Conservatives in post-Trumpistan have no idea what they believe anymore. Having yoked themselves to an erratic narcissist, they ultimately decided their party platform was "Whatever Orange Julius Caesar Says It Is." At this time, conservatism can't even be defined by opposition to the welfare state (at least for white people). Trump embraced direct cash payments and people like Josh Hawley are backing some mildly progressive measures on economics.
Sure, in the end, they all agree on low taxes and fewer regulations, but that isn't really popular.
They've landed instead on Cleek's Law, in that conservatives want the opposite of what liberals want, updated every 15 minutes. This means their entire message is negative: opposition to liberals. Which brings us to "cancel culture." There is a strain of left wing politics interested in de-platforming people who are, you know, Nazis and shit. The old liberal beau idyll was that the free exchange of ideas would expose the bankruptcy of things like white supremacy and being Nazis and shit. That idea is actively in question now.
Some of these examples are farcical, like the San Francisco school board taking Abraham Lincoln's name off a school, because bad things happened to the Sioux while he was president. Yes, leaders make bad decisions and sometimes circumstance lead to having to make decisions that you know are bad. That's the complexity of life. No one is immune from that. This form of purity politics on the Left is annoying as shit.
But that's pretty much it: it's annoying.
Right now, all Fox and OANN and Breitbart can talk about is "canceling Dr. Seuss." This, of course, did not happen. The Seuss Foundation that owns the rights to his books decided to pull some with some decidedly racist imagery in them. I remember reading those books to my boys and being "yikes." Cool! The Seuss Foundation is doing something good by pulling some minor volumes from the catalog.
Conservatives freaked right on out and made it the most important issue of the day. We still don't have the pandemic under control, the economy hasn't recovered, two months ago, the President tried to launch an insurrection... and you want us to give a shit about "If I Ran The Zoo"?
I can't tell if they have polling to back this up. Maybe they do. Maybe this is the great wedge issue to force them back into power. I don't think people will be looking at Joe Biden as a socialist in 2024, but they might be upset that they can't tell "risque" jokes.
I'm worried that our politics are so degraded and stupid right now, that this complete and utter bullshit might work.
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