There is a simple, one-word explanation for why Obamacare is now the law of our land:  culture.

As we know from this and other sources, Chief Justice Roberts was prepared to join the four conservatives on the Supreme Court in ruling that Obamacare was unconstitutional. He didn’t change his mind because of what he heard in Court or read in his chambers. No, on the most significant Supreme Court ruling in a generation, Roberts was moved by the Washington Post‘s view that overturning the law would be a radical act that damaged the Court’s credibility.

Faced with this withering legal critique, what’s a jurist with the backbone of a chocolate eclair to do? Chief Justice Roberts could either reject his intellectual principles and coherent legal reasoning, or buck elite public opinion and risk being shunned by E. J. Dionne at the next Georgetown cocktail party. Unfortunately for the nation and his reputation, Roberts chose the progressive applause waiting behind door number one.

Ultimately, this sorry episode shows the power of America’s still-dominant cultural establishment in shaping public opinion. It also shows that our media, academia, and popular culture continue to push public policy in a progressive direction. For the few who doubt this,  consider the number of times that Justices Ginsberg or Breyer felt pressured to switch their votes because of something they read in the New York Times.

Edmund Burke once wrote that “opinions are of infinite consequence. They make the manners – in fact, they make the laws:  they make the legislator.” And, we can now add, they make the Justice. Regardless of their success at the ballot box, conservatives and classical liberals continue to face huge cultural headwinds. Lasting and permanent changes in policy will only come by changing the culture.