The Culture War and America's fight for fighting's sake.
Many hoped that the end of the Trump presidency would spell the end of American political tumult, or it would at least allow most to stop following so closely. Part of then candidate Joe Biden’s appeal was his plainness. He was the boring consensus type who had populated Washington long before our current hyper partisan era. His presidency was to be a return to normality, a place in which you could maybe watch the evening news, or read your social media feed and otherwise go about your daily life without the interruption of headlines announcing the latest Trump tweet.
Instead the Biden presidency, while lacking in juicy tweets, has not seemingly brought an end to American political turmoil. While his bold policy agenda has stalled and probably died in the hands of Senate Democrats, his presidency itself has become more of a background noise than the omnipresent White House of the former inhabitant. But in the wake left by Trumpian presidential politics, Biden’s lack of panache has left news outlets digging to the states for headlines and outrage.
Two states, and their attention seeking governors, have dominated the news in the last year and a half of the Biden presidency. Texas and Florida with their riverboat captains Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis have picked up the culture war fight and paddle on towards their future presidential ambitions. In Texas, Abbott has used his state’s 1,254 mile long border with Mexico as a political cudgel aimed at President Biden. Earlier this year Abbott ordered increased inspection of all commercial trucks entering his state from Mexico ostensibly to stem the flow of illegal drugs and migrants. However the move was announced as retaliation to the lifting of Covid-era immigration rules by the Biden administration. This came at a time when Americans were experiencing rapid inflation which were, in part, a result of supply chain deficiencies and backups at other ports of entry. Abbott’s maneuver didn’t bear fruit. The stepped up security found zero drugs, contraband, or illegal immigrants during the course of the action. The Abbott administration chalked this as a win anyway by offering the argument that their actions had been a deterrent to Mexican drug cartels. Meanwhile, the stepped up security resulted in huge shipping delays and thousands of dollars worth of rotten produce, millions of dollars in trade revenue, and potential greater losses for American consumers already racked by inflation.
Further taking advantage of his state’s position, Governor Abbott began a scheme to punish the White House by sending migrants who had crossed the border into his state via charter bus to the nation’s capital. This move was also in response to the lifting of Covid-era rules on immigration and was messaged as a warning to the Biden White House. However, it quickly came out that the bussing was entirely voluntary, no migrants were being forced onto the buses, and amounted to little more than an opportunity for migrants from Mexico to get further away from Texas. Abbott initially announced the plan as being paid for by the state but later asked for donations for his stunt after critics in his state began thanking him for his generosity in moving migrants for better opportunities.
In Florida, first term Governor Ron DeSantis has been turning up the culture war dials in an attempt to cast attention on himself and take the fight to the White House. Earlier this year, with the help of his party in the Flordia House and Senate, DeSantis signed into law a bill that restricts how teachers are allowed to teach American history in schools. Gallingly labeled the bill relating to “Individual Freedom,” the law prevents teachers from teaching American history in a way which is “inconsistent with certain principles or state academic standards.” Already the law has made headlines after a state review board flagged 41% of the academic textbooks submitted for use in the state. Strangely, the concept of Social Emotional Learning which seeks to teach students how to handle their emotions, interact with other students, and maintain their own personal well-being, is also a target of the Desantisian right. Seemingly basic concepts which have been decidedly swallowed for the consumption of the ever consuming culture war. Nothing is safe from the fight!
DeSantis, nominally a member of the previously corporation-loving Republican party, also took the fight to his state’s largest employer and best known company, Disney. DeSantis took heat from the company after signing into law another controversial law restricting teachers from discussions on sexual orientation or identity dubbed the “don’t say gay” bill. Disney criticized the bill after a public and employee led outpouring leading to DeSantis and the Republican led legislature retracting special administrative and tax arrangements for Disney World.
Neither Abbott or DeSantis are operating in a good faith attempt to better their state or their citizens, both have engaged in wasteful state spending in order to push their culture warrior credentials however both are wildly popular in their own states. Why would voters want to reward showmanship over policies designed to better their lives?
American politics have trended down the road to extreme partisanship over the previous three decades, however a shift took place during the Trump administration in the understanding of that fight. Gone are the days in which politicians worried about the actual impact of policy on citizens. Even as polarization ramped up in the late 90s and early 00s, politicians generally still looked to enact significant, bipartisan policy which they felt gave them something to campaign on and showed tangible results of their representation to their voters. But the election of Trump and his enduring popularity among Republicans provided a roadmap away from the rational voter model.
Trump cared little about real policy, less about how the government actually worked, and preferred instead to engage in fights with his perceived enemies. This energy of engaging the fight is what actually motivates voters (or at least Republican voters). The previous tether to policy reality has been lifted, letting the full-mobilization total culture war begin.
The disengagement of the American voter from actual policy preference is not just a story of the Trump presidency, the actual transformation has more to do with institutional gridlock than the election of one individual. As the American Senate has transformed from the ‘Greatest Deliberative Body’ to an anemic institution lacking even basic law making facilities, American democracy has become gummed up. The filibuster previously forced Senators to compromise and water down the desire of the majority. This worked for much of American history. However the partisan weaponizing of the filibuster has left the chamber toothless. Unwillingness to give the opposing party even a partial win has triumphed over the desire to pass laws which will better the American people. As fewer laws get passed, the number of problems facing Americans continues to grow, breeding resentment at the institutions and a greater desire to see their enemies vanquished.
The Culture Wars offer a distraction from reality and a battleground on which real victories can still be, possibly, achieved. It’s also the arena from which conservative Americans have felt the greatests sense of loss and liberals the most unreflective sense of victory. Identity and self-worth are the currency of cultural grievance and diminishment or lack of recognition are the calls to war. A politics of culture war are dangerous because they don’t just touch upon people's wants and desires, they rest upon the very conception of the self.
While the federal government may be mostly toothless to pass legislation of meaningful impact on American’s lives, the governments of individual states can still wield great policy power. This is why the actions of Abbott and DeSantis have received such attention, because they are actually able to pass sweeping legislation and have recognized the personal value to aiming that legislation not at genuine problems but rather at wielding the latest weapon in a raging culture war. Abbott and DeSantis are tapping into the feelings of dismay from their conservative bases, striking out at the ideas espoused and supported by liberal elites in coastal cities. The ideas are bad not on the merits, but because who believes in those ideas.
In many ways, the destruction of material policy and the primacy of culture war policy has been the outgrowth of congressional inaction. An institution which refuses its mission is being superseded by politicians willing to pass laws that engage the passions of identity against the material interests of voters. Senators like Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kirsten Sinema (D-AZ) have refused to eliminate the Senate filibuster for any reason as they fear the partisan whiplash that will occur. But due to their, and previous iterations of Senators like them’s inaction, Americans will continue to cast their eyes towards politicians who seem to be doing something, anything! Those politicians who take the fight to their enemies and pass laws in states aimed at inflicting political pain will continue to gain widespread attention and appeal while senators like Manchin and Sinema will continue to negotiate limited policy bills which fail to garner enough support for passage.
Political whiplash is better than the devolution of political fights. When congress refuses to address the issues that voters sent their elected officials to solve, those fights will trickle into different domains. The culture war is the trickle down of policy inaction into a field where actual progress can seemingly be made. Political whiplash at least allows voters a view into what each party actually stands for, allowing voters to make informed decisions about what policies they liked and didn’t like. As it currently stands, voters rock back and forth between the two parties because neither seems willing to do much about the issues that concern most Americans. Americans vote out one party only to become just as dissatisfied at the lack of real change in their lives.
The American culture war is only going to accelerate and become more corrosive over time. When politics is nothing more than identity fights over status and hierarchy, there is little room for policy that will help all Americans or solve problems that all Americans face.
Should Trump not run again in 2024, it’s not difficult to see a President DeSantis receiving the oath of office in January 2025. His rapid rise from Tea Party scout to potential future president has been on the back of the transformation of American politics from something resembling representative democracy to something more familiar to tribal war. In politics, compromise and deliberation is the backbone for successful advancement, in culture war politics winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.
