Victorian values

In a curious reversal the American left has come to promote the rules of fair play and the semblance of the codes of honor of the Victorian establishment their counter-cultural predecessors so decried. 

The left and the right are both picking and choosing from the Victorian code of honor, with the left choosing the men's side of the code while the right chooses the women's. The left sees political combat as a gentleman's sport; the Rove reactionaries see it as an existential battle. The same is true for how the left sees the clash with the Middle East versus how the right sees it.