What does it take to scare the Republican Party? What is it that brings the ideology that controls two branches of government and influences the third to quake with fear? What is the cause that makes those who hold unilateral control over 32 state governments tremble with fright?
If you answered a group of high school students from Florida, then congratulations, you are today’s winner.
Now hold on a minute you might be asking, how can this be? The answer to that question, while complicated, is extremely illuminating with regard to the current political climate.
It’s true that the Parkland shooting survivors themselves pose no threat to the GOP, but what they represent is fatal to them. They represent the latest outbreak of a vocal and energetic public backlash to the party, part of an escalating series of clashes between governing and governed carried out through mass marches for women and science, hashtag takedowns, and a thousand other flashpoints. It’s reached a point now where even such a conservative stalwart as corporate America is turning against Republicans in the wake of Parkland.
It seems no matter how much power conservatives amass, how many legislatures they control, how many bills they pass, how many offices they fill, they still seem to feel threatened and behave not as a party feeling flush with victory and power, but as embattled survivors fearing imminent extinction. The reason for this disconnect between reality and action is as simple as it is grim. Politics inevitably follows culture and conservatives have lost the cultural momentum in this country.
This is a rather stark reversal of fortune for the GOP considering that at one time they held the dominant cultural position over the majority of this country. While it’s true that the producers of culture, the artists and other creative types, are generally to the left of things, it’s the values and opinions of mass culture that dictate political opinions. For many years, conservatives held a comfortable dominion over it. Political power this domination grants is probably best exemplified by the phenomena of the culture wars.
It’s a matter of debate as to where the culture wars started, whether it was 60’s leftists or Richard Nixon that set the ball rolling, but it was conservatives who perfected the use of culture as a tool for power. The great conservative takeover of the 80’s and 90’s was spearheaded by culture warriors provoking outrage and fear wherever they could against the immoral liberals.
With the marriage of the GOP and the evangelical movement under Regan, the wars took on the dimensions of a holy crusade, smiting the evils of school busing, abortion, and gay rights. An entire generation of conservative politicians rose to power on the strength of cultural indignation and moral outrage.
But almost while they weren’t looking things began to change under conservatives; demographics shifted younger and browner, the Internet redefined how culture was consumed, and those liberal creative types kept on pushing their message until things that once were inconceivable became an accepted reality. Conservatives have now become aware that things have changed, but they remain slow to adapt, and at the pace life moves today, speed is life.
It’s the inability to reconcile new realities with old tactics that is leading to the slow death of the GOP and the awkwardness and embarrassment that is their retreat from power. What else is the explanation for attacking the NFL or transgender bathrooms other than a desperate attempt to relive the glory days and hang on to power?
Perhaps this is why Republicans have started to shift away from trying to use culture wars to gain power and instead deploy them as a scorched earth policy to deny opponents legitimacy and stir up outrage amongst the worst elements of society.
Ultimately though, this is a futile action, a last desperate grab for power before fading into infamy. That is not to say that there is no danger in what conservatives are attempting to do to maintain control, but with vigilance that danger can be overcome.
There are going to be many more ugly encounters in the culture wars before they are over, but make no mistake they will end. Politics follows culture, it may not always follow promptly, but it does eventually fall in line, we simply must bear with it until then.