Global Courant
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The culture war rages on as the country heads towards the 2024 presidential election. Political protests and intense animosity between the left and right continue on both mainstream and social media every week.
However, the reporting is very misleading. While many clips of these protests have gone viral, the protesters and their views do not reflect the wider respective political coalitions.
However, the current source of protest and denial culture comes overwhelmingly from within the extreme liberal wing of the Democratic Party.
A protester holds a sign during a “Silent March” against racial inequality and police brutality organized by Black Lives Matter in Seattle on June 12, 2020. (AP photo/Ted S. Warren)
This segment of the Democratic Party, though quite small but having an inordinate impact, is causing significant damage to our civic health by making it difficult for many to question and disagree with certain ideas and norms as so many Americans now live in fear of being protested or canceled by these aggressive gangs.
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On collegiate campuses, protests have become commonplace among students on the left – often supported and encouraged by faculty members. Liberal faculties are much more likely to support activities such as anti-speech protests than their moderate and conservative counterparts.
In a 2022 survey by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), 63% of liberal educators said they can think of instances where it would be acceptable to put speakers down, compared to 47% of moderates and 12% of the conservatives. Nearly a third of liberal teachers (31%) believe there are instances where it is acceptable to deny other students access to a campus speech, while only 16% of moderates and 5% of conservative teachers feel the same way think.
Professors have a duty to promote honest intellectual exploration and help students learn in environments that embrace free discussion. The faculty on the left is failing.
Students reflect this ideological divide on campus. Another FIRE survey found that 75% of liberal students justifies preventing speakers from speaking on campus. This compares to 55% of moderates and 42% of conservative students. Nearly twice as many liberal students think there are justifiable reasons for silencing speech compared to conservatives. A similar ratio emerges when asked about trying to prevent other students from attending a lecture (31% of Liberals compared to 15% of Conservatives), as well as the legitimacy of using violence to control the expression of ideas. fuses.
The nation as a whole shows almost identical ideological patterns. Data from the May 2021 American Perspectives Survey shows that about 15% of Americans have ended a relationship because of politics. However, forty-five percent of liberals reported ending a friendship because of politics. That compares to 22% of conservatives and only 11% of moderates.
Protesters protest outside the US Supreme Court, May 4, 2022 in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
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New data from PACE’s 2021 Civic Language Perceptions Project shows cultural differences in how liberals and conservatives view protests and engagement. Most Americans agree that voting and volunteering are activities essential to a healthy democracy. However, when Americans are asked about protesting, liberals see attending protests as a much more high profile activity than their conservative counterparts.
Nearly a third (32%) of very liberal Americans think protesting is of great value, and 19% of somewhat liberal Americans feel the same way. The figure plummets to 9% among moderates, 7% among conservative leaners, and 11% among highly conservative identifiers. Protesting is much more common among liberals today than in the rest of the country, which is exactly what can be seen on campus today.
The PACE survey also asked about concepts such as democracy and citizenship, and whether these ideas resonated positively or negatively with the voters in the sample.
When the idea of ’activism’ was presented, 70% of very liberal respondents and 56% of moderately liberal respondents had a positive association with the word ‘activism’. Meanwhile, only a third (34%) of moderates saw activism as something positive. And only 23% of very conservative and 20% of moderately conservative voters had a positive association with the idea of activism.
As with cancellations and protests, activism has taken a political turn, so that the left sees their version of political engagement as virtuous, while most Americans today see activism in a much less positive light.
Despite biases on Twitter and TikTok, the data is pretty clear: liberals protest and engage in activism more than most Americans. The implications are dangerous to our democratic health.
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Continued activism and protest, as it has played out on campus, paralyzes and stifles honest debate; it scares students to speak up and deviate from the loudest voices in the class. In this way, students cannot learn from each other. For civic pride to thrive, students must listen for each other, not Gil to each other.
This nation, its civic culture, and democratic health would all improve if liberals stopped their intense, all-too-common response to politics that protest and cancel ideas, individuals, and institutions they don’t like.
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Samuel J. Abrams is a professor of political science at Sarah Lawrence College and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
