Drum - Public Opinion does not favor Republican cultural beliefs

Great piece by Drum taking down the fact that Chait cannot see the forest for the trees. As opposed to conspiracy, it's public opinion that changed. Short read, but too many paragraphs. Supporting data and specific examples in the piece

Jonathan Chait has a long piece in New York about the right's latest "master theory" of political war: namely that ever since the '60s the left has engaged in a cultural "long march" that has steadily taken over practically every influential American institution—entertainment, universities, big business, etc.—and the only hope for conservatives is to wage a scorched-earth counter-revolution from within the government. Why government? Because it's the only institution they still have a chance of controlling. They just have to win elections to do it.



So the liberal domination of institutions is a little less complete than the "long march" theorists would have you believe. But the real weakness of their argument is simpler: public opinion is what really matters. Institutions are always downstream of public opinion, changing only after the public demands it. And the plain fact is that conservative social attitudes are overwhelmingly unpopular. Just to run through some of the most obvious examples:


Taken as a whole, we can say that public opinion remains split on guns and immigration, but in virtually every other area conservative social attitudes are strongly unpopular. Hell, even on the semi-cultural question of raising taxes on the rich, only a quarter of Americans share conservative opposition to the idea.

There are obviously still polarized opinions on the newer and more extreme borders of cultural issues—things like wokeness, puberty blockers for minors, and trans women in sports. There always are until enough time has passed for public opinion to settle down. Generally speaking, though, conservatives have simply lost the country on cultural issues. That's their problem, not the fact that institutions have followed along.

Americans mostly hate Republican cultural beliefs - Kevin Drum

 

He didn't cite to the specific polls, but he bullet pointed the, to wit:

• At the time they were taking place, only a third of Americans opposed the George Floyd protests. To this day, only a minority think the police treat white and Black people equally.
• Transgender issues are still new and fraught, but a core belief in protecting trans people from discrimination in jobs, housing, and general public acceptance generates only tiny opposition.
• Only a third of the country believes that churches should be involved in politics. Less than a quarter think churches should endorse candidates. Only small minorities think the government should favor Christianity. And only about a quarter think the religious freedom of Christians is threatened.
• Only about 15% of Americans think gun laws should be loosened. About a third oppose background checks, high-capacity magazines, and bans on assault weapons. That said, this is one of the very few issues where conservative views, broadly speaking, retain fairly high support.

I have followed him over 20 years. I don't always agree with him, but he is very strong n data interpretation