Mediaboss Marketing

And Just Like That did not have the smoothest of landings. The Sex and the City sequel found itself draped in controversy from the moment its return was announced. There would be no Samantha Jones, with the core group reduced to a trio, after Kim Cattrall did not return to the franchise. (Was she invited? Did she decline? I look forward to an inevitable Ryan Murphy dramatisation of events Feud: Cosmos and Cupcakes.) The films had been middling, then terrible, then a third thankfully ditched before it got too far. Could a series that was built on being so brassy and brash survive in the tetchy 2020s?

Then it finally arrived, and the drama rolled on. The big twist, or the Big twist, at the end of episode one was briefly a moment, controversial largely for the fact that instead of weeping and hugging her still-conscious husband as he had a heart attack, Carrie might have considered calling an ambulance instead. To think that the reputation of Peloton was the main topic of conversation. Shortly after it aired, allegations of sexual assault were made against Chris Noth by multiple women. He issued a denial, but his co-stars published a message of support for his accusers, and a rumoured cameo at the end of the season was reportedly scrapped.

Critics of the show itself were not kind, and the first two episodes were certainly unsteady. It seemed clunky, grasping at what it felt was the zeitgeist with all the grace of a drunken goat. A couple of its storylines proved fuel for the dreaded culture wars, which some viewers managed to interpret as the writers hatred for its three leading women. It introduced a non-binary queer character, Che (Sara Ramirez), and Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte, now in their 50s, struggled to navigate this terribly modern world, as I struggled to navigate the idea that a podcast could represent the height of baffling modernity. Subtlety was not its strong point. Carrie seemed never to have heard of Diwali. The less said about kitchen sex, the better. Dont make me relive Rambo.

But the truth is that I am hedging my bets, acknowledging that I see its flaws and can understand many, though not all, of the criticisms. I note that these criticisms are rarely aimed at the first two episodes, however, and are about scenes that happen in episodes three, four and five (Mirandas cheating, Carries dodgy hip). So, I got to thinking, are the people who claim to hate this, watching it anyway? I suspect the answer is yes. Obviously, its return has been bumpy. (Mirandas an alcoholic! Oh no she isnt! Oh yes she is!) Yet every week, I wait for the day a new episode appears, then I stop what Im doing to watch it, as soon as time and decency allow. I have heard others quietly admitting to the same.

It is ironic that And Just Like That has struggled with technology from Carries coy and then freewheeling contributions to the podcast, to her inability to switch off a beeping device in her new apartment because this show both fits into and resists the digital era. It fits into it because, on the accounts I follow, at least, which I admit are of a certain, camp bias, it is a talking point every week. It seems to have become that much-coveted thing, water-cooler television. And it resists it, because there is something free and old-fashioned about the way in which it feels so thrown together and blase. Some viewers have interpreted its tone as tiptoeing around the issues, whatever they may be, but the characters occasional blundering about identity, for example, seems pretty loose and open to me.

To enjoy the series and I realised, three or four episodes in, that I really am enjoying it requires holding two contradictory notions in mind. One is that it can be incredibly clumsy and has many moments that seem ill-judged. The other is that it is pleasurable and very entertaining, and still has many of its charms, if not quite the same ones that it had in its heyday. One recent episode saw Carrie contemplating having a few cosmetic tweaks to her face, which turned into a thoughtful exploration of the value of lived experience. I wouldnt have seen it coming after the first two episodes, but dare I whisper that And Just Like That has started to settle into its own skin.

More here:
Dare I whisper it? I'm really enjoying And Just Like That - The Guardian

Letter writers| Fort Myers News-Press

Shade trees offer a number of advantages over palms for residential use. They are much better at storing carbon and therefore reducing atmospheric CO2. They also provide shade which lowers the ambient temperature. Temperatures are rising and trees are one of the most obvious ways for cities to counter this phenomenon. The state has recommended that palms should make up less than 30 percentof the trees in Florida cities.

The Naples city arborist seems hooked on planting palm trees around Palm Circle. This circle is in dire need of shade trees for walkers and bikers. It is too hot to walk that route. This current plan needs to be re-examined. Parts of Crayton Road also need to be examined.

Judy Hushon, Naples

Such good news to read that Republican Sen.Joe Gruters is promoting a bill to ban smoking on Floridas beaches.The benefits are many!It will eliminate secondhand smoke, decrease beach litter and protect birds, turtles and the waters of the Gulf.Wethe public should no longer have to walk in smokers ashtrays.

Dorothy S. Kuzneski, Naples

The 2022-2023 Florida legislative session is beginning. DeSantislegislative wish list begins with attacks on issues that dont exist.

After praising Floridas elections in 2020 and suggesting it be a model for other states, he now wants a new Office of Election Crime and Security to investigate fraud. It would cost Florida taxpayers $5.7 million and employ a staff larger than most police departments have to solve murders.

What in the world are 52 investigators going to do all year long? Wait for the phone to ring? said Andrew Warren, Hillsborough Countys state attorney.

Another focus is keeping critical race theory out of schools and workplaces. Attacking CRT israther a stroke of genius for the GOP. They took a 40-year-old law school course, turned it into a bogeyman, and told voters to be afraid of it. Now DeSantis wants to empower parents to sue if they detect critical race theory in schools although few can even define what it is.

DeSantis also wants to allow employees to be able to sue employers who use critical race theory as part of their training. Many employers -- and also church organizations, charities, and nonprofits -- conduct racial sensitivity training. Employees would be empowered to sue if they perceive this training to suggest that racism is systematic in our social institutions.

There is plenty of reality that DeSantis could be addressing instead of chalking up political points fighting false culture wars. Florida has poorly funded schools (ranked 46th), a struggling health care system (ranked 41st), unmanaged COVIDspreading out of control, and rampant environmental issues.

Florida needs serious legislators to address serious issues.

Susan McGuire, Bokeelia

Beth Petrunoff will hit the Naples City Council floor running and deserves your vote to make it happen!

Beth understands the complex issues facing future city councils to maintain a residential quality of life in Naples. She believes a most important agenda item is a pending update to the Naples Comprehensive Plan, a blueprint shaping the feel of the city for years to come. Beth believes it should be Values-Driven reflecting the Vision Plan approved in 2020.

She also supports Neighborhood Action Plans and believes they should be reinstated into the Comprehensive Plan.Beth advocates for a five-year Capital Improvement Plan with measurable goals, a mantra from her days as a GE executive. In addition, she supports a three-point plan to solve police staffing: raise pay to market standard, increase retention bonuses to reward loyalty and repeal union rule that mandates only entry-level rookie pay for experienced applicants.

The management skills she demonstrated as a successful executive vice president at GE will no doubt aid in our selection process to find an outstanding new Naples city manager which Beth calls out as one of her first priorities.

Beth Petrunoff deserves your vote!

Robert Patten Burns,Naples

First: I have attended many Naples City Council meetings and workshops in the past year. I have the utmost respect for the hard work and dedication of our current City Council members. I fully support the incumbents running for office, Ray Christman and Terry Hutchison. They spend countless hours preparing for the meetings and studying the issues. They support the vision clearly expressed by the residents.

Second: Beth Petrunoff has my support. She shares that same vision and has the same dedication that Ray Christman and Terry Hutchison have shown. She understands the issues facing Naples which must be addressed to maintain our residential and environmental quality of life. She has the knowledge, the qualifications and the energy to join our hard-working City Council.

Third: I urge all Naples residents to vote for these threecandidates who I believe will work together to make Naples the city the residents want it to be.

Diane Ladley, Naples

As a registered Republican I am embarrassed and offended by the extremely negative and partisan campaign being run by The Collier County Citizens Values PAC in support of John Dugan. They have even gone so far as to suggest Naples residents do not exercise their right to vote for threecandidates and only vote for John Dugan, leaving others to decide the full make up of our council. We do not need this divisiveness on our council.

Susan Anderson, Naples

As a resident of Florida since 1962, a homeowner that has been insured all these years, never made a claim. My new insurance premium rose by 30percent for this year.

Also my automobile insurance has risen even though my driving record is impeccable. I'm guessing it's due to my age.

I'm being penalized for being a senior citizen.

I read in this morning's Daily News that FPL has been granted anincrease.Where does it stop?

Frank Setera, Naples

Ms. Pierson claims that the popes comments on the necessity of having children rather than dogs and cats is simplistic.However, her endorsement of being a pet parent over a kid parent because it is easier and less expensivebetrays the selfishness that the pope was trying to address. Pierson is of course correct that parenting children is not easy, but the infinite worth of human beings and the propagation of the species makes it worthwhile.

Reverend Michael P. Orsi, Naples

Nine Florida counties voted over 80 percentfor Trump:Baker, Calhoun, Dixie, Gilchrist, Holmes. Lafayette, Liberty, Union, Washington. The average rate of vaccinations in these counties is 41percent. The sixcounties (Alachua, Broward, Gadsden. Leon, Orange, Osceola, Palm Beach) thatvoted over 55 percentfor Biden have a vaccination rate of 70.6 percent.

In the ninepro-Trump counties the deaths averaged 2,556 per million. In the pro-Biden counties it was 1,446.

Food for thought!

Philip Wyckoff, Fort Myers

More here:
Letters to the editor for Wednesday, January 12, 2022 - News-Press

More than 250 bills aimed at reducing the rights of LGBTQ+ people are currently working their way through state legislatures in the United States, or have already been passed. Thirty-three states, including Pennsylvania, have introduced upwards of 100 bills specifically targeting transgender and gender non-conforming children and adults. As the country begins to emerge from the pandemics shadow, 2021 is shaping up to be a banner year in many ways, including an unprecedented amount of proposed anti-trans legislation.

Meanwhile on a national level, the Education Department announced on June 16 that discrimination against students on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity is prohibited under Title IX,a 1972 law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded schools.The change reverses one of numerous Trump-era policies curtailing transgender rights.

We definitely are in the middle of a major cultural war, a major political war, says Heather Love, professor of English in the School of Arts & Sciences. You cant go through the Trump presidency and not think that there is a kind of crisis around white male identity. Many of the societal problems plaguing Americalike deindustrialization and affordable health careare difficult to fix, she says, while policing bathrooms and locker rooms is more manageable and easier to accomplish.

When there is pent-up tension within society, gender and sexuality provide an easy outlet for persecution, Love says. Trans youth are being attacked in that context, as a vulnerable population that is continually served up, like game pieces in the culture wars.

Im not sure if the intent is actually to cause trans death, says Love, but that will certainly be the effect.

Of the 117 state bills focusing on gender identity that were introduced in 2021, 58 target gendered spaces and activities such as bathrooms, locker rooms, and school sports. Twenty-nine aim to further restrict access to gender-affirming medical care.

The sports-related bills would require students to play on teams consistent with their birth-assigned sex, framing it as a Title IX issue. This includes HB 972, Pennsylvanias Save Womens Sports Act.

Athletics is often portrayed as a level playing field, says Love, cordoned off from all the inequalities and power dynamics that we know to be true in society. You just put everybody on the field and they can work it out in some kind of fair arena.

Were talking about mental health issues, were talking about separation from community and family. There are economic [and] educational repercussions and consequences for not allowing folks to be who they are. Causha Antoinette Spellman, a Ph.D. student in the School of Social Policy & Practice

In reality, she says, sports are integrated into culture, and in the U.S. they can be tied to scholarships, accolades, and even future earnings. Citing a 2020 Connecticut lawsuit, detractors claim transgender girls would have an unfair physiological advantage over cisgender teammates if allowed to play on girls teams. This, some lawmakers have alleged, would deny young cisgender women athletic scholarships, despite the fact that no trans students have been offered athletic scholarships since the NCAA approved a trans-inclusive policy in 2011. Trans-identified people make up 0.6% of U.S. adults, according to a 2020 Gallup poll.

Is there this huge group of trans women taking over athletics? asks Erin Cross, director of the Universitys LGBT Center. No. A lot of these bills are out of fear. The fear of not being able to put people into boxes.

This is a way to build up ideas around fear that the country is changing, and we need to hold on to our old values, continues Cross. I think a lot of these folks have never met a transgender person. A trans personyoull see[is] just like anybody else.

This includes Lia Thomas, co-chair of Penn Non-Cis, a club that aims to build community for trans and non-cis people. One of my big concerns for trans people is feeling alone, she says. Even if you dont pay attention to the news [about] states proposing and passing vicious anti-trans legislation, it can feel very lonely and overwhelming.

For Thomas, relief has always been found in the water. Swimming is a huge part of my life and who I am. Ive been a swimmer since I was five years old, she says. The process of coming out as being trans and continuing to swim was a lot of uncertainty and unknown around an area thats usually really solid. Realizing I was trans threw that into question. Was I going to keep swimming? What did that look like?

Thomas took a year off during the pandemic and will swim for the Penn womens team in her senior year. Being trans has not affected my ability to do this sport and being able to continue is very rewarding, she says.

In April, 2021, under the Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act, Arkansas became the first state to ban doctors from administering hormones or puberty blockers to minors. Puberty blockers, which are also administered to treat precocious puberty in cisgender children, are sometimes prescribed to trans children experiencing gender dysphoria to delay the onset of secondary sex characteristics. Were a child to cease taking these medications, by choice or by circumstance, puberty would resume its initial course.

Trans youth are being attacked as a vulnerable population that is continually served up, like game pieces in the culture wars. Heather Love, professor of English in the School of Arts & Sciences

Studies have found that trans and gender non-conforming youth are at a greater risk of suicidality than the general population, and that access to gender-affirming care and social support significantly lowers that risk. Yet, Love says, language in laws like the SAFE Act suggests that government inference is necessary to protect children from harm. Theres a kind of fantasy that, because theyre in the space of development, somehow trans life could be stopped, says Love. If you stop youth from becoming trans then you solve the problem, whereas we know that not to be the case. Unfortunately, its a time when people are extremely vulnerable.

The biggest misconception is that trans people are confused and you can change them, says Causha Antoinette Spellman, a social welfare Ph.D. student in the School of Social Policy & Practice. Well look back on this time and there will have been a concentration of suicides as a result of children and youth not being able to be who they are.

We have a big fear response to anything that deviates from normality, says Spellman. Western society, they say, claims that its citizens need to operate from within binaries or the system wont work, but what that really means is that the system will no longer uphold patriarchal privilege. Spellman says, We know that a system that works for trans people works for everyone.

Spellman, who studies Black and Indigenous queer and trans youth at the intersection of the child welfare, mental health, and juvenile justice systems, came out as non-binary while in earning their masters in social work at the University of Hawaii. There, Spellman was surrounded by an entire population and community of folks [for whom] the third gender, or mh, was revered and were the holders of their culture, they say. Learning about that level of Indigeneity in a gender that doesnt exist on the binary gave me the freedom that I didnt find in Western culture.

When it comes to ideas about gender, Love says there is a real groundswell of transformation in the U.S., particularly among young people, and these bills are a direct response to try and stop that transformation. You can limit access to health care or punish people who are in schools at the moment, but these are violent measures that cant really stop the wave of whats happening, she says.

Its collapsing, agrees Amy Hillier, associate professor in the School of Social Policy & Practice. The monster appears biggest before it falls.

The idea that everybody fits neatly into this boy or girl category, this man and woman category, is oppressive for anyone who wants to know themselves better, Hillier says. Its imposed on us, its a form of social control, and it doesnt give us room to explore.

Judith Butler and other queer theorists argue that gender has been made to seem like the most central, biologically natural thing in the world, says Love. You know, people are just men or women, get used to it. Thats a fact. But if it were actually so natural, if it were actually just the way things are, why would you need such violent policing around it? Love asks. You have to force it to appear natural.

Ideas about sex and gender have shifted throughout history, says Spellman. An estimated1-2% of the U.S. populationis intersex, and gender roles have always varied by culture, era, and influence. What we now call transgender or gender expansive has existed in Indigenous cultures across the world since the beginning, as long as people have existed, they say. There was a time when wigs and high heels were reserved for men of high esteem, and high caliber, and money and power. Somewhere along the line, it shifted to femininity and therefore weakness.

Sexism and patriarchy are at the heart of these efforts, says Hillier. The gender binary is about keeping people in their place. Its very threatening when folks start to question these categories. For some folks, its the undoing of the moral order.

Trans and gender non-conforming individuals are disproportionately exposed to violence, discrimination, and suicidal ideation, says Spellman. Losing access to gender-affirming care or being legislated out of participating in public life amplifies all of these risks. This vulnerability worries Spellman.

Im scared. Were talking about mental health issues, were talking about separation from community and family, they say. There are economic [and] educational repercussions and consequences for not allowing folks to be who they are.

Spellman is particularly concerned about the mental impact of the proposed and passed bills on trans youth, especially as states reopen. School-age children have to navigate a return to physical classrooms and the ensuing academic push from teachers and administration. What theyre missing, says Spellman, is that students wont be on track academically if theyre simultaneously navigating restrictions around gender expression and bathroom usage.

Everyone is probably aware of a young person in crisis right now, Love says. But for trans and gender non-conforming youth in particular, the collision of this onslaught of anti-trans legislation with the emergence from more than a year of isolation is a crisis moment, she says. From Loves perspective, athletic participation is not about getting a trophy, but about developing a basic sense of well-being: To cut off peoples access to this kind of affirmation and community, especially now, seems like an incredible act of cruelty.

More:
Game pieces in the culture wars | Penn Today

Article sponsored by NewzEngine.com

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) By Siobhan McHugh, Honorary Associate Professor, Journalism, University of Wollongong

The podcast Guardians of the River traverses the Okavango River from its source in Angola to its discharge into the Botswana Delta 1500 kilometres later Photo: Shutterstock

It has been another huge year for podcasts, with a rise in both fictional and celebrity-hosted podcasts, along with the perennial true crime ones. Themes of diversity, social justice, environmental issues and cancel culture were also prominent this year.

Here, then, are five of the best podcasts of 2021 and some suggestions for companion listening.

From Serial to Ear Hustle (produced inside San Quentin prison) to Darwins Birds Eye View, the podcast medium has allowed us to fully hear prisoners stories, without any prior judgement based on their appearance. Suave extends the tradition with a deep dive into the story of a Latino-American man called David Luis Suave Gonzalez, sentenced to life imprisonment at Graterford State Correctional Institution, Pennsylvania, aged just 17.

It turns out that like other juveniles in that state, he pleaded guilty rather than be subject to a potential death penalty. Journalist Maria Hinojosa tracks Suaves story over decades, until a new ruling means he may find freedom, at almost 50. A penetrating exploration of prison psychology, this podcast is anchored in a complex relationship between a journalist and her source.

Companion listening: In the Dark, Series 2, Episode: Curtis Flowers.Years of investigation by this podcast team helped obtain the release of a Mississippi man, Curtis Flowers, who was wrongfully imprisoned for 23 years partly due to a racist district attorney. This long-awaited interview with a freed Curtis reveals a man who is sad, charming, clear-eyed and remarkably free of bitterness.

Read more:Michelle Obama, podcast host: how podcasting became a multi-billion dollar industry

Jon Ronson, the Louis Theroux of podcasting, provides a historical take on the culture wars in this carefully crafted BBC podcast (dropping Feb 9 in Australia). In the first five episodes (all Ive heard), Ronson deploys his trademark ability to scratch a big theme and find the quirky human stories that flip common perceptions.

A televangelist espouses gay rights at the height of AIDS; the censoring of progressive school literature in America in the 60s gives way to a woke backlash decades on against a seminal black memoir; a reformed anti-abortion crusader rues his propaganda; and a 1980s proto-Q-anon-style conspiracy that sent an innocent childcare worker to jail for years shows that framing a victim does not need online hysteria. The series provides sobering context for the conflicts that have been so amplified by social media anarchy, delivered with a kind of wry wonder at our inhumanity.

Companion listening: The Eleventh from Pineapple Studios documents horrifying tales of contemporary cancel culture in its first series, The Inbox, while Limited Capacity from CBC is a more playful take on internet predations.

The title derives from then President Donald Trumps vicious description of Haiti, El Salvador and some African countries in 2018. This spurred young Ghanaian-American Afia Kaakyire to delve into family history and self-discovery, telling true tales dipped in entrepreneurial dreams, green card anxieties, complicated love.

Though her name is made-up (for obvious reasons), Afias voice is utterly authentic. She chronicles with honesty and irony her ambivalent, evolving relationship with Ghana and her extended family, in a wide-ranging essay-memoir produced to the excellent standards we associate with the Radiotopia network of independent artists. Episode 3, in which she interviews her remarkable mother, Agnes, about her long journey to becoming a property-owner in New York, is a standout. And unlike many narrative podcasts, the ending doesnt disappoint: the final two episodes positively sizzle.

Companion listening: Crackdown shares themes of being Other and wishing to be truly seen. This activist Canadian podcast is hosted by Garth Mullins, a drug user who is also a professional radio reporter. In collaboration with a community of drug users in Vancouver, the podcast robustly advocates for opioids and other drugs to be made legal, styling itself as the drug war, covered by drug users as war correspondents.

This epic podcast traverses the Okavango River from its source in Angola to its discharge into the Botswana Delta 1500 kilometres later, through the eyes of local keepers and scientists dedicated to its conservation. Funded by the National Geographic Society and others, its a sound-rich portrait of the river as a vital, living artefact, narrated by two engaging African scientists who are emotionally and environmentally connected to it.

Companion listening: The Repair Season 5 of the always-on-the-Zeitgeist Scene On Radio tackles the climate emergency, starting at the Book of Genesis, which exhorted man to subdue nature.

Sometimes the Big Topics get a bit overwhelming and its nice to be reminded of what podcasting means to many: a chumcast/chatcast, where a couple of pals shoot the breeze on whatever takes their fancy. Countless chatcasts dabble in sport, pop culture and TV recaps.

With corporate heavies like Spotify, Audible and lately Facebook, muscling in on the medium, its refreshing to hear two homegrown Aussies randomly ruminating on a very pertinent theme surviving the share house and riding out the rental crisis. Hosts Marty Smiley and Nat Demena have lots of fun with Karen bin nazis,(entitled white women who police bins on streets), food-tamperers and housemates that never flush.

Companion listening: Helen Garner reading Monkey Grip, her own tale of toxic share houses, set in Melbourne in the 70s. Deliciously observed, this gritty urban anthropology (disguised as a novel) makes you realise not much has changed, despite the internet. Free on ABC Listen app, or on Audible.

Siobhan McHughs book The Power of Podcasting will be released in February.

Siobhan McHugh is Consulting Producer on The Greatest Menace, a queer true crime history podcast launching Feb 2022 on Audible.

ref. River stories, culture wars, share house sagas: 5 of the best podcasts of 2021 https://theconversation.com/river-stories-culture-wars-share-house-sagas-5-of-the-best-podcasts-of-2021-170781

Read the rest here:
River stories, culture wars, share house sagas: 5 of the ...

While Biden as president has delivered on his promise to revert the White House to a policy-making and governing apparatus after its four-year stint as a clearinghouse for cultural grievance, the rest of American politics have refused to follow suit. A disproportionate number of this years hot-button political stories from cancel culture, to critical race theory, to the base-pleasing, antagonistic antics of House Republicans like Reps. Matt Gaetz and Madison Cawthorn have been less substantial political debates than attitudinal ones, about the public character of American life and our rhetorical treatment of its history.

The Biden presidency might have begun on January 20, but in nearly every other way that matters, the Trump era never ended.

The 45th presidents all-conflict-all-the-time mode of politics has stuck around past his administrations expiration date because, for one, it turns out that it just works. Consider Glenn Youngkins come-from-behind victory in the Virginia gubernatorial election, driven by animus over local school curriculums and hyper-cautious, blue-state attitudes about Covid restrictions, or the massive fundraising hauls of GOP hopefuls still largely following Trumps playbook of cultural grievance. Conservative media has continued its dominance by way of a series of ephemeral cultural skirmishes, over everything from Dr. Seuss to an imagined ban on hamburgers. Lets Go Brandon, the thinly-veiled anti-Biden epithet, became a common sports arena chant and cultural phenomenon. Debates over Covid restrictions and vaccine mandates long ago left the realm of the scientific, continuing to rage this year as a proxy for longstanding cultural disagreements.

The stubborn persistence of these conflicts reveals Trumps definitive political innovation. He didnt, of course, invent the concept of culture wars or grievance politics; city-vs.-country animus is almost literally as old as civilization. But where past standard-bearers in American politics would politely downplay that aspect of American life (while, yes, nudging and winking at the activist base it most intensely mobilizes), Trump placed it gleefully at the center of his political project, smashing the big blue Culture War Button on his iPhone until they eventually took it away from him.

So consider this an act of to borrow the term coined by the Washington Posts David Weigel pundit accountability: To predict a return of milder, early-Obama-era cultural politics was less sagacious analysis than an act of nostalgic wishcasting. But it was also understandable, given the lack of distance from Trumps presidency available at the time. Although probably not for the reasons he intended, history will deem Trump a transformational president. In breaking a taboo which other politicians had mutually agreed to leave alone, he gave Republicans a powerful political tool and by doing so, ensured the caustic, divisive cultural politics that defined his presidency would long outlive it.

Trumps inflammatory, cavalier attitude toward progressive norms and mainstream niceties is his political signature. But its taken on a full and uncontrollable life of its own: Look no further than his recent conversation with conservative YouTuber Candace Owens, who (gently) sparred with the president over his vaccine advocacy. In Republican politics, to contradict Trump is to invite almost certain harassment or political ruin. But the anti-establishment, folk-libertarian cultural ethos that fuels the anti-vaccine movement is such an ingrained part of the conservative bases identity that it resists such laws of political nature.

That Frankenstein-like phenomenon took shape in real time during the early months of the Biden administration, as conservatives tried a series of premises on which to wage Trumps culture war without him. There were the aforementioned controversies over Dr. Seuss and (literal) red meat; the endless Fox News segments about cancel culture; even 1990s-style pearl-clutching over a rap music video. Finally, a previously-anonymous political entrepreneur named Christopher Rufo devised, in his own words, a brand category under which conservatives could neatly lump all of liberals various cultural insanities: critical race theory.

This year, Rufos strategy was put to a de facto road test all stock disclaimers about thermostatic politics and off-year elections aside. Beyond pedantic debates about the definition and origins of the term critical race theory itself, the contest in Virginia tested the power of conservative reaction to the collection of liberal values artlessly lumped under that umbrella: pandemic-era risk aversion, shifting views on race and gender, and more broadly, the authority of government bureaucracies in defining and imposing those views. Its pure sophistry, but Rufos rhetorical strategy accurately identified a sea change in liberal cultural attitudes over the past decade-plus and galvanized the movement to resist it.

Theres an obvious peril in over-learning the lessons of a single election just ask forgotten contenders like Randy IronStache Bryce or Amy McGrath, who tried and failed miserably to persuade voters that Democrats could match the overheated working-class affectations of the Trump GOP. But what happened in Virginias gubernatorial election is a revealing test case for how cultural issues are keeping their place at center stage in American politics.

Glenn Youngkin, the Republican candidate and now Virginias governor-elect, was a mild, Mitt Romney-like private equity maven who emerged victorious from a party nominating convention glutted with Trumpian rivals who split right-wing activist support. After a decade during which Virginia seemingly transformed into a reliably blue state, it seemed he was likely to befall the same fate as its last crop of Republicans. Through late summer and early fall, polls consistently showed him trailing Terry McAuliffe, the states once and would-be-future governor and a veteran Clintonite.

The rest has already passed into political folk history: Youngkin transformed himself from a central-casting moderate Republican into a full-throated culture warrior, pouncing on McAuliffes tone-deaf remarks about parental involvement in schools and promising to champion the interests of Real Virginians over imperious liberal elites. Yes, the typical backlash against the ruling party in an off-year election was a factor as shown by Democratic incumbent Gov. Phil Murphys close call in New Jersey but Youngkins stunning reversal of fortune over the course of his campaign revealed the power of culture-war politics absent Trumps uniquely off-putting qualities. (For more on this, see Ryan Lizzas post-game interview in this magazine with Youngkin strategists Jeff Roe and Kristin Davidson who protest the sordid culture war label, but credit for their victory the very issues that lit up Fox News chyrons for weeks leading up to the election.)

And it isnt just the red-meat, rank-and-file Republican voter who has recalibrated their political philosophy for the culture-war era: The intellectual ecosystem of nationalist conservatives thats sprouted up over the past several years to add much-needed ballast to the Trumpian political project has taken its own approach to meeting liberals on the battlefield. In a wide-ranging profile for The New Republic that introduced its readers to The Radical Young Intellectuals Who Want to Take Over the American Right, National Review fellow Nate Hochman described to a reporter how a new generation of conservatives explicitly demands a more culture war-oriented Republican Party.

So what would that look like not just on the campaign trail, but in policy and legal practice? Adrian Vermeule, the Harvard law professor and influential thinker on the populist right, wrote in The Atlantic in 2020 of his desire for a court-imposed common good, defined by a respect for the authority of rule and of rulers; respect for the hierarchies needed for society to function; solidarity within and among families, social groups, and workers unions, trade associations, and professions; appropriate subsidiarity, or respect for the legitimate roles of public bodies and associations at all levels of government and society; and a candid willingness to legislate morality.

The new-school national conservatives have their own (many) internecine disagreements, but no one is going to mistake the erudite conservatism of Hochman and Vermeule for the endless stream of Fox News segments about Mr. Potato Head or the War on Christmas. And the social conservatives eager to wage these conflicts often find themselves at odds with a far more culturally libertine Republican base. But the flourishing of a new, culturally assertive strain of right-wing politics that doesnt simply take the pre-Trump, McCain-Romney-Ryan status quo as a given reveals how much the former president expanded his movements horizons. For arguably the most anti-intellectual president of all time, Trump has in his own strange way let a hundred flowers bloom by breaking the cultural truce tacitly agreed to by his GOP predecessors.

Liberals, for their part, find themselves in an untenable and undesirable position on the other side of the trenches. More than a decade removed from Barack Obamas 2008 campaign the inescapably radical nature of which he aggressively downplayed, to the tune of almost 400 electoral votes the Democratic Party has undergone its own Cultural Revolution. In the wake of weaker-than-expected 2020 election results in many areas for Democrats, especially among minority voters, analysts like David Shor and Liam Kerr have persuasively argued that the uber-progressive cultural messaging of the partys donor class is far out of step with Americas mainstream, multiplying the effectiveness of the Trumpian approach. But whatever ones place on the ideological spectrum, without the true believers, theres no party apparatus, making moderation easier said than done.

Still, Democrats hold the levers of power with a trifecta in Washington, allowing them to overcome any sort of cultural branding deficit they might suffer in practice by delivering the legislative goods. Right? Well not necessarily. Political scientists Lee Drutman and Meredith Conroy recently wrote about the body of research showing how in the immediate term legislation and governance have quite little effect on the electorate, only revealing their influence years later when voters have the opportunity to pass judgment on day-to-day life in the world those policies have created. In other words: Even as Democrats have passed their long-awaited, popular infrastructure bill, and aim to pass another largely popular social spending bill in 2022, theyre more likely to be judged next November and in 2024 by voters intuitive evaluation of a society built by legislation passed years, even decades ago.

Its not an optimal position to be in for a party whose cultural vanguard is far outside the mainstream, and who doesnt have the benefit of Fox News grievance engine backing them up 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But if theres any solace for liberals and anyone else who might lament the seemingly-never-ending Trump era, its this: On both sides of the conflict, the number of true janissaries is quite small. Biden won his narrow victory by identifying this, and correctly betting that a broad coalition of suburbanites, non-white voters and persuadable independents all sick of Trumps inflammatory approach would be enough to take him over the top.

In that light, the ultimate test of Trumps theory of politics might be his hypothetical 2024 re-election. Many pundits, myself included, have argued that Trump was a sui generis political phenomenon, his personal repellence and chaotic approach to the office being the key factors that united the Biden coalition. The Youngkin win and the close call in New Jersey, then as well as apparent weakness from far-left Democrats elsewhere reveal the power of a culture-war-fueled GOP, even or perhaps especially absent its idiosyncratic standard-bearer.

If Republicans make their expected big gains in the 2022 midterms and Trump runs his scorched-earth strategy again in 2024 and loses to a similarly-configured electorate, it would be even more persuasive proof that its not the strategy thats defective, but the man who invented it. In exposing his personal weakness at the ballot box even while re-invigorating the modern GOP with his transformational, combative approach, Trump might end up having notched one more unprecedented accomplishment before the end of his political career, at least by his own standards: to do something that benefits others above himself, however unintentionally.

Republicans are making hay in his absence, but they still face the tension of balancing a largely socially conservative activist and intellectual class with a live-and-let-live Trumpenproletariat that has little appetite for Moral Majority-style politics. Consider Floridas Gov. (and Trump-heir-in-waiting) Ron DeSantis, caught between the Scylla and Charybdis of the GOPs national pro-life base and an unpredictable, swing-y home-state constituency. The cultural cross-pressures in Democratic politics, meanwhile, become more glaring every day Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona recently blasted his party for the use of unpopular progressive jargon like Latinx on his way to a potential primary challenge against Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. Meanwhile, the looming Supreme Court decision that could overturn Roe v. Wade threatens to reconfigure half a centurys worth of cultural and political loyalties.

With last years failed prediction in mind, Ill refrain from making another one here. After all, its not really necessary: To look back at 2021, Trumpian cultural politics are no longer the ticking time bomb, or untested electoral strategy, or dangerous hypothetical that requires a more skilled analyst than myself to game out. Theyre just the way we live.

Originally posted here:
I Predicted the Culture Wars Would End in 2021. Oops. - POLITICO