Culture is where the culture wars started -- with the arts and humanities. And as you note, conservatives, deluded into thinking these activities peripheral or effete, conceded that ground to the post-modernists, relativists, and other nihilists. With the results we see today. Big mistake to ignore the arts. Conservatives have a lot of catching-up to do, and they can't do it with patriotic symbols, cowboy art, or Grandma Moses images of small-town America.