Culture Wars: Why Democrats Lose on Critical Race Theory and Abortion

Last week, FiveThirtyEight published a think piece titled “Why Democrats Keep Losing Culture Wars.” The article is an instructive demonstration of what’s driving the Left’s recent losses in cultural battles — but not for the reasons that its authors think.

Recent months have seen Democrats and the broader Left sustain a series of humiliating losses in the culture wars. Particularly in education, the energetic grassroots backlash to critical race theory (CRT) has spawned anti-CRT laws in at least nine state legislatures, and red states across the country are set to pass a slate of similar laws in the upcoming legislative session. Gender ideology’s march through our institutions has encountered similar resistance, as ten states ban biological males from competing in women’s sports, and two more ban transition surgery and puberty blocking drugs for minors. (Here, too, similar legislation is also likely to pass in more red states this year). And a record-breaking number of state-level abortion restrictions were passed in 2021, spurred on by a conservative Supreme Court that could well be set to overturn Roe v. Wade.

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Nate Hochman

Nate Hochman was a staff writer at National Review.

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Last week, FiveThirtyEight published a think piece titled “Why Democrats Keep Losing Culture Wars.” The article is an instructive demonstration of what’s driving the Left’s recent losses in cultural battles — but not for the reasons that its authors think.

Recent months have seen Democrats and the broader Left sustain a series of humiliating losses in the culture wars. Particularly in education, the energetic grassroots backlash to critical race theory (CRT) has spawned anti-CRT laws in at least nine state legislatures, and red states across the country are set to pass a slate of similar laws in the upcoming legislative session. Gender ideology’s march through our institutions has encountered similar resistance, as ten states ban biological males from competing in women’s sports, and two more ban transition surgery and puberty blocking drugs for minors. (Here, too, similar legislation is also likely to pass in more red states this year). And a record-breaking number of state-level abortion restrictions were passed in 2021, spurred on by a conservative Supreme Court that could well be set to overturn Roe v. Wade.