The Culture Wars

This is an unusual area of public policy. While it focuses on issues largely related to morals - primarily sexual activity - it tends to be used mostly as a political toll to drive people to the polls to support certain candidates. 

It can be used as a way to illustrate conflict between the three dominant strains of political culture in the United States: the individualistic, moralistic, and traditionalistic. I can see it applying to our discussions of campaigns, public opinion, and political parties among others.

This seems to be a useful description of the start of the subject: 

James Davison Hunter, a sociologist at the University of Virginia, introduced the expression again in his 1991 publication, Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America. Hunter described what he saw as a dramatic realignment and polarization that had transformed American politics and culture.

He argued that on an increasing number of "hot-button" defining issues—abortion, gun politics, separation of church and state, privacy, recreational drug use, homosexuality, censorship—there existed two definable polarities. Furthermore, not only were there a number of divisive issues, but society had divided along essentially the same lines on these issues, so as to constitute two warring groups, defined primarily not by nominal religion, ethnicity, social class, or even political affiliation, but rather by ideological world-views.

Hunter characterized this polarity as stemming from opposite impulses, toward what he referred to as Progressivism and as Orthodoxy.

This suggests that the following topics are components of the culture wars. I suppose we might call these cultural policies, rather than public policies. 

abortion 
gun politics
separation of church and state
privacy
recreational drug use
homosexuality
censorship

Here are some readings on the subject, I'm not completely happy with them so I'll keep digging around for more. 

- The Politics of the Culture Wars in Contemporary America.

- Culture Wars: United States.

- Elon Musk is dragging Apple into the culture wars.