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The Case for More Canceling
As long as conservatives are obsessed with Dr. Seuss and “woke capital,” they’ll be too distracted to wage genuinely harmful culture wars.
newrepublic.com
Dan Pfieffer, a former senior aide to President Barack Obama and current podcast co-host, shared some interesting data in a recent newsletter. If you had the vague sense that the incredibly stupid story of the “cancellation” of Dr. Seuss was basically all conservatives were talking about for much of last month, well, you were right. According to a poll, 77 percent of Republican voters reported hearing “a lot” or “some” news about Dr. Seuss’s estate pulling a few of his books from circulation for including racist imagery. Media Matters research shows that Fox spent a full hour on the story one day in March, compared to a bit less than a half-hour on Covid-19 vaccine news.
Pfeiffer points out, correctly, that the Seuss obsession, like any “culture war” story manufactured by the right-wing media, served a purpose: It prevented conservatives from noticing (or at least thinking too much about) the popular things Joe Biden and congressional Democrats have done and proposed to do. He makes the somewhat nuanced point that while it is politically savvy for President Biden to ignore whatever the right’s latest pet story is completely, other Democrats must find a way to engage with and defuse these mostly bogus narratives that the right concocts and turns into national “news.”
[snip]
People who talk about politics for a living often describe Republicans waging or stoking “culture wars,” drawing a distinction between “culture issues” and, presumably, the actual substance of politics: economics and policy and so on. To state the obvious, there is no clean division between “culture war” issues and “economic issues”—all culture war politics is really about who has power and autonomy in a society. When Republicans attempt to restrict access to abortion, for instance, we are seeing a culture war play out, with real economic consequences for real people.
But while finding the line between “cultural issues” and everything else is impossible, there is perhaps a discernible distinction between actual matters of substance and weightless distractions.
This except from the article very closely mirrors my perspective on the wars about cancel culture. In our current situation, the popular conservative sentiment is more concerned about fighting defensive battles (whether cultural or political). This is a result of a shift within the party around (I believe) 2008 that came about due a few factors (a black president, the financial crisis, gay rights, and the legacy of people like Newt Gingrich or Limbaugh promote a culturing war style of politics) which has taken the party away from one that can competently recommend and promote good policy to one that is primarily concerned about identity. In a way, silly fights over stuff like Dr. Seuss is inevitable in the current political climate.
While I do long for the earlier days of conservatives (us liberals, we can go too far sometimes and there should be a strong and savvy voice checking us when there are excesses), I feel it is probably better that the conservatives are weak right now (and would probably not be strong in congress if it weren't for shenanigans like gerrymandering) until they can get their act together and move away from the identity concerns and come back to the governing table. However, until they can come back to reality, it is good they are distracted by their war against Coca-cola, Patagonia, and other silly nonsense.