Cultural Issues in American Politics.
Anyone observing the United States could be forgiven for
thinking that cultural issues are important movers in American politics, but
such an observer would be wrong. It is
true that cultural issues generate a lot of heat and that it is not difficult
to gin up a political movement based on people’s fears of cultural change. However,
fears of cultural change do not by themselves make a political movement. In
order to turn vaguely felt fears into an organized, political movement, money
is needed. Lots of money. If we want to understand why cultural issues play
such a large role in our politics, we must ask ourselves who provides the money,
and why they do it? Who benefits? That is the question.
The Capitalist Class Benefits
The answer is simple. The members of the capitalist class benefit.
They benefit because they have been able to use cultural fears to divide the
working class politically along cultural lines. Some very wealthy people have
understood that deliberately stimulating and nourishing cultural fears can
effectively divide the working class along cultural lines and prevent its
members from acting in their own interest. This is important because if the
working class acted in its own interest, taxes would rise and business would be
more heavily regulated.
Is there a danger that our country might opt for a real,
tax-supported national health care system? That danger can be averted if working
people can be induced to vote their fears instead of their interests. Is there
a danger that our citizens might opt for a system of post-secondary education
that did not leave millions of people hopelessly indebted? That danger, too,
can be averted if people can be persuaded to vote their fears.
Wealthy People Fund the Culture Wars
So, people of great wealth provide the money that is needed
to turn people’s vague prejudices and fears into focused, political movements. The
money pays for the production of the necessary propaganda. The money pays for rallies
and marches. It pays for the campaigns of political candidates who can be
counted on to know which side of their bread is buttered, as we can see in
NARAL’S. “The
Insidious Power of the Anti-Choice Movement,” which documents the growth
and reach of the anti-abortion movement and the sources of its support.
The Republican Party and the Culture Wars
That is how today’s Republican Party works: political
movements are ginned up to exploit people’s fears and garner votes for
Republican candidates. When they have been elected, they vote against a decent
national health care program; they vote against relieving the burden of student
debt; they vote against any regulation of business that might interfere with
profits; they vote against doing anything to combat climate change; they vote
for low taxes and other “business friendly” policies. They do little for the
people who elected them, but their voters don’t notice that as long as their attention
is focused on cultural issues. Thus, a political movement that caters to cultural
fears keeps the government firmly in the hands of the capitalist class.
We can see this process in operation in the work of Donor
Advised Funds like the National
Christian Foundation. The foundation takes in gifts in the form of cash,
stocks, bonds, and other income producing assets, and it makes grants to
various conservative, political causes including anti-abortion groups and anti
LGBTQ groups. Why is the NCF so well funded? Are we to believe that wealthy
donors lie awake at night agonizing over the fate of the nation’s fetuses or
that they are so disgusted by the thought of homosexuality that they donate
tens of millions of dollars to the fight against gay marriage? Of course not.
They donate such sums because they have big interests of their own at stake.
They know that the Republican Party can never garner millions of working-class
votes by campaigning on its real legislative program, but it can garner those
votes from working people who can be persuaded to vote their cultural fears.
We can also see this process at work in this
story from the Washington Post that tells us about the $5.7 million that
were raised to fund the manual recount of the 2020 election votes in Maricopa County,
Arizona. Why did wealthy people donate big amounts to this cause? No one ever
thought that the recount would change the national results of the election even
if massive fraud were uncovered in Maricopa County. So, why did a few rich
people fund the recount?
They did it to nourish the myth that the election had been
stolen. The recount itself never mattered, but the widespread belief in the
stolen election does matter because it divides the working class. The myth will
be used in future elections to elect Republican candidates and prevent taxes
from being raised and business from being regulated in the public interest.
Keeping the Working Class Divided
Thus, the culture wars, like the
politics of racism, should not be seen merely as the expression of American
fears and prejudices. In order to understand them and their role in our
country’s politics, we must see them in the context of the class struggle for
control of our government. The culture wars are funded and nourished by wealthy
Americans to prevent the election of politicians who would vote for programs that would
require taxes to be raised or business profits to be limited by regulations.
The culture wars are funded to keep our government firmly in the hands of the
wealthy.
