by Bob Ehrlich
Sorry to sound like a dinosaur, but I recall when my colleagues and I in the House of Representatives believed we were on the cutting edge of America’s great philosophical divide.
It was a heady time. The Class of 1994 was labeled the “majority makers” – the first Republican majority in forty years. It was accordingly easy to assume our policy battles would define the direction of American politics for generations to come.
Led by Speaker Newt Gingrich, we engaged with a political left that had expected its majority to last forever. The respective sides accordingly fought fiercely over critical issues such as a “fair” capital gains tax rate and the questionable federal death tax and the likely impacts of multi-lateral trade pacts and the merits of unions’ organizing rights and whether extended Medicaid benefits were a disincentive to work and whether community activists were exercising undue influence over mortgage originations within local banks.
In football terms, it was politics played “between the 20s” – a guns-versus-butter paradigm familiar to the American voter. We had no reason to believe the pivotal issues would change in a material way. We were wrong.
Fast forward to today, and that between the 20s debate seems so outdated. We now operate in a progressive red zone. Indeed, an all-consuming woke culture has redefined the ways and means and goals of political warfare, and American culture itself. Even more confusing, the respective political parties have changed sides on numerous major issues: Newly installed C-Suite wokesters have damaged the once strong bond between the GOP and the Chamber of Commerce. Dissent and free speech minded 60s liberals are now on the back of milk cartons, as cancel-happy progressives dominate social media. Private sector blue collar union workers are now a newly reliable part of the Republican base. And – believe it or not – the once fiercely anti-war left is…aggressively pro-war…while formerly hawkish Republicans have signed on to a new branch of American nationalism that abhors “endless war.”
All this confusion has led to an interesting false equivalency, one that is becoming increasingly familiar in public debate.
My context is political discussions (I have many) with moderate/liberal friends regarding the sorry state of our politics. It is here where I note how progressives have fundamentally changed America’s political terrain (and that red zone analogy) through suppression of speech on campus and sexualized curricula in elementary schools and pre-emption of parental rights by teachers’ unions and promotion of biological men in women’s sports and…at which point I am interrupted and told: “Yeah…both parties are really off the rails.”
My instant diagnosis: A (Trump-inspired) false equivalency narrative that compares an entire social and cultural agenda on one hand to one man’s polarizing personality on the other because: (1.) It is so much easier to deny the reality of woke culture than deal with it; and (2.) It appears that many left of center voters are simply unable to associate anything “regular” or “normal” with the ill-mannered menace from Queens.
One further takeaway is equally disquieting: Although progressives see Mr. Trump as today’s evil candidate of choice, it is only a matter of two or four years before a Governor DeSantis or Senator Scott or Ambassador Haley or Vice President Pence or some other right winger assumes the mantle. (Geez, it has already begun: A presenter at the Tony Awards called Governor DeSantis the “current Grand Wizard” of Florida just this week.) You see, the left needs a demonized Republican in order to engage this “plague on both your houses” game. If not, they would be required to acknowledge what we in the Class of 1994 could never imagine – a progressive agenda, culture, and language that Governor Sarah Huckabee not so long ago simply characterized as “crazy.”
Hard to argue with that one.
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Bob Ehrlich is a former Governor of Maryland, Member of Congress, and State Legislator. He is the author of five books on American politics and opinion pieces that have appeared in America’s leading newspapers and periodicals. He and his wife, Kendel, can be seen and heard on their weekly podcast, “Bottom Line with Bob & Kendel Ehrlich.”
