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Privately, more and more Democrats see inflation in far more dire terms. | Getty Images

MITCHS MASSIVE AD BUY Burgess Everett has the exclusive on a gargantuan new ad buy from the Senate Leadership Fund: The MITCH MCCONNELL-aligned GOP super PAC is booking $141 million in fall advertisements to help turn the Senate red, a staggering sum that sets the stage for a vicious battle over the chambers control. The group is reserving eight-figure ad flights starting in September.

Where that money is going:

Where its NOT going: The group has not yet put any money into New Hampshire, where Democrat MAGGIE HASSAN is running for reelection.

MORE DEM ALARM OVER INFLATION Democratic strategists have split in two over how to discuss inflation.

One camp tends to blame the media for focusing too much on the issue at the expense of positive economic news such as low unemployment. This group tends to promote statistics buried beneath the headlines that suggest inflation isnt that bad. SIMON ROSENBERG of NDN has been leading the charge on this. And some context on inflation, he wrote recently. It is high, but wages/stocks/home prices [are] also way up. People who are really feeling it are those who use a lot of gas. For most everything else its [a] modest 2-3% net increase. Net grocery bill has gone from $100 to $102.80.

But privately, more and more Democrats see inflation in far more dire terms and not just for their prospects in elections this year.

One top progressive sounded the alarm over the weekend on a widely read off-the-record email list. The author gave us permission to quote from their missive Danger: Inflation Is a Third Rail which was ricocheting around lefty circles Sunday night. A couple of things stood out to us:

1. Some progressives now see inflation as an accelerant for both fiscal conservatism and authoritarianism. The former is undoubtedly true: Inflation concerns have already killed President JOE BIDENs multitrillion-dollar social welfare proposal and pushed him to embrace deficit reduction. But our anonymous progressive warns of something darker:

Obviously inflation does not always lead to authoritarianism. But when it is a feature of the political environment, it often compounds the weakness of regimes already under stress. In that environment, the appeal of a strong leader who can just fix it becomes considerably more appealing both to the population and leading business interests. Although Trump has not seized on inflation yet on the campaign trail, that opportunity remains open for him and MAGA.

2. Inflation is a psychological trauma for many Americans that financial elites dont understand:

Ive become very concerned that most of us are not appreciating how terrifying rising prices are for most Americans. If you havent lived through an extended inflationary episode, and if you are reading this from the vantage point of personal financial security, it will be very difficult for you to comprehend how most Americans are experiencing rising prices now

Unlike nearly every other issue which can be ignored by most Americans in their daily lives, inflation insists on voters attention and not just when they go to the gas station to discover gas prices are higher again. The financially stressed have a kind of mental overhead that those who are not financially stressed dont: constant mental checkbook balancing, constant recognition that buying this means not having that, and doubts about your ability to provide for those you care about most. Rising prices compound those daily recalculations of how to make it through the month, because you cannot even be certain of the prices for your immediate necessities. There is an enormous literature connecting financial stress with mental illness, suicide and poorer health outcomes. To a great extent, it is the psychological mechanism driving deaths of despair.

BUT LOOK WHOS TALKING ABOUT INFLATION Given the stakes, its perhaps surprising that Democrats arent talking about inflation more. But new data from Quorum, which scoured public comments and tabulated how much each lawmaker mentioned inflation between Jan. 1 and April 13, shows a major divide between the two parties.

Good Monday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.

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KAMALAS WORDLE SECRETS Last week at a DNC fundraiser that we covered, VP KAMALA HARRIS let us in on a secret: She, too, is obsessed with Wordle.

Now, The Ringers Claire McNear has just published an exclusive interview with Harris on the veeps Wordle strategies. Some highlights:

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BIDENS MONDAY:

10:15 a.m.: The president and first lady JILL BIDEN will deliver remarks for the 2022 White House Easter EGGucation Roll, with Harris and Emhoff also in attendance.

1:45 p.m.: Biden will receive the Presidents Daily Brief.

HARRIS MONDAY (all times Eastern):

12:05 p.m.: Harris and Emhoff will depart D.C. en route to Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

6:15 p.m.: Harris will receive a briefing on the U.S. Space Force and U.S. Space Command.

7:30 p.m.: Harris will meet with service members and their families, and deliver remarks at 8:15 p.m.

8:55 p.m.: Harris and Emhoff will depart Vandenberg Space Force Base en route to Los Angeles.

11:10 p.m.: Harris will deliver remarks at a DNC fundraiser.

Press secretary JEN PSAKI will brief at 4 p.m.

THE SENATE and THE HOUSE are out.

BIDENS WEEK AHEAD:

Tuesday: Biden will travel to Portsmouth, N.H., where he will visit the New Hampshire Port Authority and discuss his agenda.

Wednesday: Biden will meet with Defense Secretary LLOYD AUSTIN, Deputy Defense Secretary KATHLEEN HICKS, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Combatant Commanders in the Cabinet Room, and later will host a dinner for the group with the first lady.

Thursday: Biden will travel to Portland, Ore., where he will discuss infrastructure.

Friday (Earth Day): Biden will travel to Seattle, where he will discuss his administrations climate change response.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Worshippers gather for a sunrise Easter Sunday celebration at the Lincoln Memorial. | AP

THE ECONOMY

FUTURE FORECASTING Goldman Sachs Sees U.S. Recession Odds at 35% in Next Two Years, by Bloombergs Eric Martin

ALL POLITICS

WHERE IT COUNTS Run for Something, a Democratic group that recruits and trains candidates, is pitching donors on an $80 million, three-year program to find, train and support 5,000 candidates for local offices in charge of election administration, a sprawling national effort intended to fight subversion of future election results, reports Elena Schneider. Called project Clerk Work, the effort will include every state where election administrators are themselves elected by voters.

ON WISCONSIN One of Democrats best opportunities to expand their Senate majority in November is in Wisconsin, where they hope to take down GOP incumbent RON JOHNSON. But could the timing-blessed senator survive in whats shaping up to be another good year for Republicans? Democrats intend to paint Johnson as a different man from the one voters elected in 2010, someone who morphed from an outsider businessman concerned about the national debt to, as [JOE] ZEPECKI calls him, a conspiracy theory-fueled crank, APs Scott Bauer reports. And Lt. Gov. MANDELA BARNES, one of the Dem frontrunners, has embarked on a tour of rural Wisconsin to try to win back voters.

THE LEFTS NEW PURITY TEST? In North Carolina, progressives are rescinding their endorsement of Democratic state Sen. VALERIE FOUSHEE after campaign disclosures showed that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) made significant donations to Senator Foushee's campaign comprising more than half the campaign's total quarterly fundraising, the Progressive Caucus of the NCDP said in a statement. No American candidate should be accepting funds from an organization that provides financial support for those seeking to destroy our democracy."

TRUMP CARDS

THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE MACHINE NYTs Shane Goldmacher has a neat summation of Trumps place in the contemporary GOP: Hes something akin to a 19th-century party boss, towering over Republicans from his perch at Mar-a-Lago. In this deeply reported step back with 50+ sources, Goldmacher writes that Trumps obsession with unadulterated loyalty matches his role as kingmaker, and he draws gratification from the raw exercise of his power. Working from a large wooden desk reminiscent of the one he used in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump has transformed Mar-a-Lagos old bridal suite into a shadow G.O.P. headquarters, amassing more than $120 million.

Notable detail: Not unlike past political bosses, Mr. Trump has focused heavily on the mechanics of elections who counts the votes, who certifies them while ceaselessly sowing distrust in the system through false claims of vote rigging.

BEYOND THE BELTWAY

THE NEW CULTURE WARS The conservative movement to censor books has been successful in Llano, Texas, a small city where WaPos Annie Gowen reports that everything from MAURICE SENDAKs In the Night Kitchen to Freddie the Farting Snowman to ISABEL WILKERSONs Caste has been pulled from public library shelves. How it happened: The very conservative county dissolved its library board and replaced them with largely political appointees, going on to close their meetings to the public and introduce religious elements. Ultimately, its a censorship battle that is unlikely to end well for proponents of free speech, Gowen writes.

POLICY CORNER

THE SETTING SOHN Democrats hopes of securing a majority on the Federal Communications Commission are running into another potential obstacle their pick is becoming a midterm campaign issue, John Hendel reports. A coalition of Republicans, moderate Democrats and telecom industry allies are ratcheting up pressure on potential swing Democrats to oppose FCC nominee GIGI SOHN, including by calling the progressive consumer advocate an anti-police radical and accusing her of being biased against rural America. Sohns supporters say these broad swipes, rooted in politically sensitive culture wars, bear little attachment to her actual record.

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THE PANDEMIC

RIPPLE EFFECT Kids arent getting caught up on routine shots they missed during the pandemic, and many public health experts are blaming Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy. Public health officials and school nurses in 10 states told POLITICO they worry an increasing number of families are projecting their attitudes toward the Covid vaccine on routine shots for measles, chicken pox, meningitis and other diseases, our colleagues Megan Messerly and Krista Mahr report. That has pediatricians, school nurses and public health experts worried that preventable and possibly fatal childhood illnesses, once thought to be a thing of the past, could become more common.

CHOOSE YOUR OWN PANDEMIC In year three of the pandemic, gone are the stern recommendations and admonishments to get vaccinated. Pandemic precautions and responses have become something of a choose your own adventure story.

Health officials are leaving it up to people to assess if they need booster shots, whether to wear a mask and how long to isolate after a positive test. Businesses, schools and other entities are scaling back specific guidelines as they prepare for a return to normal, WSJs Jared Hopkins writes. Thanks to the wide array of offerings that help dent the worst outcomes as the virus continues to spread, the response is becoming more tailored to peoples own health and appetite for risk, according to public-health experts.

NYTs Benjamin Mueller also has a look at this new approach, writing that many scientists said they also worried about this latest phase of the pandemic heaping too much of the burden on individuals to make choices about keeping themselves and others safe, especially while the tools for fighting Covid remained beyond some Americans reach.

WAR IN UKRAINE

WASHINGTONS LEAST POPULAR MAN Our colleague Nahal Toosi talks to the one man in Washington that no one else wants to: ANATOLY ANTONOV. Russias ambassador to the United States cant get meetings with senior officials at the White House or the State Department. He cant convince U.S. lawmakers to see him, much less take a photo. Its the rare American think tanker whos willing to admit to having any contact with the envoy. Not even Russian leader VLADIMIR PUTIN chats with him.

It is unwise, foolish, he insists, to shut out the ambassador of a country with which the United States is doomed to cooperate on everything from nuclear non-proliferation to climate change. In an exclusive interview with POLITICO conducted last week in the ornate Ukrainian Room of the Russian embassy over tea, ice cream and pastries cooked by a beloved chef the U.S. is soon to kick out Antonov is by turns charming and unbending, with a riposte for every question that challenges the Kremlins official position.

SURRENDER OR DIE Ukrainian fighters who were holed up in a massive steel plant in the last known pocket of resistance inside the shattered city of Mariupol ignored a surrender-or-die ultimatum from Russia on Sunday and held out against the capture of the strategically vital port, report APs Adam Schreck and Mstyslav Chernov.

After the Ukrainian fighters defending Mariupol refused to surrender on Sunday, the Russian assault intensified, NYTs Michael Schwirtz, Jack Nicas and Neil MacFarquhar report.

THE BIG PICTURE All this land is in blood, and it will take years to recover, the wife of a Ukrainian civilian reportedly executed by Russians tells APs Cara Anna and Emilio Morenatti. In the killing fields of the Kyiv suburbs, they write in this harrowing story, volunteers are digging up the bodies left behind by the invading forces: This spring is a grim season of planting and replanting.

PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION

FOR THOSE KEEPING TRACK Container ship stuck in Chesapeake Bay for more than a month is free, by WaPos Ian Shapira

Tucker Carlson, in a new special for Fox Nation, discussed, um testicle tanning a self-described red-light therapy that its promoters claim raises testosterone levels. Kid Rock was just as confused as the rest of us.

Scott Adams tweeted that on somewhere between 5-7 occasions, someone stole more than $50,000 from me. (We tend to think wed remember exactly how many times that happened to us.)

Alex Jones businesses are weighing bankruptcy in an effort to pause civil litigation against the far-right radio host, reports Bloomberg.

Showtime debuted its new series, The First Lady, on Sunday night, examining the lives of Michelle Obama (played by Viola Davis), Betty Ford (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Eleanor Roosevelt (Gillian Anderson).

COVID COLOR CLASH By now, its something of a ritual: If youre a White House staffer or a reporter whos going to be close to one of the four main principals of the administration (Biden, Harris or their spouses), you must first get a negative result on a Covid test. That result gets you a one-day wristband that signifies youre clear to have access, and everyone goes on their merry way.

On Friday, one of the technicians who handles the Covid testing at the White House told us that they recently added more wristband colors to the mix (Even teal!). Apparently some of the more fashion-focused folks were getting frustrated with the lack of color options and seeming randomness of the palette.

The tech says theyve had lots of press, but mostly staff who try to get the skinny on what color the bands are going to be ahead of time so they can color-coordinate their outfits. Were told that one administration staffer recently wore red hoping that the days wristband would complement the color and when it didnt, the staffer scoffed with disgust as the tech put a clashing color on their wrist. (Who says serious people cant care about fashion?)

TRANSITIONS Conner Larsen is now senior digital strategist at Woolf Strategy. She previously was at DCG Communications. Reed Howard is joining the Millennial Action Project as senior director of comms. He previously was director of comms at Georgetowns Institute of Politics and Public Service. Marissa Morabito is joining Triple P America as U.S. head of public affairs. She previously was chief government affairs and policy officer at Prevent Child Abuse America.

WEEKEND WEDDING Sam Nitz, partner at Fireside Campaigns and an EMILYs List alum, and Ben Takai of the D.C. Health Department got married Friday night at District Winery, surrounded by family and friends. Their first-date story: Ben and Sam were so lost in getting to know each other that neither of them realized Ben had spent the majority of the night with a full chicken tender stuck to his shorts which they both found funny later. Pic SPOTTED: officiant Brad Bauman, Pili Tobar and Christina Carr, Jessica Post and Andy LaVigne, Josh Dorner, Lauren Dikis, Karen Petel, Tatenda Musapatike, Brandon English, Molly Haigh, Julia Rosen Chaplin and Lucinda Guinn.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD Frances Lanzone, manager of social impact, executive engagement and philanthropy at Amazon Web Services and a POLITICO and Obama White House alum, and Giuseppe Lanzone, co-founder and CEO of Peruvian Brothers and a former Olympic rower, welcomed Gisella Mia Lanzone on Tuesday. Pic Another pic

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Reps. Bob Latta (R-Ohio) and Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) John Podhoretz White House Cabinet Secretary Evan Ryan White Houses Kelsey Donohue, celebrating at the White House Easter Egg Roll Kayleigh McEnany Black Rock Groups Mike Dubke Darby Grant Nate Parker of Bart & Associates Bret Manley POLITICOs Burgess Everett, Michael Stratford and Lara Seligman John Fogarty DHS Robert Silvers USA Todays Donovan Slack Sean Maloney MSNBCs Ayman Mohyeldin Grant Saunders of the Jan. 6 committee Micki Werner Tracy Spicer of Avenue Solutions Caleb Crosswhite Amazons Brian Huseman Doug Baker Rick Kaplan Protocols Max Cherney Ryan Sager former Reps. Justin Amash (Libertarian-Mich.) and Karen Handel (R-Ga.) (6-0) Zach Zaragoza Princetons Ben Chang, who celebrated at the Manchester United game this weekend Phil Gordon Trey Grayson (5-0)

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POLITICO Playbook: The inflation argument splitting Dems in two- POLITICO - POLITICO

Republican governors seeking reelection this year are embracing the bunker mentality of Trump-era culture wars as they seek their place in the new Grand Old Party, both at home and across the nation.

The tones many have adopted are a stark reminder that even if former President Trump is no longer in the White House, and his once-iron grip over the Republican Party is slipping, the divisiveness he embodied has become a guide for others chasing the path to success.

It is also a sign of just how much turbulence Trump stirred up within his own party. If Ronald Reagan taught Republicans never to fight each other, Trump has taken the opposite tact, attacking at will and inspiring outsiders to take on incumbents who must now fight back.

In Oklahoma, Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) this week signed a new law making it illegal for a doctor to perform an abortion, with exceptions only in the case of a medical emergency. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed laws banning transgender girls from high school sports, controlling the way schools teach about race and gender and eliminating permit requirements for carrying concealed weapons.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R), a low-key politician who rarely makes headlines outside of her state, has launched campaign advertisements that echo Trumps evidence-free false statements about the 2020 election results.

The fake news, Big Tech and blue state liberals stole the election from President Trump. But here in Alabama, were making sure that never happens, Ivey says in her first ad. The left is probably offended. So be it.

All three governors face potentially competitive primaries. Polls show Kemp leading former Sen. David Perdue (R), who has Trumps support. Two conservative groups have spent money attacking Stitt; former state Veterans Affairs Director Joel Kintsel (R) launched a campaign against Stitt earlier this week, accusing the governors administration of corruption, self-dealing and cronyism.

Ivey faces a challenge from Lindy Blanchard (R), a businesswoman who served as Trumps ambassador to Slovenia and who has spent her own money on an early advertising onslaught.

Other conservative incumbents who once would have coasted to renomination now find themselves accused of heresy. Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R), Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R), Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon (R) and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) all face primary challenges, though all are favored to win both renomination and another term.

Those who face primary challenges are racing to catch up with other governors who have a clear path to Novembers midterm elections and who have already staked out their trenches in the culture wars ahead.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is near the front of the pack. This year, he has signed legislation establishing a new state agency to combat supposed election fraud, banning abortions after 15 weeks and limiting education on sexual and gender identity for children, a bill opponents call the Dont Say Gay law.

That law is among the conservative measures that has gained traction in other states. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has said he will make a similar version a priority when the legislature returns to Austin next year.

Abbott is in the midst of his own effort to focus attention on the border with Mexico. Abbott has deployed the National Guard to help secure the border, and he has ordered stepped-up inspections on trucks crossing into his state a move Jim Henson, a political scientist at the University of Texas at Austin and executive director of the Texas Politics Project, called a straightforward middle-finger to the Biden administration.

Abbotts administration has also sent at least three buses full of undocumented immigrants to Washington, D.C., where they unload just outside the office building that hosts several media bureaus, including that of Fox News.

The respective motivations for each governor is drawn from their relative political positions. DeSantis will face the winner of a late Democratic primary, while Abbott knows the identity of his opponent: former Rep. Beto ORourke (D). Both Republicans are favored to win reelection, leading some to suspect that they have set eyes farther down the road.

The difference is national attention and ambitions, said Brent Buchanan, an Alabama-based Republican strategist and pollster. DeSantis and Abbott are building national profiles. Ivey and Kemp are just focused on reelection so they can continue implementing conservative policies within their respective states.

Defeating a sitting governor is rare, and the national landscape is so favorable to Republicans right now that every governor seeking reelection is favored to win.

But the governors embracing Trumps culture wars show the salience those issues have among the primary voters who will renominate most, if not all of them.

Continued here:
Republican governors sprint right, eyeing reelection and 2024 - The Hill

The term woke has its roots in Black culture but has since been removed from this origin and been co-opted a symbol by those who push back against social justice progress. Staci M. Zavattarowrites that for policymakers and activists to affect change, it is important to understand how the social constructions of woke and Critical Race Theory, more specifically, have changed.

During her Senate confirmation hearings for the US Supreme Court this week, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson endured a series of questions from lawmakers about race, religion, and policing. In several instances, she was asked about Critical Race Theory or more appropriately CRT. Culture wars questions always seem to play out live during US Supreme Court confirmation hearings, and the latest version has focused on CRT and anti-racism.

Why is this sloganeering happening? One explanation is that the word woke has moved from its rhetorical roots in the Black community to become weaponized today to pass legislation undoing much of the social justice progress benefitting marginalized populations. Words like woke and associated imagery including CRT become catalysts to carry out culture war policies harming and aliening people from full participation in democratic society.

In our research, we chose the word woke because it came to prominence in the American lexicon after police murdered George Floyd in Minnesota in May 2020. The murder at the hands of the state seemed to set off a reckoning, especially among White people, about racism and its deadly effects. Corporations jumped into the movement, turning social media profile pictures into black squares to ideally bring attention to these structural issues. Yet with not much long-term change, such pronouncements often seem like mere marketing ploys.

And that was our point. The word woke and its associated imagery became political calling cards for certain lawmakers to pass legislation curbing voting rights, prohibiting transgender women from competing in womens sports, changing school curriculum so it does not hurt feelings, and banning and burning books. In this way, we can see how the word woke moved from its roots in Black culture to todays symbolic politics needing no real meaning anymore because the symbols and words are so powerful.

To better understand how the word woke has changed, we use a theory called phases of the image. That theory from French philosopher Jean Baudrillard explains how something starts with a clear connection to reality then through time can progress into what is called hyperreality. Any connection to a former reality dissipates, allowing a new, socially constructed reality to emerge. A concrete examination of this theory took place in the popular movie The Matrix. In one scene, Morpheus quotes directly from Baudrillard when he says: Welcome to the desert of the real. The movie plays between reality and simulation, as do places such as Las Vegas and Walt Disney World. Virtual reality tools popular today also blur these lines. The simulations become the reality.

The term woke was brought to prominence by William Melvin Kelley in a 1962 New York Times essay, meaning the word was birthed in Harlem, the epicenter of Black culture in America. Kelley argued that when words in Black culture are co-opted by White people, they lose their real meaning. The term became popular in 2008 as singer Erykah Badu used it in the chorus of her song Master Teacher, and in 2015 Google searches for the word increased after police killings of Black people throughout the US. Today, the term woke is removed from its roots in Black culture to a symbol people use to push back against social justice progress.

With its roots in the Black community, wokeness meaning to be awake to social oppression helped bring about legislation such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Learning about and being aware of structural racism led to passage of the (albeit flawed) legislation attempting to dismantle some of those barriers to entry for Black individuals. As the word woke floated from its foundations, the term led to backlash against symbolic activism acts with no real change but meant to make people feel good, such as the aforementioned social media black photos and painting streets with Black Lives Matter. Symbolic acts are hugely powerful, of course, but in our work, we argue how symbolic acts also need accompanying policy change to have any connection to reality. Otherwise, someone might think painting a street in and of itself is enough to move the needle on social change.

The most visible way the term woke has moved into hyperreality is through its rhetorical use in contemporary society. All one must do is look at news outlets to see how the word is being used to denote opposition to any meaningful social justice efforts, indeed even being used as a reason to pass legislation stripping away social progress or putting back into place systemic barriers meant to preserve White power structures. Indeed, using the word woke is a purposeful, powerful tool of mostly right-leaning lawmakers to invoke images of puritanical nostalgia being dismantled by liberal activists.

This is why we chose to use CRT as an example in our work. Critical race theory is an academic field of inquiry that began from a legal perspective to interrogate structural, systemic barriers to equal access and treatment. CRT and woke as symbols and rhetoric are lumped in together to mean anything someone sees as threats to an idealized image of America. When asked to define either term, lawmakers cannot which is exactly the point. In a hyperreality, the image is more important than reality. A pundit summed it up nicely: We have successfully frozen their brand critical race theory into the public conversation and are steadily driving up negative perceptions We will eventually turn it toxic, as we put all of the various cultural insanities under that brand category.

From a public administration perspective, the implications of our work are clear: understand the power of symbolic politics to affect change. Our research focused on the term woke and its unmooring from roots in the Black community as a mechanism to understand some of the public battles playing out today. Knowing rhetorical roots allows public administrators, stakeholders, and activists to learn the symbolic rules to play a similar game.

Please read our comments policy before commenting.

Note: This article gives the views of the author, and not the position of USAPP American Politics and Policy, nor the London School of Economics.

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Staci M. Zavattaro University of Central FloridaStaci M. Zavattaro, Ph.D., is professor of public administration at the University of Central Florida. Her research focuses on the lived experiences of public managers. Her latest research examines the role of deathcare and death management.

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How woke became weaponized in the culture wars - London School of Economics

AMAC Exclusive By Daniel Roman

For the first time in decades, it is conservatives, not liberals, who are on the offensive in the culture wars. There are a number of things conservatives have done well this time around, including picking their battles, building broad coalitions, and trying to unite rather than divide parents. But a key force in the Rights cultural resurgence is ultimately the Left itself, which has shockingly forfeited the debate. For most of the last year, there has been little to no effort to actually defend the merits of left-wing positions. These days, leftists seem only capable of hurling invective at those attacking them. The American people are not responding well.

It really is not worth dignifying the arguments over whether Lia Thomas should or should not be allowed to compete as a woman by calling it a debate as even those on the Left seem to know better than to deviate too far from absolutist talking points, lest the absurdity of their position becomes evident to all. There is little better evidence that even many liberals dont have their hearts in the fight; they are kept in line by the threat of cancellation, but reveal their private reservations by how they publicly repeat rote lines like no one actually knows what gender really is.

All of this is a consequence of the Left creating an echo chamber where their positions are justified not on the basis that they are well-reasoned or produce good outcomes, but because they are simply asserted by everyone on the Left as the right thing to do. Because they are right, by definition, they should be done, and further debate about drawbacks is not genuine debate but a bad-faith effort to delay the right thing to do. At the root of this twisted logic is an insidious form of identity politics which states that if any marginalized group makes a demand, that demand must be treated as legitimate. This is true even if other members of the group contest it.

For example, even the most extreme demands made by groups such as Black Lives Matter are held to be the legitimate demands of the entire African American community. Those opposing the demands are either racists (if not African American) or not legitimate representatives of the community (if they are African American). The Left has long practiced this with Jews, labeling prominent senior Trump administration officials as Nazis even if they were Jewish. They are now turning this thinking against other groups, such that any woman who is pro-life is no longer considered to be on the side of women. Any gay or lesbian individual who is not supportive of the most extreme demands for sex and gender education in schools is self-hating. A transgender individual who does not believe it is fair for biological men to take part in womens sports, such as Caitlyn Jenner, or one who has serious doubts about childhood transition, is now labeled a transphobe.

Solidarity with any identity group is defined as solidarity with the most extreme left-wing elements of that group.

Politically, this line of thinking has led the Left into a dead-end of policies supported only by the most extremist elements of the communities in question. Hence why Democrats associated the defense of Critical Race Theory with supporting African Americans, when the vast majority of African American parents want their schools teaching math and science, not radical social theories, or why Democrats believe that placating open-border advocates is the key to winning over Hispanic voters.

Perhaps even worse than causing Democrats to push unpopular policies, this line of thinking has prevented them from realizing why they even need to persuade anyone at allwhich is having all sorts of insidious effects on American society.

Conservatives are now winning because they have spotted this vulnerability and seized it. The battles over CRT and reopening schools were a practice-run. Both provided compelling issues for conservatives and had broad appeal to the American public. Significantly, however, the opposition never figured out what their position was. On CRT, was it bad, but not being taught? Was it good, not being taught, but should be taught? Did it exist at all? Should it? Many on the Left tried to hurl these questions back at conservatives, suggesting they lacked a clear definition of CRT, but conservatives could at the very least point to things that were being taught that they wished to stop. The Left, unable to decide whether CRT existed or not, never mounted a coherent defense.

This dynamic extended to the Supreme Courts oral arguments over Mississippis 15-week abortion ban. Lawyers for the plaintiffs repeatedly insisted the law violated the precedents set by Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood but refused to be drawn into discussions about whether those cases were correctly decided to begin with. This purely procedural approach extended outside the court system, where the Left has argued that Roe is under threat, without explaining why a 15-week ban would be harmful or wrong.

With the current debates over Floridas so-called Dont Say Gay bill and transgender issues, the Left has fallen into similar logical black holes. In the former case, Democrats have been maneuvered either to point out problems that might arise in hypothetical situations (which would often require active malice from teachers) or attempting to mobilize high school students and activists against a bill which only applied to students from pre-school up through third grade. There may well have been logistical and legal issues with the drafting, but if there was a case against the bill, it was not one the Left made. Instead, they focused on arguing that this cannot be done, not that it should not. Polls suggest that they lost.

The most extreme example of the Lefts failure to make any real arguments is the fight over the inclusion of transgender individuals in competitive sports. It is an issue that the Left themselves would say effects only the privileged. The demographic of individuals, especially younger biological males, who can attend elite institutions, receive the financial and familial support required to transition at a young age, and would seek to compete against women is a heavily wealthy group. Yet somehow, the Left has decided that the civil rights issue of our time is the right of a specific Ivy League student to win college athletic competitions as their preferred gender. There is no effort to explain why this is more important than any of the other concerns raised (such as biological women having to compete against an individual with a clear biological advantage). There is simply the assertion that it is necessary, and that anyone who disagrees is a bigot.

Cancel Culture worked best for the Left when it was pushed with a mixture of persuasion and force. For the last two years, the mask of persuasion and argument has dropped. The Left has begun treating everyone like they treated their own adherents for the last decade. The result is that they have helped defeat themselves in effect accomplishing what social conservatives have struggled to achieve for half a century: making ordinary Americans hate them.

Daniel Roman is the pen name of a frequent commentator and lecturer on foreign policy and political affairs, both nationally and internationally. He holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from the London School of Economics.

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The Left is Their Own Worst Enemy in the Culture Wars - AMAC

No governor has drawn more national attention than RonDeSantisof Florida. And sinceDeSantisis a Republican and in the mold of Donald Trump, that coverage has been decidedly negative.

The topic could be his handling of COVID-19. Or his decision to open businesses and beaches earlier than most other governors. Or vaccine distribution. Or his Parental Rights in Education bill (dubbed the Dont Say Gay bill by Democrats and echoed by many in the press). Or banning most abortions after 15 weeks. Or approving an immigration measure that doesnt allow state entities to do business with businesses and companies that transport migrant children who crossed the border illegally into Florida. Or signing a proclamation declaring Emma Weyant the true winner of a U.S. national college swimming title after she lost to transgender athlete Lia Thomas.

You can agree or disagree withDeSantisand the Florida legislature on any of these moves, measures and proclamations. What makes the governor popular among his supporters is that he doesnt appear to give a damn about what the Florida press or the national political media think about how hes leading his state. He has a plan and principles that appear to be unwavering.

Consider a recent exchange the governor had with WFLAs Evan Donovan after the reporter referenced what critics call the Dont Say Gay bill.

Does it say that in the bill?DeSantisshot back, refusing to allow his critics to frame the bill as homophobic.Does it say that in the bill? Im asking whats in the bill because you are pushing false narratives. It doesnt matter what critics say.

It says classroom instruction on sexual identity and gender orientation, Donovan replied while leaving out a very key detail.

For who? DeSantisretorted. For grades pre-K through three, no five-year-olds, six-year-olds, seven-year-olds. And the idea that you wouldnt be honest about that and tell people what it actually says, its why people dont trust people like you because you peddle false narratives. And so we just disabused you of those narratives.

And thats true: The bill applies to kids in kindergarten through second grade being taught sexual instruction. Sounds like something that a parent of a kindergartener or first- or second-grader would support.

Understand, if you are out protesting this bill, you are by definition putting yourself in favor of injecting sexual instruction to 5-, 6- and 7-year-old kids,DeSantissaid during another recent press conference. I think most people think thats wrong. I think parents especially think thats wrong.

The national press is largely against the bill, and headline after headline refers to it as the Dont Say Gay bill, in an apparent effort to push a false narrative.

Take this framing by NBC News: Its headline read, Florida Gov. RonDeSantissignals support for Dont Say Gay bill, followed by a subhead The bill, which would bar the discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in primary schools, passed the Florida Senate Education Committee on Tuesday.

The headline itself was misleading, because thats not what the bill is called; its what critics call it. And the story itself, which wasnt an opinion piece, never once mentionedDeSantissmainpoint that the bill bars sexual instruction to 5-, 6- and 7-year-old kids.

Why omit that crucial element of the legislation?Unless, of course, a narrative is being peddled.

Despite all the negative press, Florida voters support the bill as it pertains to banning theteaching of sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten through third grade by a solid margin. Per recent Quinnipiac polling, 51 percent of voters there support it while just 35 percent oppose and 15 percent have no opinion.

Overall,DeSantis is leading his Democratic challengers in this years governors race.

If Charlie Crist captures the Democratic nomination in Florida, DeSantiswould beat him 55 percent to 34 percent if the election were held today,according to a pollreleased by the Public Opinion Research Lab at University of North Florida. If matched up against Nikki Fried,Desantishas a 55 percent to 32 percent lead.Other pollsalso showDeSantiscomfortably ahead.

Overall,DeSantis, an Iraq War veteran and Harvard Law graduate, sits at 54 percent while President Biden is at 39 approval in Florida.

Hell almost certainly win in November to capture a second term as governor, which could serve as a springboard to a 2024 presidential run.

When 2024 rolls around, Donald Trump will be 78 years old; DeSantiswill be 45.

A recent CPAC straw poll showed Trump winning the nomination easily, with 61 percent of the vote.DeSantiswas second with 28 percent,up 7 points from last year. No other candidate got more than 2 percent.

But if Trump doesnt run,DeSantisgets 61 percent of the vote. His next-nearest potential competitors, Donald Trump Jr. and Mike Pompeo, each get 6 percent.

RonDeSantisis a culture warrior, just as Trump was before him.His positions may be unpopular with Democrats and the press but if Florida is an indication of sentiment in other swing states, such as Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio, this will serve him very well if he becomes 2024 GOP nominee.

Joe Concha is a media and politics columnist.

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Ron DeSantis is winning the culture wars - The Hill