“Democrats and liberals have invaded every aspect of culture over the past 40 or 50 years, and we’re in a tough moment for conservatives,” said Stewart, a sales executive and Army veteran who lives outside Philadelphia. “What I’m looking for in a candidate is someone who can fight on multiple fronts.”
Many voters and policy leaders say the driving force in the Republican presidential primary is a sense that American society—government, the media, Hollywood, academia and big business—has been corrupted by liberal ideas about race, gender and other social matters. Are. , In turn, Democrats feel that conservatives have used their political power to build majorities in red states and on the Supreme Court, jeopardizing decades of work to undermine abortion rights and broaden equal rights for minority groups. done to insert.
It has turned the next race for the White House into an existential election, with voters on both sides fearing not only the loss of political influence, but the destruction of their way of life.
“My biggest fear is about furthering that far-right agenda,” said Laurie Spazzano, 68, a Democrat and insurance agent in Louisville, Ky., who believes one of her own senators, Republican Mitch McConnell, has destroyed the legitimacy of the Supreme Court. By using his leadership position to block a Democratic candidate from going to court and further GOP candidates. Abortion rights have been curtailed, he said, and gay rights in employment and marriage are under threat.
She said, “I’ve never been against all Republicans, but now they’ve gotten really scary.”
In contrast, Republican Julie Duggan believes that conservative values and traditional gender roles are under attack amid rapid social change. “It seems like half the country has lost its mind. People don’t even know what gender they are,” said Duggan, 31, a public safety worker in Chicago. If Republicans lose again, “it will be the collapse of our society.”
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative policy institute, has brought together 60 right-of-center organizations to compile a 900-page document of policy specifications to guide the next Republican president. But the group’s president, Kevin Roberts, says those specifications lag behind the broader goal. He says, “The next election may be the last and best chance for us to save the country from the Socialist Left.”
“His vision is to destroy everything that makes America America – our values, our history, our rights,” Roberts said at a recent group leadership summit. In an interview, he said, “We’ve lost our K-12 schools to radicals. Left-wing activists. Of course we’ve lost our universities and other institutions, including big business and even churches.” “Every day Americans are being forced to take the knee before the rainbow flag,” he said.
Democrats and others say the GOP culture war is a backlash against greater acceptance of the country’s growing diversity, which has long been expected in America, and won’t force anyone to kneel or otherwise engage. going.
Richard Blissett, 33, a Democrat and university staff member who lives in Baltimore, said some Republican complaints run counter to the party’s traditional belief in free markets. “There is a big difference between the government and Hollywood. If Republicans want more Republican movies, they can make them. Nobody is stopping them,” he said.
The heightened sentiment on both sides is reflected in a poll which found that nearly 80% of Republicans believe the Democratic agenda, “if not stopped, will destroy America as we know it.” ” A nearly equal share of Democrats had the same fear of the Republican agenda, saying it would destroy the country, an NBC News poll last autumn found.
The GOP’s realization that American culture has derailed has led to a flurry of legislation in Congress this week, as House Republicans pushed through a set of controversial social-policy amendments to the annual defense bill. These measures stripped money for diversity initiatives in the military and banned abortion and transgender care for service members. GOP lawmakers said they took action because liberal ideology was undermining the military. But the amendments jeopardize the bill’s passage in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Many Republican voters say the pace of social change has unsettled them, with schools and businesses pushing for racial diversity and transgender Americans raising tough questions for parents, schools and sports officials. In a Wall Street Journal-NORC poll this year, three-quarters of Republicans said society has gone too far in accepting transgender people. More than half said society has gone further in accepting gay and lesbian people, and that businesses and schools have gone further in promoting racial and ethnic diversity. Very few Democrats held these views.
In an Ipsos poll this March, nearly half of Republicans agreed with the statement, “These days I feel like a stranger in my own country.” Fewer than 30% of Democrats agreed.
Whereas previous GOP primary races have involved policy disputes to some extent, such as rebuilding Medicare or dismantling the current tax code for a flat tax, this year differences between the candidates on matters such as abortion policy and aid to Ukraine have been more muted. have been Of discussion “Very few people are talking about tax reform, and everyone is talking about cultural issues,” said Jondavid Longo, a Republican and mayor of Slippery Rock outside Pittsburgh. Within both parties, he said, “they see politics as almost a life-and-death situation. Many voters believe that if their candidate does not win, there will be disaster.”
Wes Anderson, a Republican pollster who recently conducted focus groups with GOP voters, said the sense of cultural alienation among Republicans extends far beyond issues of race and gender to include the economy. . “It’s all one in the same thing – there’s a cultural glue that goes from taxes and inflation to transgender policy,” he said. “Our base believes we are losing our country, and the left has radicalized to the point that they no longer believe in America and want to burn it down and convert it to their own image.”
GOP voters are asking the candidates two main things, he said: Do you think we’re on the verge of losing our country? And can we count on you to fight back?
Former President Donald Trump’s defining characteristic as a politician is his eagerness to challenge Washington’s norms and fight the culture-war battles. He regularly uses fiery rhetoric to emphasize what he sees as a threat from the left, warning of “pink-haired communists teaching our children” and calling for “foreign, Christian-hating”. promises to keep Communists, Marxists and Socialists out of America”.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is also responding to an appetite among Republicans to wage a cultural battle. He tried to unify a number of cultural issues in his two most recent ads, one attacking Disney, Bud Light and the country’s schools, calling for liberal actions regarding conservative race and sexuality. “’Voc’ is an existential threat to our society. I mean, it’s an assault on the truth,” DeSantis says in the second ad.
Those positions have earned DeSantis the admiration of Joan Jones, 61, who calls herself overly conservative and is dismayed by the liberal values adopted by the schools. “He’s not intimidated by a big company like Disney,” said Jones, who lives in the Florida panhandle and works for a software company.
The Heritage Foundation’s Roberts cited businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and Sen. Tim Scott (R., SC) among other GOP presidential candidates who have shown they understand the stakes in the cultural tussle. Speaking to the right-wing group Moms for Liberty this month, Ramaswamy warned that patriotism, hard work and other values had been eroded. “That’s when the poison starts to fill the void—vocalism, transgenderism, climateism, covidism, depression, anxiety, drug use, suicide,” he said.
Scott projects an optimistic image and often talks about widely shared values. But he also warns about Democrats: “We cannot allow them to destroy our values and destroy our country.”
Blissett, a Baltimore Democrat, said she fears communities will crumble if Republicans roll back efforts to achieve equality for disadvantaged groups. “A world where we are putting conversations about race on the taboo table will harm our ability to live in community,” he said. Accepting and supporting those who are different from you, he said, is “part of living together.”