Are culture wars bad? Or are they necessary to shape the direction of the country?
Last week, former President Barack Obama stumped for Terry McAuliffe in Virginia: “This fake outrage that right-wing media peddles to juice their ratings” and the fact that Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin is “willing to go along with it instead of talking about serious problems that actually affect serious people — that’s a shame.”
But what’s a shame is that people like Obama pretend wars over culture are irresponsible or “fake,” all the while engaging in that very same war.
The issue propelling Youngkin is one playing out across the country: Parents got a close-up view of their kids’ schooling during the pandemic, and they didn’t like it.
In Virginia, “fake outrage” followed the rape of a girl in a school bathroom that was covered up by the Loudoun County school board. When her father — whose outrage was anything but fake — blew up at a board meeting, he was arrested.
The National School Boards Association then asked for the weight of the federal government to be brought down on “domestic terrorists” like him, and Attorney General Merrick Garland complied, directing the FBI to investigate “a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers and staff who participate in the vital work of running our nation’s public schools.”
You want see a “serious problem” affecting “serious people”? Look no further than at actions like these.
Fact is, what Obama suggests is a culture war is actually a war on parents. Garland’s order was clearly meant to stifle dissent since, as he himself all but said at a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee: “I’m hopeful that many areas of local law enforcement will be well able to handle this on their own,” the AG muttered.
Yet if it’s a local law-enforcement issue, then Garland’s order was clearly a missile in the culture war aimed at parents. There’s no point to FBI involvement except to terrify parents and deter them from speaking out.
It’s also telling what Obama dismisses as “phony, trumped-up culture wars.” He’d never count pronoun fights or say the Netflix staff who protest Dave Chappelle are involved in a phony war. He’s silent as his side plays the cancel-culture game with anyone who won’t fall in line with their views. It’s only one side in the culture wars that he faults.
Culture wars are important because culture matters. Who we are as a country matters. What we teach our kids at school matters. No one is pretending these things matter; they really do. Parents are genuinely inflamed — nothing fake about it.
Virginia has lately been a major battleground in the war not just because of the rape. McAuliffe himself set off a furor by repeating his opposition to having parents tell schools what to do.
Last month, a mother at a school-board meeting in Fairfax County read from a pornographic book containing images of pedophilia she found in the high-school library. Stacy Langton had to be stopped because the book was so graphic. Is this a phony culture war or was this a mom truly disgusted and disturbed by what’s available at her child’s school?
With the spread of critical race theory and general wokeness in schools, parents have noticed that there’s barely any time for math, science or history. It’s not just a typical right-left battle, either. A Rasmussen poll out Thursday found 76 percent of American adults are concerned that public schools may be promoting “controversial beliefs and attitudes,” including 58 percent who say they are “very concerned.”
As parents across the country find their voices at suddenly crowded school-board meetings, others may dismiss them or try to shut them down with accusations that their concerns aren’t real. But winning the culture war in schools is important. Kids actually are our future, and what they’re taught at school will resonate for generations.
Parents have realized that so many of our shared values are being tossed aside at ever more radical schools. Parents didn’t choose the culture war; the culture war chose them, and they’re ready to fight back. There’s nothing “fake” about that.
Twitter: @Karol
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