The Republican party we see today is very different from the Republican party of just a few decades ago. Especially four years under the chaotic Trump administration, the GOP have turned their focus from talking about small government and fewer taxes on the rich to culture-war politics. 

There have been many different examples of this over the past few years. Earlier this year it was Mr. Potato Head and Dr. Seuss that were their focus. Just a few months ago, republican led state legislatures were passing dozens of different anti-trans laws to ban transgender girls from participating in girl's sports. A striking moment during the debate of whether it was necessary to focus all of this time on this issue was when Governor Jim Justice of West Virginia was asked: “How many trans girls would this affect?” and we could not answer. The problem is that all of these small cultural issues that the Republican party highlights are insignificant compared to the problems that people face: poverty, lack of healthcare coverage, access to voting, criminal justice reform, etc. The reason these culture war talking points are covered so extensively is because it emboldens their base to vote for them without having to solve any material problems people face. Now their new focus is something even more ridiculous: Critical Race Theory. 

Critical Race Theory (CRT) is an academic concept that covers everything from slavery to systemic racism in the present day. The term, coined by legal scholars Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Richard Delgado over four decades ago, was made to understand how forms of racism and discrimination that manifest in society today are parts of a larger system that has been around since the first African was brought across the Atlantic Ocean. 

This specific theory, mainly taught in colleges and universities, has now been the new target of Republicans across the country. As of June 17, 2021, there have been 22 states that have proposed bills banning CRT in K-12 schools and 5 states that have passed those bills into laws. The problem with this is that Critical Race Theory is now being lumped into any serious discussion on race and even other social issues. The Heritage Foundation, one of the most widely used conservative think tanks, has said that diversity training in federal agencies and organizations and even different ethnic studies classes as “Critical Race Theory.” 

The political right and the Republican Party as a whole have given up on making any sort of material change for Americans. While West Virginia is one of the poorest states in the country, Governor Jim Justice, the richest man in West Virginia, is on TV talking about an issue that he can’t even say affects his state. 

Until we hold politicians accountable and elect ones that want to deliver on change for the working class and poor Americans, we will have to deal with different culture war issues so they can fill the news cycle. It’s time we do something better in this country.