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Solomon D. Stevens

Republicans are achieving success across the country every day, and Democrats are doing nothing substantive to stop it. They complain about Republicans and talk about how bad things are when they’re with their friends, but it’s clear they don’t understand the nature of the challenges they face.

And that’s why Republicans have an electoral edge heading into the 2022 election, and will likely regain the White House in 2024, with or without Donald Trump.

Republicans have brought into the country the cultural battle/struggle, the cultural struggle. But Democrats don’t get it.

Culture Kamp is presented by Republicans as a struggle between two images of America: those of pride and shame. When Trump talks about making America great again, he wants his supporters to feel good about their country, a pride he claims he and others have stolen from them. He said that many Americans are tired of being told that there is something wrong with their country and that they have many problems. felt.

President Barack Obama was the final straw. What he presented in his national and international speeches as a “review of history” was viewed by Republicans and a growing number of Americans as an “apology tour,” which they found irritating. They didn’t want to feel ashamed of their country or themselves.

Republicans crave a past that didn’t really exist, except maybe some TV shows from the 1950s. They imagine that life has become better and less complicated. They think men are men and women are women. People were honest and proud of their country and themselves.

1950s television shows celebrated white, middle-class Christian families, where no problem was unsolvable with a pipe-smoking “father knows better”. Even then, it was a false, artificial world.In the 1950s, the bloody Korean War, McCarthyism, rampant anti-Semitism, ubiquitous racism, pervasive sexism, and who-you-know-who There were gay and transgender people who were afraid to admit

Despite all this, the Democrats have continued the Obama tradition. They believe they are fighting evil to make their country better. But what Republicans hear is quite different. I hear they are all said to be racist, sexist and homophobic. If they deny being racist, they are said to be guilty of “white privilege.” If they deny being sexist, they are said to be guilty of “male privilege.” When a transgender bathroom makes them uncomfortable, they are called bigots.

And Democrats are complicating matters by focusing on the minutiae. They have spent a lot of time scolding people for using the wrong pronouns and inciting microaggressions. Everyone walks on eggshells, afraid to speak for fear of being caught.

Friedrich Nietzsche said, “Psychology is again the way to the fundamental problem.” He was wrong on many counts, but he was right on this one. America today faces a psychological dilemma, with people divided into opposing camps along lines of feeling rather than ideology. We are asked to choose between two very different states of her mind: pride or shame. Given this choice, most people choose Pride.

And more and more Republicans are willing to embrace authoritarianism in the name of this elusive feeling. The Democrats never intended to make people ashamed of their country or themselves, but this is what happened.

The question for Democrats is, can we find a way to address America’s history of weakness, racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of bigotry? Can they find a way to positively express this critical view of America and Americans?

Democrats need leaders, like Ronald Reagan, who combine commitment to addressing serious problems with optimism about the future, and who don’t sound like they’re constantly scolding people. If they cannot do this, the Democratic Party will fail massively and the country will continue on its current path.

Solomon D. Stevens is the author of Religion, Politics, and Law (with Peter Schotten) and The Challenge to Peace in the Middle East. He wrote this for his InsideSources.com.