Tracking: The Left's Divide Over Sexuality

Ross Douthat’s column on Sunday asked, “Can the Left Regulate Sex?” One of the sharpest divisions on the Left is over the place of sexuality in society. Is society supposed to liberate all sexual expressions, including those of pedophiles? Or should society instead regulate sexuality as potentially abusing vulnerable people? It used to be that the Left could focus on destroying the Christian moral consensus that regulated sexual behavior in Western culture. Now that Christianity has lost that moral influence, Douthat says, the Left is having to confront the problem of whether to regulate sex. On what basis would the Left do so? What is its vision for sexual flourishing? Whatever the resolution, our society is looking into an abyss of dehumanization.