Fear of Losing Is Costing Conservatives the Culture Wars

By Stefano Gennarini, J.D. | March 24, 2021

Two big news items for social conservatives dropped in America this week. South Dakota’s Republican governor Kirsti Noem vetoed a law that would ban biological men from women’s sports. And cake artist Jack Philips—of “bake me a cake bigot!” fame—is back in court because he would not bake a cake for a transgender reveal party.

These stories are paradigmatic of how conservatives lost the culture war in this generation. Since it is now open season on Conservative Inc., I’d like to point out some beef I’ve had with the legal section of conservative Inc. for quite some time.

Conservatives didn’t lose the culture wars because of a lack of resources, personnel, or sophistication. What they lacked, and still lack are conviction and fighting spirit. It’s not like they were overpowered. They never even showed up at the plate.

Consider first the Noem case. The conservative darling said she supports a ban on biological boys participating in girls’ sports in primary and secondary school, but not in college. Why? Her stated reason is that she isn’t willing to try and fight the trans-friendly N.C.A.A.

“If South Dakota passes a law that’s against their policy, they will likely take punitive action against us. That means they can pull their tournaments from the state of South Dakota, they could pull their home games, they could even prevent our athletes from playing in their league,” she is reported saying in the NYTimes. That’s right. How could South Dakotans ever live without the N.C.A.A., that long-revered American beacon of honesty and integrity?

It is obvious that Noem’s decision was likely dictated by some wealthy donors whose highest aspiration in life is embodied in the N.C.A.A. What it reveals is the utter lack of conviction in Noem and her political supporters, as well as their pusillanimity. It’s not that they fought the N.C.A.A. and lost. The N.C.A.A. didn’t even threaten them. South Dakotans never made an argument in writing to the N.C.A.A. They never made an argument in court. They simply backed away from a fight altogether.

Noem told Tucker Carlson that she needs to build a coalition before she can take on the N.C.A.A. But that is just silly. There is no better way to build a coalition than picking a fight. The N.C.A.A. knows they would lose a national war on women’s sports right now. Noem should take the fight to the N.C.A.A. before the federal government gets on the side of the N.C.A.A.

Consider also Jack Philips. This is the same Jack Philips who refused to bake a cake for a homosexual wedding and got dragged all the way to the Supreme Court in Masterpiece Cakeshop. As soon as he got back to work after winning that case in 2018, even if only on tenuous legal grounds, the homo-fascist lobby went after him again for refusing to bake a cake for a gender reveal event. And he may not be protected by Supreme Court precedent. The previous Masterpiece Cakeshop decision only found that the actions of the homofascist Colorado Human Rights Commission against Philips were unconstitutional because of their evident animus against Christians. The enlightened justices did not rule out forcing bakers to join in celebrating homosexual marriages and transgender reveals if no such animous against religion was on display. The weak decision was like waving a red cape in front of a bull, as Hadley Arkes and others predicted at the time.

Now Jack Philips may become the latest paradigm of conservative surrender to the homo-trans totalitarian movement. Why do I say surrender? Because the same big shot lawyers who defended Jack Philips at every step of his legal ordeal made a decision sometime in the past decade to not help parents fight transgender ideology in schools across the country.

That’s right, Conservative Inc. chose not to take the fight to the trans lobby. Rather than actively exposing the lies and dangers of the trans lobby, our brilliant conservative lawyers sat around waiting for the trans lobby to attack our religious freedom instead. Imagine if Conservative lawyers had dedicated the same resources and conviction deployed to defend Philips’ religious freedom to help parents all across the country fight the transgender agenda. Consider the following.

No transgender drag queen has ever been made to testify in court about the drug regimen he is on in order to sustain the appearance of being a woman without also dying of cardiovascular disease. No grade school teacher has ever been put on a stand to discuss the sordid details of the LGBT lifestyle and the risks it poses to children and adults alike. No medical expert has ever been called to testify against the transgender madness in front of judges or juries in a case against a school district. No. Conservative Inc. decided at some point, not so long ago, that they wouldn’t help desperate parents organize any kind of legal resistance to the transgender madness. They never even forced a deposition on those who have mainstreamed the LGBT agenda that now pervades our schools. Some of the luminaries of Conservative Inc. have even praised transgender story hour.

We should not act surprised when they try to take our children away from us. We never even had a chance to defend them.

 

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