New York Times columnist Charles Blow recently claimed to be truly shocked by a poll showing President Biden with a 33 percent approval rating. I was shocked, too how could his approval rating be that high?
Blow, of course, is surprised at Bidens unpopularity, and worried that the Democrats are stumbling into a bloodbath in the November midterms. Blow is paid to understand and explain politics and culture to his readers. That he is surprised reveals a lot about the bubble he is in. And his meandering analysis of Democrats problems illustrates how the ideology making Democrats unpopular is also preventing them from understanding why they are unpopular.
Blow initially blames Biden for being too much of a decent man sober and straightforward rather than a showman. This is a ludicrous assessment of a politician, who, until age caught up with his tongue, was one of D.C.s preeminent bloviators. Nonetheless, Blows ordinary partisan delusion is less interesting than the ideological blind spots revealed when he turns to genuine sources of Bidens unpopularity, such as the fear of crime and the pinch of inflation and that Republicans are playing heavily into culture war issues.
Although Blow does not seem to realize it, these issues combine to reinforce voters disapproval of Biden. Democratic failures on bread and butter issues such as crime and inflation are related to the culture-war radicalism that has captured their party.
Twitter, not the blue-collar union hall, is now the heart of the Democratic Party, which is controlled by the educated, urban professional-managerial class, epitomized by woke, union-busting CEOs. This faction has merged the class and culture wars championing cultural radicalism, entrenching its own economic interests, and neglecting the common good.
The Democrats are the party of wealthy diversity consultants lecturing hourly workers about white privilege and cis-heteropatriarchy while inflation eats away at wages and investment firms buy up homes in the hope of making America a nation of permanent renters. The governing priorities of those running the Democratic Party are sending government money to their clients (from teachers unions to Planned Parenthood) and waging culture war.
And they are fanatical culture warriors. Consider Blows complaint that the GOP is challenging the teaching of Black history and the history of white supremacy in schools, as well as restricting discussions of L.G.B.T. issues and campaigning against trans women and girls competing in sports with other women and girls. He adds that Republicans are using white parental fear, particularly the fears of white moms.
This litany of whines highlights the bubble Blow and his audience at The New York Times are in. Ordinary Americans know the difference between teaching history and teaching poisonous ideology derived from critical race theory. Americans understand that it is unjust for males to compete in womens sports, and that it is perverse to teach young children about sex and gender ideology. They are angry when educators encourage children to transition, and outraged when they hide it from parents.
Voters have also noticed that the cultural left never stops where it says it will. We were assured that the LGBT movement was about tolerance for consenting adult relationships; now it is about transgender toddlers, child drag queens, and men in girls locker rooms. We are also now told that being anti-racist somehow means judging people based on the color of their skin. Blow and other bubbled liberals may be okay with mastectomies for confused teenage girls, but most Americans are not.
This cultural radicalism erodes Democrats ability to govern competently. Sometimes this is the result of neglecting the basic tasks of government in order to prioritize boutique cultural issues, other times it is a direct consequence of ideology, as exemplified in the crime wave resulting from woke prosecutors and defunding the police.
In either case, wokeness is an ideology for those who are cushioned from its consequences. Indeed, wokeness is primarily a phenomenon of the college-educated, and especially the well-off; it is a niche, luxury political philosophy that thrives among the privileged and in the shelter of academia.
But though it is often a political liability, there are ways it serves the interests of its adherents. In particular, woke ideology legitimates the rule of the woke over the non-woke, and justifies economic exploitation and socio-political repression.
Wokeness claims to reveal the systems of unjust oppression that permeate society; it focuses on race, sex, and gender, and relegates economic class to a second-tier concern. This allows many of the privileged and powerful to claim to be righteous allies of the oppressed without having to sacrifice economic or social power or position. Indeed, many can claim to be oppressed themselves. This is why wokeness tends to focus on BIPoC and LGBT representation in boardrooms and Ivy League campuses, rather than helping the working class.
Thus, it is to be expected that woke discourse often suggests that the working class (especially working-class whites) have it coming for their sins of racism, sexism, transphobia, and so on the wicked deserve punishment, not sympathy. This is why pundits such as Blow are so quick to accuse dissenters of racism and bigotry. And it is why the woke left supports oligarchic power in pursuit of its aims, and eagerly uses economic, technological, and cultural power to suppress dissent.
This is why professors are having to submit woke loyalty oaths in the form of diversity statements, and why mandatory diversity, equity, and inclusion training has become the norm in the corporate world. This is why the left is eager to use social media censorship to suppress misinformation which in many cases is truth that is inconvenient to the regime (e.g., the Hunter Biden laptop story).
It is also why the left cannot understand its own failures. They have isolated themselves in a bubble that has drifted so far from reality and the concerns of normal voters that even electoral disaster may not bring them back to Earth. Cocooned in privilege and ideology, they think Biden is doing just fine. But most Americans have had enough of a government that is more committed to transitioning children than to controlling crime and inflation.
Nathanael Blake is a senior contributor to The Federalist and a postdoctoral fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
Continued here:
How Democrats' Culture War Is Destroying Their Ability To Govern - The Federalist
- Court: Trump Can Appeal Attempt To Disqualify Fani Willis - The Federalist - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Media Give Blasey Ford Another Chance To Smear Kavanaugh - The Federalist - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Exclusive: Jordan Demands Docs From CISA About PA Election 'Task Force' - The Federalist - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- The Columns Spotlight: The Federalist Society Washington and Lee University - The Columns - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Democracy Under Pressure at the EU Level - The New Federalist - Le Taurillon - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Justice Jackson's 'Hamstringing' Comment Wasn't Her Worst - The Federalist - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Andrei Illarionov and Morgan Wirthlin, Author at The Federalist - The Federalist - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Democracy Under Pressure in Hungary - The New Federalist - Le Taurillon - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Mike Johnson Needs To Grow A Spine And Fight Biden's Border Invasion - The Federalist - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- High Gas Prices Don't Bother Biden Because They Cut Car Use - The Federalist - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Hemingway: All Of Biden's Interactions With The Press Are Coordinated And Protected - The Federalist - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Zuckbucks Group Teaches Election Offices How To Target Speech - The Federalist - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Gov't Says 'Once-In-A-Lifetime Pandemic' Excuses First Amendment Violations - The Federalist - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Speaking Openly About Isolation Can Help Us Resist Tyranny - The Federalist - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Trans Zealots Revolt Against Reality Rather Than Admit They're Wrong - The Federalist - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Trump's 'Bloodbath' Is The Fake Media's New 'Guy' And 'Sir' - The Federalist - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- It's Time For Georgia's AG To Indict Fani Willis For Perjury - The Federalist - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- What's New In Bragg's 'Get Trump' Hush Money Lawfare In NY - The Federalist - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Clutch Your Pearls, This Isn't The Last Trump 'Bloodbath' - The Federalist - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- DC Doesn't Just Spend Too Much, It Spends On The Wrong Things - The Federalist - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- CNN Analyst Asks Feds To Meddle In Elections To Defeat Trump - The Federalist - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- NYC Subway Shooting Is A Result Of 'Tolerance And Diversity' - The Federalist - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Keeping Trump In Court While Biden Campaigns Is Election Interference - The Federalist - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Disenchanted Democrats Should Be Asking Deeper Questions - The Federalist - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Olivia Rodrigo Hands Out Free Morning-After Pills To Teen Fans - The Federalist - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Poll Shows Biden Bombed State Of The Union Address - The Federalist - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- GA Election Board Member Voted On Cases Involving His Clients - The Federalist - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- GOPers Pass Bill To Keep OK Free Of Ranked-Choice Voting Chaos - The Federalist - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- CISA Admitted 'Risks' Of Vote-By-Mail In Internal Docs From 2020 - The Federalist - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Democrat Bill Aims To Stifle Regulation Of Big Fertility Market - The Federalist - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Group Behind 'Zuckbucks' Is Now Meddling In The 2024 Election - The Federalist - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- California Democrats Work To Make Discrimination Legal (Again) - The Federalist - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- A Haley Win In New Hampshire Will Not Be The Victory She Thinks - The Federalist - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Votes Without Citizenship Proof 'Exploded' In AZ After Dem Lawfare - The Federalist - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Congressional Republicans Need To Start Fighting Abortion - The Federalist - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Matthew Malec, Author at The Federalist - The Federalist - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Larry Taunton, Author at The Federalist - The Federalist - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Congress's $1.7 Trillion Spending Bill Goes On Trial In Texas - The Federalist - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Chicago Abortionists Advertise Possibly Illegal Late-Term Abortions - The Federalist - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- How DeSantis's Disappointed Supporters Can Move On From Ron - The Federalist - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Thousands Attend March For Life Hoping To Make Abortion 'Unthinkable' - The Federalist - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Putting An End To Race-Based Hiring Is 30 Years Past Due - The Federalist - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Ever-Closer Union: Brussels Plots Federalist Reforms The European Conservative - The European Conservative - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- 4 Years Too Late, DOJ Admits Biden 'Laptop From Hell' Is Real - The Federalist - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Heritage Foundation President Slams Davos Elites To Their Faces - The Federalist - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- TSA Sign Says Migrants Without ID May Opt Out Of Photos - The Federalist - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Two-Thirds Of Elites Say There's Too Much Freedom In America - The Federalist - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- How Disgruntled Fishermen Could Prompt SCOTUS To Capsize The Administrative State - The Federalist - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- No Testing Needed To Prove Hailey Davidson Isn't A Woman - The Federalist - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Democrats Promise To Save 'Democracy' By Destroying It - The Federalist - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- 7 Takeaways From SCOTUS Case That Could Slay The Bureaucracy - The Federalist - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Haley Woos Her Real Constituents In New Hampshire: Democrats - The Federalist - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Men, Ignore The Bad Advice To Seek A 'Low-IQ' Wife - The Federalist - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- By 'Protecting Election Workers,' Democrats Mean Protecting Control Over Election Administration - The Federalist - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Harbaugh Champions Right To Life After Football Championship - The Federalist - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Oppressor Matrix Gives Leftists Like Hasan Piker Brain Worms - The Federalist - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- How And Why The Ivy League Will Die - The Federalist - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Gorsuch Gleefully Leads Right-Wing Cohort In Fulfilling Their Federalist Society Quest - TPM - January 23rd, 2024 [January 23rd, 2024]
- Only 6% Of Americans Approve Of GOP Leader Mitch McConnell - The Federalist - December 19th, 2023 [December 19th, 2023]
- Knowing Of Hunter's Plan To Defy Subpoena Puts Biden In Legal Jeopardy - The Federalist - December 19th, 2023 [December 19th, 2023]
- PA School Board President Sworn In With Pornographic Books - The Federalist - December 19th, 2023 [December 19th, 2023]
- The 'Ukraine War Is Good For Business' Argument Is Vile And Also A Lie - The Federalist - December 19th, 2023 [December 19th, 2023]
- Data: Banning Therapy For LGBT People Increases Suicide Risks - The Federalist - December 19th, 2023 [December 19th, 2023]
- John Yoo and Jeremy Rabkin, Author at The Federalist - The Federalist - December 19th, 2023 [December 19th, 2023]
- From Woke Walkouts To 'Equity,' Illinois Schools Are Melting Down - The Federalist - December 19th, 2023 [December 19th, 2023]
- Hunter Biden Invokes Gun Rights Ruling That Joe Called Unconstitutional - The Federalist - December 19th, 2023 [December 19th, 2023]
- China's Cyber Warfare Surges With Hacking Of U.S. Infrastructure - The Federalist - December 19th, 2023 [December 19th, 2023]
- Every Biden 2024 Scenario Is Deadly Dangerous - The Federalist - December 19th, 2023 [December 19th, 2023]
- Study Finds NewsGuard Overtly Biased Against Conservatives - The Federalist - December 19th, 2023 [December 19th, 2023]
- Republicans Need To Learn How To Go After The Left - The Federalist - December 19th, 2023 [December 19th, 2023]
- Biden Overdrew America's Account With Blank Checks To Ukraine - The Federalist - December 19th, 2023 [December 19th, 2023]
- Meet Michael Dreeben, The Man Behind Major Anti-Trump Ops - The Federalist - December 19th, 2023 [December 19th, 2023]
- Senate Dems Block Bill To Allow Whole Milk In School Lunch Programs - The Federalist - December 19th, 2023 [December 19th, 2023]
- 'Experts' Who Discredited Biden Laptop Call To Extend Warrantless Spying - The Federalist - December 19th, 2023 [December 19th, 2023]
- Ranked-Choice Voting Proponents Are Lying To WI Voters To Hide The System's Flaws - The Federalist - December 19th, 2023 [December 19th, 2023]
- The Case for an AUMF Against Iran and Its Proxies - The Federalist Society - November 18th, 2023 [November 18th, 2023]
- Bari Weiss's Olson Lecture: You Are the Last Line of Defense - Reason - November 18th, 2023 [November 18th, 2023]
- Book Review: The People's Justice - The Federalist Society - November 18th, 2023 [November 18th, 2023]
- Farewell to the Mayflower - Reason - November 18th, 2023 [November 18th, 2023]
- FBI Targets Trump Voters Ahead Of 2024 Election - The Federalist - October 9th, 2023 [October 9th, 2023]