I agree that the conservatives are winning on the legislative and judicial battlefields. But they are losing on others.
First, the MSM that the conservatives revile so hard. I was never a big TV watcher pre-pandemic, but I’ve watched plenty since.
I’m not talking about Fox vs CNN and MSNBC. I’m not even talking about Ellen and Will and Grace and Modern Family. All across the TV spectrum, gay marriage and interracial marriage and single motherhood have been normalized and mainstreamed, and transgenderism is getting there. Diversity and equality is celebrated, both in programming and commercials. Law and Order continually explores social issues, almost always from the liberal POV. Reality show contestants look down on Trump supporters.
I mentioned in another thread recently that I’ve noticed this thing where characters in non-political popular novels make fun of conservative Antifa panic.
I sometimes play this little interior design game on my iPad, kind of a grown-up paint by numbers when players compete by applying different fabrics and finishes to sketches of rooms. Sounds innocuous, right? But each room sketch is accompanied by a brief, a description of the client what they want for the room. And the designs are frequently being done for gay couples, interracial couples, unmarried couples of both genders, single parents and transgender people of both genders, plus special designs celebrating things like Pride week.
This is important because most people aren’t politically active or socially aware. Their viewpoints aren’t being determined by articles in the Atlantic or reporting on CNN, they’re being shaped by Law and Order and American Idol and the games they play on their phone.
Really, I think the one of the reasons conservatives watch Fox so much is that’s it’s really the only channel on the dial that’s they can stomach . Maybe the History Channel, with its odd synthesis of World War 2 documentaries and conspiracy theory entertainment — expect even that channel has its share of Black Lives Matter commercials and Juneteenth documentaries.
Secondly, there’s the public education system that consistently promotes values of equality and diversity. Yes, the conservatives are desperately trying to change this through legislation but I think the attitudes are already too deeply ingrained and they have very little chance of success.
Lastly, I think that large corporations are going to start trending more liberal as the Republican Party moves towards radicalism. The younger, newer, Big Tech companies have pushed corporate culture to the left. Another factor is that liberals have outsized spending power - I think it’s partly because workers in large cities have lots more disposable income than similarly situated people in areas with lower costs of living.
I think the crazy push by conservatives to impose minority rule by rigging the legislature and judiciary is sort of a Flight 93 moment on their part, a last desperate attempt to hang onto something that they’ve already lost.
Are they going to win? I don’t think so. Are we going to win? Probably not. Because this isn’t the kind of fight you win, it’s the kind of fight you fight. I think that sometimes there’s this perception on both sides that if you win the big election, you’re going to get everything you want and the fight be over and we’ll all be living in progressive utopia, or conservative utopia. But that’s not how it works.