Democrats cannot ignore the culture wars any more than Ukrainians can ignore the Russians
Looking back a moment:
It was one of the 2008 national conventions (IIRC) when Pat Buchanan, sharing the MSNBC dais with Rachel Maddow, directed some snide comment toward Maddow that made her eyes widen in a smile.
“Are you red-baiting me?” Maddow asked with a mixture of surprise and delight. Pat Buchanan is red-baiting me!
For most of us, it’s not fun being on the receiving end of vile accusations. Our first impulse is to deny rather than to counterattack as did Michigan State Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D). Maddow called out Buchanan so the blatant attempt to smear her did not slide by the audience unnoticed. Let them in on the game being played. Let people know that they are being played.
Jamelle Bouie recently reminded Democrats what the culture wars are really about:
Almost 60 years ago, the historian Richard Hofstadter described what he saw as the true goal of McCarthyism. “The real function of the Great Inquisition of the 1950s was not anything so simply rational as to turn up spies or prevent espionage,” he wrote, “or even to expose actual Communists, but to discharge resentments and frustrations, to punish, to satisfy enmities whose roots lay elsewhere than in the Communist issue itself.”
Conservatives, especially white Christians, believe they own exclusive rights to this country. Only they can be first-class, Real Americans. Everyone else needs to know their places and stay in them. Preferably, out of sight. E pluribus unum? What’s that? Some kinda commie slogan? Created equal? My ass.
Jonathan Chait reflects on the culture wars and what liberals need do to win them. They were split during the McCarthy era and need to avoid that mistake today. Most of the right’s accusations are based on lies:
On the other hand, there are some examples of schools embracing radical pedagogy or whacky DEI concepts. Christopher Rufo might be an utterly unprincipled operative, but his nationwide search for examples of government agencies, states, and school districts incorporating radical ideas does turn up some real examples. One of the lessons of the McCarthy episode is that smear artists occasionally manage to accuse the guilty along with the innocent.
When these examples do materialize, temptation on the left is to withhold criticism of any of this excess and fight Republicans on their lies. This no-enemies-to-the-left tactic makes Democrats hostage to the most radical positions within their coalition.
The intracoalitional sweet spot is to deflect criticism of your radical allies. Deflection simultaneously gives uncomfortable moderates permission not to take any stance on the thing in question while allowing radicals to defend it as a positive good. But the price of intracoalitional peace is that it disables any brakes on the extremists.
Chait’s approach, however, is deficient in that it is still defensive. As the expression goes, if you’re explaining, you’re losing.
Meanwhile, Democrats seem reluctant to fight back. That too is losing, says Bouie:
The theory seems to be that Democrats can only lose if they engage this culture war, and that they’ll be on safer ground if they can deliver in Washington and run on their policy achievements without getting into the muck with Republicans.
Democrats have notably not delivered on many of their promises. The bulk of President Biden’s agenda is stalled in Congress, and the White House has been reluctant to the point of timidity when it comes to the use of executive orders to achieve its goals. But even if that were not the case, this posture toward the culture war would be a mistake. These are not just attacks on individual teachers and schools; they don’t stigmatize just vulnerable children and their communities; they are the foundation for an assault on the very idea of public education, part of the long war against public goods and collective responsibility fought by conservatives on behalf of hierarchy and capital.
Democrats need to ac t more like Maddow. Instead of defending against culture-war accusations, they need to call out the ultimate goal of American apostates on the right: to reduce the United States to an authoritarian, white-Christian homeland, the very antithesis of the American idea. Real Americans, my ass.
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