Another massive advantage the Right has, in addition to the one

 

Thomas Zimmer

@tzimmer_history

·

17h

Another massive advantage the Right has, in addition to the one 

@drvolts

 emphasizes, is the fact that it’s a much more homogeneous coalition, almost all white and conservative, easier to unify behind a single project of preserving “real” (read: White Christian-dominated) America.

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David Roberts

@drvolts

 · Oct 30

The RW conjured a national movement of parents against CRT ***out of absolutely nothing***. The entire f'ing thing is invented. But it worked! Because the right has a giant propaganda machine. The left doesn't. All other talk about strategy is pointless as long as this is true.

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Thomas Zimmer

@tzimmer_history

·

17h

By contrast, if what we mean by “the Left” here is roughly the Democratic coalition, then that’s a much more diverse beast - ideologically, racially / ethnically, in terms of cultural sensibilities. Much harder to get everyone on the same page on anything, harder to mobilize.

Thomas Zimmer

@tzimmer_history

·

17h

Crucially, the Right also has cultivated an image of “the Left” as this radically Un-American threat for decades, can built on decades of demonization of “the Left” as a fundamentally illegitimate force that is out to destroy “real” America. No equivalent to that among Democrats.

Thomas Zimmer

@tzimmer_history

·

17h

So, yes, this specific anti-“CRT” moral panic is conjured out of thin air - as Christopher Rufo, the guy who is chiefly responsible for conjuring it, has been proudly telling us himself! But it builds on a long list of rightwing crusades that came before it, going back decades.

Thomas Zimmer

@tzimmer_history

·

17h

Whatever the moral panic du jour - “pc”? Cancel culture? Wokeness? - and whatever the latest “The Libs are using public education to brainwash our kids!” crusade: The specifics matter less than what the Right accepts as the Higher Truth - “They” want yo destroy “real” America.

Thomas Zimmer

@tzimmer_history

Once that rubric is established - and it has been established for decades! - it gets a lot easier to rile up your side by plugging something in that you know will resonate with your relatively homogenous base’s ideological commitments and cultural sensibilities.

11:40 PM · Oct 31, 2021·Twitter for iPhone