Commentary: Big Tent Ideas

BOB EHRLICH: It’s Time To Reflect On Recent Cultural Boomerangs

(Screen Capture/CSPAN)

Like seventy-seven million other Trump voters, I have spent the past few weeks basking in the happiness that follows a historic victory. Still, a troubling notion persists.

How is it that America remains susceptible to such extreme fluctuations over short periods of time in our most basic cultural values?

For context, think of the years between the advent of Obama new-school progressivism in 2013 and George Floyd’s death during the summer of 2020. The dual impact of these events sparked an inflection point in our culture — and politics.

Consequences were profound. Our progressive elites noted (indeed celebrated) a new recognition of the limits of American capitalism while declaring a “Green New Deal” war on oil and gas.

Culturally, the Floyd tragedy and the resulting social unrest were used to advance a race/ethnicity narrative (the now familiar oppressor/oppressed paradigm) so popular within academia that generated needless — and harmful — racial tension across the country. Perhaps the single most damaging policy to emerge was a “defund the police” initiative — a truly dumb idea from the jump that (of course) ended up disproportionately hurting police-dependent minority communities.

Another major consequence of the suddenly dominant progressive enterprise was the required recognition and expansion of all kinds of woke adventures (language guides, pronoun wars, DEI programs, ESG investing, “debanking” of organizations and groups deemed anti-woke, trans men allowed — indeed encouraged — to compete in female athletics, etc.) brought to American campuses and corporate C-suites alike.

Seemingly overnight, societal values deemed “traditional” were subject to brutal criticism and cancellation. Even worse, the most progressive of classroom teachers took advantage of Covid-induced distance learning to indoctrinate progressive principles into impressionable young minds (at least until parents began to understand what was going on and began to raise a ruckus).

For anyone tempted to minimize woke’s impact on America and American institutions, recall Major League Baseball’s decision to move the All-Star game from Atlanta due to a benign election-law reform bill passed by the Georgia legislature — or the Pentagon’s determination to promote DEI programming throughout our military — or the Justice Department siccing the FBI on protesting parents at school board meetings — or the federal government threatening social media platforms to conform to the government’s preferred narratives on Covid, Trump and “disinformation” generally.

And then — again seemingly overnight — and only because of one presidential election — the tables turned 180 degrees again. In a flash, Wall Street signaled its intention to back off from its DEI and ESG indulgences.  The Dow skyrocketed to historic highs. Pundits again reported that the energy required for new technologies (especially AI) would require fossil fuels for the foreseeable future.

The Canadian prime minister came hat in hand to convince the president-elect that he was persuadable. The Mexican president broke up a migrant caravan on its way to our southern border.

Western Europeans signaled a desire to purchase American natural gas. The mullahs in Tehran cooled off the American/Satan rhetoric. The NFL returned to patriotic friendly ways, adopting a dance move of a president they had recently reviled. And more and more women felt comfortable standing up for young girls in competitive athletics.

All good stuff to be sure. But I keep thinking about how easy it was to careen off track — to jettison common sense while racing to the brink — before turning back from … in the words of Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders … “crazy.”

And so a troubling question presents itself: Is America now so wealthy — so comfortable — so soft — that one police-involved death (Floyd) or one negligently reported violent incident (Charlottesville) or one ridiculously absurd but constantly repeated narrative (Trump as a Russian agent) can still sideline an entire culture to an extent that its history, identity, cultural norms and established values are so readily jettisoned?

The bottom line: While we rightfully indulge our post-election “happy time,” at least some degree of introspection regarding recent cultural boomerangs — and the resulting cultural upheaval — would be welcome.

Just sayin’.

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.”

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.