To what degree is the media responsible for our culture wars?

The mainstream media constantly bemoans our “culture wars,” blaming them on conservatives, even though the conflicts usually are triggered by left-liberals trying radically to transform aspects of American life. In this thoughtful article, Erick Erickson turns the tables by denouncing “the press’s complicity in escalation” of these wars.

He writes:

If I could convey to my friends in the press one thing that I wish they’d accept, instead of denying culpability, it would be that for all the worries about Republicans escalating positions and actions, the press has a very large role in getting us to this point.

I don’t have any friends in the press and if I did, I wouldn’t waste time trying to convey anything to them. But Erickson has a point — up to a point.

He builds his case by discussing the expulsion of the Tennessee Two from the state legislature:

A reasonable argument can be made that the Tennessee Republicans, by going straight to expulsion of the House members, have taken away all incentive to de-escalate. Had they gone with censure instead of expulsion, it would have been a measured tactic that set a standard for when the Democrats did a second disruption. Now, Democrats see martyrdom and fundraising so we can probably expect more disruptions. . . .

The national press corps, from CNN to ABC, CBS, NBC, and the printed press all cast this as a matter of gun control and gun protests and then added in racial overtones. The Tennessee Republicans see it as a breach of conduct and a failure to listen even to the Sergeant-at-Arms.

I’m sorry, but when the press immediately takes the position most favorable to the Democrats and barely even addresses the legitimacy of the Republicans’ view, it signals to the GOP that the only thing they can do is play to the base. The press has taken away all incentive to seem reasonable.

If the GOP were to censure, the press would still hail the Democrats as heroes and blast the GOP. So why do half-measures?

The debt-ceiling debate provides another example:

The GOP is going to go for broke on the debt ceiling. The American press have given them no option. The press is so openly on the side of the Democrats at this point, if the GOP were to make reasonable offers, the press would herald it as a win for Biden and a capitulation from the GOP.

There is no reason for the GOP to be reasonable on the debt ceiling. They cannot win the prevailing media narrative. The only way for the GOP to win is to force Biden to concede. That requires a level of brinksmanship that might push us right off the edge.

But because the national press will, at this point, only ever make the GOP the bad guy, the Republicans might as well play to form and hold their base. The GOP, at this point, has accepted the American political press will only ever cast them as the bad guy. They might a well embrace it.

The same phenomenon plays out on transgender rights:

Around the country, a sizable number of Americans are pretty squeamish about advancing transgender rights. But the American press corps had gone all in for the trans agenda. There is no middle ground for the press on the issue. So you will not be surprised to learn the GOP has no interest in reasonable accommodations. They’ve already been labeled the culture warriors, despite it being the left that has advanced the issue into the culture.

Erickson knows a lot more than I do about how Republican lawmakers think. However, in this case I’m skeptical about his thesis.

The mainstream media is an active participant in America’s culture wars, on the side of the left. However, I doubt that its reporting drives conservatives to behave more stridently.

I suspect that Tennessee House Republicans acted as they did simply because many of them were incensed at the outrageous behavior of the two disrupters. The tough debt ceiling stance can probably be explained fully by Joe Biden’s unwillingness to make concessions and by the perceived need for House Republicans to demonstrate to the base that there’s a new, unstintingly tough sheriff in town.

The fact that so many Americans are squeamish about transgender rights and, relatedly, the outrageousness of key elements of the rights being asserted probably explain the GOP’s lack of interest in accommodation in this realm of the culture wars.

Would the Republicans be more accommodating on issues like these if press outlets were less hostile? Perhaps, but I’m not persuaded they would.

There’s also the question of whether, if media outlets were more willing to praise them, Republicans should seek their praise by being more accommodating. The cause of conservativism has usually been set back when Republicans seek and/or obtain approval from the mainstream media. There’s a name for the phenomenon — “strange new respect — as in “the press is showing a strange new respect for Marco Rubio now that he’s leading the charge for immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.”

On balance, I think conservatism is better served to the extent that Republicans now assume they can’t gain favor with the mainstream media, and decline to curry it.

Does this approach preclude compromise on key matters? I doubt it. Republicans still must answer to an electorate that will often punish the party it views as less reasonable and that, by and large, can distinguish between unreasonableness and media assertions of its presence.

It’s from the electorate that Republicans should be seeking new respect.