that Barack Obama is sending distinctly centrist messages these days, offering up tax cuts with the same zeal that he’s pushing New Deal-style spending.

But the Inauguration-week festivities have blossomed with a distinct, counter-cultural flavor, with everyone from gay Episcopal bishop Gene Robinson to Pete Seeger taking the stage.

(Yes, I know, Rick Warren is also part of the line-up; but even he seems to be trying to play nice with the liberals who crowded the Lincoln Memorial.)

The take-away message seems clear: With the exception of a few conservative actors and musicians, America’s pop culture is deeply, unabashedly liberal.

Heck, even Garth Brooks was up there singing 60s hippy songs.

As conservatives well know, culture is half of politics. And it’s beginning to look as if the center of America’s popular sensibility is damned progressive.

Obama himself talks comfortably about gay people as if they’re, well, people. And a growing number of mainstream folks seem to think that’s about right.

Same goes for a lot of the sexual-and-relationship behavior that make conservatives cringe: divorce, pre-marriage sexuality, same-sex marriage, reproductive “choice” and so on.

Obviously, one big progressive shindig in DC does not mark the death-knell for the James Dobson, family-values movement.

But it’s hard to imagine where social conservatives go from here.

Rick Warren himself may represent a new, more appealing brand, but a big part of his appeal seems to be that he soft-pedals the finger-wagging.

So I’ll pose it as a question: Was 2008 the year that conservatives lost the culture war?