For years, the Left has dominated much of the common culture and its institutions, from Hollywood to public schools to workers unions. But not anymore.
The hold Democrats once held on cultural issues is breaking, as evidenced by several recent elections. In November, Republican Glenn Youngkin won the Virginia gubernatorial election, performing shockingly well in blue counties among parents of K-12 children and suburban women because he made parental access to education a focal point of his campaign. In New York City, left-leaning voters rejected leftist mayoral candidates in favor of the more “moderate” Eric Adams, who promised them he would get tough on crime and support the city’s police. And just this week, San Francisco residents, who are easily more liberal than the vast majority of the country, recalled three school board members for pursuing pointless liberal policies when they should have been fighting to reopen the city’s schools instead.
The smarter Democrats — the ones who haven’t gotten their heads lost in the sand — can sense the tide is turning. Hence, why dozens of House Democrats are jumping ship now and retiring before the 2022 midterm elections and why the party’s House campaign arm warned its candidates this week that if they don’t figure out how to combat the GOP’s “alarmingly potent” culture war attacks, they will lose — badly.
If Democrats don’t answer Republican hits, the party operatives warned, the GOP’s lead on the generic ballot balloons to 14 points from 4 points — a dismal prediction for Democrats when the GOP only needs to win five seats to seize back the majority. But when voters heard a Democratic response to that hit, Republicans’ edge narrowed back down to 6 points, giving candidates more of a fighting chance, especially since those numbers don’t factor in Democrats going on the offensive.
Even a 6-point GOP lead on the generic ballot spells disaster for Democrats this fall. With that kind of margin, Republicans could easily take back the House and Senate and force President Joe Biden to spend his final two years in office as a lame duck.
A different Politico/Morning Consult poll found that Democrats are faring just as poorly on COVID-19 issues, such as mask and vaccine mandates. While more than half of Democratic voters (65%) still support restrictions, Republicans and independents have swung strongly against them.
For what it’s worth, I’m willing to bet the number of Democratic voters who still support COVID-19 restrictions is actually much smaller than Politico’s poll suggests. You don’t get the kind of margins we’re seeing in the San Francisco recall elections unless voters on both sides of the aisle are very upset.
The strategy for Republicans, then, is simple: Lean into cultural issues. Appeal to parents who are fed up with being locked out of their children’s classrooms. Promise to give them a say in what their children are taught and whether their children wear masks or not. Commit to making sure the toxic racialism found in critical race theory never makes its way into their students’ schools. And vow to hold accountable the government officials who locked down businesses, shut children out of classrooms, and forced vaccine mandates on the public.
That’s how to make sure Democrats don’t just lose by 6 points, but by a landslide. And more importantly, that’s how conservatives can start winning the cultural battles we’ve long ceded to the Left. The culture war is ours for the taking — so let’s take it.
