THE MORNING RANT: The Culture War Is a Kitchen Table Issue

I’ve seen several tweets in recent weeks from Conservative, Inc. writers that either implore Republican presidential candidates to ignore the culture war, or praise them for finally focusing on “kitchen table” issues (e.g. economic issues) instead of “culture.”

My apologies for not screen-shotting those tweets at the time, but I do not possess the Twitter-searching skills to go back and find them now. But to all those who still read “conservative” writers who are working to conserve the left’s gains in the culture war, I’d like to remind them of a simple truth regarding the great political issues of the day…

…Culture is a “kitchen table” issue.

Is the government’s effort to ban your gas-powered car not worthy of a discussion at the kitchen table? Or what about soaring utility bills because elected officials are replacing inexpensive (and reliable) carbon energy with very expensive (and unreliable) “green” energy?

If you must either quit your job or submit to coerced workplace “celebrations” that are a denial of your faith, is that not a kitchen table issue? Or how about the radical agenda being taught to your kids in elementary school?

Where is the appropriate setting to discuss the children of family and friends dying from overdoses of drugs flowing across the open border?

If pro-criminal District Attorneys are refusing to prosecute career criminals, is the financial cost of being a crime victim not an issue that can be discussed at the kitchen table?

Again, culture is a kitchen table issue, and there is no such thing as fiscal conservatism that is independent of social conservatism, especially now that the “social issue” of climate change requires communist command and control over every aspect of human life and eradication of the energy that fuels civilization.

I could go on and on, and I should also acknowledge that once upon a time I was one of those “fiscal conservatives” who had no use for the GOP’s 20th Century social agenda. While not “socially liberal” I was not “socially conservative” either. I considered myself libertarian on those issues, and in 1996 I was a delegate to the Texas state Republican convention, where there was great tension between us fiscal conservatives and the social conservatives.

The social conservatives were right, I was wrong, and I subsequently became a culture warrior too.

I was not familiar with David Strom before he joined Hot Air, but he has consistently written pieces that mirror my politics and attitude about major issues. So it was very interesting to me when he wrote a recent piece about his transition from a fiscal conservative to a culture warrior. Although my epiphany was from a different catalyst than his, I understand the awakening he describes.

Why I Became a Culture Warrior [David Strom]

I was not destined to be a culture warrior. In fact, for most of my life I would have insisted that conservatives should spend less time fighting about private, cultural matters and more about public policies such as government overreach, taxes, and economic growth.

Boy was I wrong.

Not only are the cultural issues and the policy issues intertwined, but I now believe that the most important front in the war to save our Republic is the cultural one. The enemy is Marxism, and the cultural front is where the Marxists are making the most progress. And because the cultural Marxists are targeting children, winning or losing this battle will determine who owns the future of America and the world.

So what changed me into a culture warrior? And how quickly did the transformation occur?

Mr. Strom goes on to describe his revulsion when the fugitive Roman Polanski was awarded an Oscar in 2003, and America’s cultural elite lauded him and gave Polanski a standing ovation for his suffering after committing a grotesque sex crime against a 13-year old girl. The realization that the left now openly endorsed Polanski’s crime was a call to cultural war for Mr. Strom.

For me, the wake-up call was the betrayal of Governors Arnold Schwarzenegger in California and Christie Todd Whitman in New Jersey, both of whom ran as “fiscally conservate / socially liberal.”

A few years ago, I wrote here at Ace of Spades about “the fraud of the Republican who presents himself as both fiscally conservative and socially liberal.”

Invariably - well it’s actually EVERY DAMN TIME - the fiscally conservative / socially liberal (“FCSL”) Republican becomes an environmental crusader, because “environmentalism” is a key component of the “socially liberal” agenda. And what is at the core of the environmental movement? Command and control of the economy. Therefore a “fiscally conservative” FCSL Republican becomes an ally of the far left on economic issues - to save the planet. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Christie Todd Whitman are the poster chumps of the FCSL fraud. Both were elected governor of their respective states as FCSLs. Both of them were coopted by the left, who forced them to prove their socially liberal bona fides by embracing green economic policies. Now they are both demanding a government overhaul of the economy in a fashion consistent with Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s demands, and with a government control structure that Bernie, Marx, and Engels could all support.

Nowadays, the only conservatives I trust to advocate for the economic principles I believe in are social conservatives. As Ace has pointed out, social conservatives are used to being mocked and vilified by the Washington political/media establishment. In fact, social conservatives gain fortitude when pilloried by that establishment. And ultimately, the critical issues facing our country are hard to define as strictly “economic” or “social’. The populist coalition that elected Donald Trump wants US sovereignty with secure borders, economic freedom within our borders, inoculation from importing the world’s pathologies into our country, limited government that protects its citizens’ liberties, advocacy for Americans to enjoy opportunity and prosperity above the demands of non-citizens and foreigners, and civic pride and patriotism with a respect for western civilization. Are these economic or social issues? Whatever they are, FCSLs cannot be trusted to advocate for these goals if doing so displeases the sustainable organic leftists who throw great dinner parties in Georgetown. A vilified social conservative, on the other hand, will stay true to these principles and continue to advocate for them.

With the government and media ramping up for the return of Covid protocols in 2024 - to ensure ballot box chaos again, and to give Joe Biden cover not to campaign - it’s also worth a discussion if Conservative, Inc. thinks that Covid is just another icky social issue, rather than a kitchen table issue. Owners of “non-essential” businesses that were shut down by Covid commissars in 2020 can tell you that Covid sharia is absolutely a kitchen table issue.

Although I will gladly vote for Donald Trump if he wins the nomination, I currently support Ron DeSantis because of the way he has gone on the offense in the culture wars. He has fought to get the smut out of schools, he has battled ESG in colleges, he punched Mickey Mouse in the pocketbook, he stridently defied Fauci, and he has used his authority to remove pro-crime Soros prosecutors from office.

As a result, Conservative, Inc. is desperately trying to steer DeSantis away from the culture wars and back to their agenda of corporate subservience and phony budget hawk platitudes.

There is plenty of room for differences among conservative politicians on the details of some cultural issues, but there is no room in the tent right now for those who simply choose to abstain from the fight. Abstaining from the culture wars is surrender.

This tweet below from the DeSantis War Room about “a balanced budget Amendment to the US Constitution” bothered me more than maybe it should have, but it gave me flashbacks to all the fraudulent campaigns run by GOP consultants from the Reagan era up into the 21st Century.

The Balanced Budget Amendment was always just a piece of faux-Budget Hawk campaign fraud designed to fool the rubes about a candidate’s commitment to fiscal discipline. It was generally part of a “21-Point” plan that was immediately discarded and forgotten in the off chance that a Republican campaigning on it actually won.

But even worse is that the whole concept of the Amendment is it’s a final capitulation to the judiciary, handing taxing authority over to unelected judges. If somehow a Balanced Budget Amendment did become the law of the land, Congress would still not have the discipline to cut spending, so if there were a budget deficit, the courts would be empowered to raise taxes so as to comply with the Constitution.

But beyond the political argument, it is distressing to hear such awful economic “consultant-speak” from a candidate with an amazing record of actual victories in the culture wars.

Be it Trump or DeSantis who gets the nomination, please promise me you’ll fight the culture wars and I’ll trust that you’ll also do the right things regarding taxes and economic policy. But please do not fall for the trap of “pivoting to the economy” at the expense of the culture war. The economy is part of the culture war. It’s all part of the culture war.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

posted by Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM

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