Conservatives Are Finally Winning a Culture War. Time to Double Down.

Written by Daniel Horowitz

Historically, even when conservatives appear to be temporarily winning on some issue, it’s really a sign of losing ground long-term to every leftward shift of the Overton window of politics. For example, as we temporarily appear to be winning on one cultural onslaught of the left, it’s only because we long ceded the previous battle, leaving leftists with new territory to claim, which they inexorably do. However, there are signs that with the transgender obsession, the Overton window might be shifting to the right – for the first time ever!

According to a brand-new Pew poll, 60 percent of Americans believe gender is determined at birth, as opposed to 38 percent who say otherwise. Now that might be cause for alarm because, after all, how could 38 percent of people believe in something so insane? However, when you consider the fact that just five years ago, those number were only 54 percent-44 percent, it for once demonstrates we are moving in the right direction.

Not surprisingly, black respondents had the highest share of people who believe in Genesis and science regarding gender, which might explain the slow but steady bleed of Democrats among black voters.

We already saw this dynamic earlier this year when Governor Ron DeSantis leaned into the war against Disney. After he fought back against the company’s opposition to the anti-grooming bill, polls showed even Democrat voters agreed with the bill, which is now being copied in other states. DeSantis emerged from the fight smelling like a rose, while Disney lost its image as a family-friendly organization. Typically, the minute they face name-calling and boycotts, Republicans run away like children scared of a barking dog. DeSantis called the leftist bluff.

In other words, this fight is actually something Republicans should embrace rather than avoid. What we have seen over the past year or so is a willingness to finally deal with the gender bending in many red-state legislatures and to go on offense to stop the grooming in our schools and broader society. Actually fighting back on issues works wonders. For once, by not agreeing to the premise of a Democrat culture war, we are enjoying the results of a shifting political landscape. It appears that this is the first time in a generation we are actually winning a culture war battle.

What the lessons of our failures and successes of the past generation demonstrate is that you cannot retreat, concede, or acquiesce your way out of the culture war. They will take as much as you are willing to cede, and there is no limit. There is, therefore, no neutrality in this intractable war. You either tilt the education system in the direction you want it to be, or it will consume your children with grooming. This is why it’s not enough for Republican governors and legislatures to merely reject transgender education or critical race theory. They must lean into the curriculum and propose an affirmatively pro-family and pro-American agenda.

Governor DeSantis is leading the way by partnering with Hillsdale College to train Florida’s teachers on American history. Each teacher got a $3,000 bonus for attending curriculum training that is antithetical to what teachers in other states learn at similar seminars.

In other words, we need our own “pride month,” whether it be for liberty pride or family pride. We need to promote our values with as much gusto as the cultural Marxists embed their agenda into every aspect of society.

This obviously begins by treating grooming like the new KKK and drumming it out of all areas of society. Every red state needs to ban all transgender material at libraries and in schools and to criminalize stripping or “drag” events for children that we have seen even in places like Dallas. Texas state Rep. Bryan Slaton is promising to introduce legislation next session to ban drag shows in the state. This is something states should move on immediately and strike while the iron is hot.

Moreover, states must now contend with the Department of Education’s edict hitting up schools for sexual harassment if they don’t refer to men who think they are women as women. The Title IX regulation promulgated by Biden last month would also force any school accepting federal funds to abolish separate bathrooms.

It is shocking that several weeks later, the red states have not immediately banned all enforcement of this regulation. Is it too much to stand up for our daughters when it is popular? It’s like the incident in Loudoun County, Virginia, when a male student in a skirt sexually assaulted a girl in a bathroom, never happened. Where is the sense of urgency?

Instead, NBC is reporting that U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) believes the way to win back suburban voters from places like northern Virginia is to take their foot “off the gas” on cultural issues! In other words, McConnell and Co. believe that we are the ones with the radical views, not the modern-day Wokestan.

For far too long, Republicans and even conservatives have convinced themselves that transhumanism is in vogue and that family values are outdated. It has worn down their resolve. We constantly see conservative authors and websites referring to men by female names or regurgitating the ridiculous gibberish of the ever-expanding alphabet soup acronym of sexual fetishes as if it’s a sacred term of art.

Indeed, the time has come to capitalize on the recent wins against the transhumanist cultural Marxists. The days when, for example, Republicans would respond to marriage being destroyed by the U.S. Supreme Court with “no comment” are over. You can only win a fight, even against an unpopular opponent, if you actually get on the field.

Daniel Horowitz is a senior editor of TheBlaze and host of the Conservative Review podcast. He writes on the most decisive battleground issues of our times, including the theft of American sovereignty through illegal immigration, the theft of American liberty through tyranny, and the theft of American law and order through criminal justice “reform.”