Revised and updated: 2/12/23
I have seen something very troubling lately. In this kickoff season to 2024, the GOP wants voters to choose culture over pragmatic problem-solving public policy considerations since cultural issues they support are all good stuff that means "freedom." The position of the right wing that now controls the GOP is that cultural issues are now being promoted as a political platform to offset Biden's bipartisan legislative success aimed at helping improve the middle-class standard of living. It is that bipartisan and Democratic platform they vow to overturn, from infrastructure to diabetes medicine and health care affordability. More troubling than that attack on Biden's successful agenda is the GOP promoting cultural issues as an official platform. They begin by twisting the meaning of freedom as a hook to consolidate political support for their cultural platform initiative. This approach was a strategy attempted by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders in the GOP rebuttal to Biden's State of the Union Address.
In the GOP rebuttal to Biden's State of the Union Address, Sanders defined freedom regarding cultural issues. The issues she calls freedom are dear to the belief system of certain Christian evangelicals. Hers is a twisted definition of freedom, a word usually referring to being free from government control, which she turned upside down to mean freedom for fellow believers, but not for others, that is coupled with the use of government power to promote and enforce specific cultural rules of which they approve. Her view is the "normal" one, she said, and the other view is held by "crazies," she asserts, revealing a sensitivity to charges by opponents that the insane are now running the asylum in the House of Representatives and the Republican party. The GOP tools to spread this form of "freedom" from government control are the use of dictation by the government itself of media content and school curriculum and the official, governmental banning of such practices as the right to choose. Among those banned are rights to express honesty about personal sexual identification. The GOP is not about more government "hands off" of individual freedom, but more government control limiting individual freedoms. Sander's rebuttal vowed to advance her twisted view of cultural freedom that increases government control of the thought and speech of others who do not share religious ultra-conservative ideals. Her definition of freedom is far from the normal one held by those on the more libertarian left she now calls "crazies." She shrilly proclaimed, "your freedoms are being attacked by the radical left. They are the crazies; we, the GOP, are the normals," That is a sales pitch only the choir to which she was preaching can readily buy.
Sanders also promoted the concept of the GOP supporting the new generation of leaders. One wonders if she referred to herself as a younger person who is now eligible. She was ironically promoting ideas that were already old hat in the MAGA world, some of which accounted for the poor GOP showing in the midterms. This appeared to be a slap at both candidacies of Trump and Biden in 2024. In reality, it was in lock step with Florida's Gov. Ron DeSantis' implementation by government action and policy of "don't say gay" speech, school book banning and curriculum control, and anti-choice initiatives. The left began the culture wars, Sanders proclaimed, not the right, in a revisionist view of current events. These culture wars have been simmering for a long time. Still, the spark that set off the hotter culture wars was the overturning of 50-year-old Roe and a reactionary right-wing crusade to use the government's reins of power to enforce and roll back any gains in civil, women's, and gay rights. These religious and cultural conservative activists like Sanders saw government as protecting too much freedom, and in reality, they have launched their strategy to roll back freedoms as a party platform.
What is wrong with the promotion of cultural values as a political party's platform?. The values included in those promoting cultural conflicts today fly under the radar disguised with a variety of buzzwords, all of which push back on rights that have been won after long struggles by those who have not been favored by the majority-dominating government and demographics. It is more than just a clash of values. This route foresees a likelihood of future conflicts that could become destructive of domestic tranquility. Economies can not flourish during civil conflicts and turmoil. This is not the legacy I want to leave for my children and grandchildren. The more hopeful view of constructive cultural values is that a majority of people are still choosing: the accommodation and power-sharing route, which will benefit all. We have a choice of which road to continue following.
What are examples of the buzzwords of current advocates of bigotry-based cultural issues?. Some we hear are "Anti woke", "don't say gay speech and teacher rules," anti-transgender athletes and bathrooms, .anti- public self sexual identification by LGBTQ people, and book banning. anti-CRT ( a trumped-up bogeyman, not taught except to graduate level students), and political suppression at the ballot box of suspected opponents miss -named "voter integrity". Some hate-driven concepts are not even thinly disguised, such as blaming some Jewish conspiracy for woes. "Jews, black people, will not replace us" is the slogan of neo-Nazi activists, but "replacement theory" is supported by more than just neo-fascists. White nationalism is even supported by some Congresspeople. Such divisive crusades in the name of Christianity ironically fly in the face of the message of Jesus and make a mockery of the Golden Rule, yet white Christian nationalism has many open adherents.
One racially divisive issue has been police reform. The Tyre Nichols death at the hands of Black police officers in a Black-dominated police force has had the effect of taking the Black Lives Matter/Defund Police advocacy out of the bucket of strictly racially biased issues. Police brutality is now a separate issue from racial one since it is a problem facing law enforcement of both races. Biden's strong opposition day one to the slogan "defund police" has eclipsed the GOP's earlier outrage at the term.
https://www.axios.com/2022/02/26/marjorie-taylor-greene-white-nationalist-event
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