“I don’t think there is any danger in ignoring a debate about Mr. Potato Head and Dr. Seuss,” said John Anzalone, Biden consultant and opinion pollster.
Anzalone says there is no benefit to getting involved in “meaningless” topics and that there may actually be an advantage in disregarding them, as the Biden administration and Democrats are approaching a massive Covid relief package amid more than 500,000 deaths in the pandemic. “Republicans are at risk of ignoring obtaining money to distribute Covid’s vaccine to the states, funding for schools to reopen and checks in the pockets of struggling Americans,” he added.
Other aides to the president agree, pointing to the often fleeting nature of the stories that burn the conservative waves as proof that there is no need to ponder.
The divide between what the right sees as a “cancellation culture” and what the left considers “concern trolling” is somewhat growing in the post-Trump political landscape. And neither side shows any signs of retreating. While Biden World may find all of this a boring distraction, Republicans see a balm. Without power and without a unifying political message, an unrelenting focus on “culture cancellation” proved to be a galvanizing force for its base.
“At the end of the day, I think it unifies the party, but it expands it to the area we need – suburban mothers, men with university education with whom we struggled in 2020, there is common ground with these constituents,” said Mercedes Schlapp, senior fellow at the American Conservative Union Foundation and former adviser to Trump at the White House. “We are the party of common sense and we are not going to be the party that continually polices what our children are reading and it is not up to this canceled culture mob to decide.”
On Thursday, Republicans opened a new front in the battle, centered on Biden’s use of the phrase “Neanderthal thinking” to describe the logic among leaders in states governed by the Republican Party that are lifting their restrictions on Covid-19.
Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida) trolled the left by asking the president to apologize for offending people whose very, very, very, very distant ancestors belonged to the archaic human species. He suggested that Biden “seek training in unconscious prejudice”. And Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) Even went on air to defend the reputation of cavemen and women.
“Neanderthals are hunter-gatherers, they are protectors of their family, they are resilient, they are resourceful, they take care of their own family,” Blackburn told Fox Business. “So, I think Joe Biden needs to rethink what he’s saying.”
Fights metastasize so quickly that it is sometimes difficult to remember how they started. In the case of Dr. Seuss, the Biden government omitted the famous children’s book author in a proclamation for Read Across America Day, which was intentionally founded on the birthday of the good doctor. Then the Dr. Seuss’s estate he decided not to publish six of his children’s books because they included illustrations that the estate himself considered “harmful” and “wrong”.
The issue quickly became a fixation of Republican lawmakers and conservative cable programming. Tuesday was the primary focus on Fox News, even when FBI director Christopher Wray sat on the hot seat for an audience on the January 6 riots on Capitol Hill. In all, the network has talked about it 60 times, according to a Washington Post count.
Minority leader in the House, Kevin McCarthy, even took the matter to the House floor during a debate over a Democratic voting rights bill. “First, they banned Dr. Seuss and now they want to tell us what to say,” said McCarthy.
For the White House, it is usually worth getting around. White House press secretary Jen Psaki criticized when asked why Biden did not include Dr. Seuss in his reading day announcement, as did former presidents Trump, Obama and Bush.
“The proclamation was written by the Department of Education, and you could certainly talk to them about more details about its writing,” said Psaki.
This is not the only cultural war in which Psaki has refused to get involved. When asked about Biden’s comment about the Neanderthal, she called it “a reflection of her frustration” with Americans refusing to follow public health guidelines. Previously, she declined to respond directly when asked about the announcement by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban that his team would stop starting games by playing the National Anthem – a policy he ended up changing the course of.
The cultural war manual is widely used for the Republican Party, especially when they are outnumbered in Washington. But recent examples have taken on a different form than previous ones. This was especially true in the Trump era, when instead of being tied to a specific policy or politician, they usually take the form of reacting to perceived social pressure for political correctness.
During Barack Obama’s presidency, advisers saw many of these “scandals” as being motivated by his dislike for him personally, or having to do with his race, or often a combination of both. The incidents included photos of Obama without a jacket in the Oval office (after none of these photos were taken from George W. Bush over eight years) and the Obama inviting hip-hop artist and actor Common to the White House as part of a poetry reading, which attracted the contempt of Karl Rove and Sarah Palin. “Oh, lovely, White House …” she said.
There was also the so-called Starbucks greeting, when Obama informally greeted the Marines while holding a cup of coffee with his hand raised.
“The not-so-subtle implication was ‘he is part of the Other and does not belong here,'” said a former Obama White House official, describing many of the attacks as racist.
Today, much of the fight does not even involve Biden, or his government, or his political agenda. Instead, it involves things like corporate decisions around children’s toys.
Last month, toy maker Hasbro announced that it was abandoning “Mr.” of its logo and brand in an effort to promote gender equality and inclusion. After an initial storm over the decision, the company clarified that both Mr. Potato Head and Mrs. Potato Head would continue to be sold under the names. Hasbro acknowledged the initial confusion. But by then, history had taken off. Representative Matt Gaetz (R-Florida), speaking at CPAC last weekend, mockingly referred to the Potato Head toy as “America’s first transgender doll”.
Republicans, divided by warring factions, found common ground in the fight against “culture cancellation”. “America Uncanceled” was the dominant theme of the Conservative Political Action Conference this year, with Donald Trump and aspiring 2024 as Senator Ted Cruz, (R-Texas) raising the issue along with topics such as immigration, China and climate change.
“Will this supplant the pandemic or the economy that is at the top of voters’ minds? No, ”said GOP strategist Matt Gorman. “But it is a cultural landmark for people that shows where the priorities of a party are. Suburban parents seeing school districts banning children’s books or changing school names, but not putting children in classrooms is a way to infuriate them. They see them focused on the absolutely wrong things. “
There are figures that seem to reinforce Gorman’s point of view. According to a new Harvard CAPS-Harris Research, most Americans see “culture cancellation” as a threat to US freedoms. Eighty percent of Republicans saw this as a threat, compared with 48% of Democrats in the poll.
Researcher Frank Luntz said that using “cancellation culture” as a baton is “definitely” effective in bringing the Republican Party base together.
“The delegitimation of Trump and his constituents five years ago was what led to his election,” said Luntz. “The left’s culture of cancellation is exactly the same strategy and will cause the same result. It doesn’t matter if you are on the left or the right: people will fight for the right to exist ”.
Even those in the entertainment industry – one of the vanguards of the “culture cancellation” wars – fear that everything can be effective. “That’s how Trump is re-elected, by the way, cancel Dr. Seuss, cancel Abe Lincoln. Melt Mr. Potato Head’s private parts and throw them on the Muppets, ”said Jimmy Kimmel on a recent show. “This is your path to victory.”
So will Republicans succeed? Is it, in fact, 98 ¾ percent guaranteed? The White House does not think so, as evidenced by the fact that an officer there responded with his own Ossian rebuttal.
“Republicans can complain, but they are still enslaved
For a president who acted like a Neanderthal
Instead of coming together, the flames they fuel
When they should be working with Joe on the Rescue Plan
Cry, weep and gnash your teeth as they can
In fact, it is the Republicans who are in disarray! “