They Have Already Lost

The right's attack on DEI comes from weakness, not strength.

As the fascist tide washes over the cultural landscape, as they attempt to literally erase the accomplishments and the very existence of women, queers, black and brown people and the history of democratic gains over the past 70 years, it’s easy to overlook this one very crucial fact - the fascists are scrambling to combat what they deride as wokeism, not because they’re winning, but because, in a very important sense, they have already lost.

I know this is going to rub some people the wrong way. We’re under attack! All hands on deck! Democracy is under threat! All true. So let me state this as clearly as I can. The fascists are doing great damage, they’re spreading fear and hatred, they are literally killing people — but they cannot reverse history.

They can’t erase the gains in democratic rights people have fought and died for. They can’t reset the clock to some imaginary heyday of white supremacy and male dominance. The culture has already moved on. Every wedge issue used against us in the past is now our issue. That includes race, LGBTQ rights, abortion, gender equality, gun control and the environment. In every area of contention, they have already lost. All they can do is destroy and cause pain as they continue to sink into oblivion.

For over fifty years, the conservatives have been fighting a rear-guard action against the the movement to extend and expand democratic rights. It began in the mid-1970’s, following the successes of the civil rights movement, the women’s movement and what was then called the gay liberation movement. That was the time of Phyllis Schlafly and Anita Bryant and their campaigns against feminism and gay rights.

It was also when the right-wing invented something they called, “reverse discrimination.” This fiction claimed that while perhaps there may have, possibly, been some discrimination against black people and women in the past, that was all over. The real problem, they insisted (helped by the media, of course) was that the movement for democracy had gone too far and now the real victims of discrimination were — white men!

Sound familiar? The white replacement theory that animates the fascists today is a direct descendant of the lie of reverse discrimination. According to conservatives, the oppressed had become the oppressor. It was such a great twist to the narrative, news editors and producers lapped it up.

In the late 1980’s reverse discrimination gave birth to another fiction called, “political correctness.” Right wing radio was cranking up and Rush Limbaugh was spewing hate about, “feminanzis.” Once again, we were told the movement for democracy had gone too far, the oppressed had become the oppressor.

But of course, every society has a form of political correctness, ideas that are and are not acceptable in the mainstream, words that you may or may not say in polite society. What the conservatives couldn’t stand was that the standards of society were rapidly changing. The fight against sexism, racism and homophobia was winning. So they invented the lie of political correctness to protect their ability to freely express bigotry and hate. And indeed, one of the things that appeals to the orange-faced one’s supporters is that he, “tells it like it is.” That is, he tries to make racism and sexism acceptable again.

Since Nixon’s Southern strategy of 1968, the right has used racism, sexism and homophobia to win elections. But Republicans, at least in 1968, weren’t naturally more racist than Democrats. Remember, all the segregationists in the South were Democrats. The real aim of the right was and continues to be lowering taxes on the wealthy and corporations while destroying Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, along with public education and anything else that benefits working people. But they couldn’t and can’t win elections with an honest explanation of their economic program, so they use hatred and bigotry.

Today, the lie of political correctness has morphed into the lies of cancel culture and wokeism. In a kind of kind of right-wing jiu jitsu, the fascists try to frame this as an issue of free speech. They bitterly complain that they are the victims of censorship, of being cancelled. But we aren’t saying they have no right to be racist or sexist. They can be as racist or sexist as they want — they just can’t do it while teaching our children. They can’t insist we support them by buying their books or watching their TV shows.

Meanwhile, the right attacks and tries to “cancel” anyone who dares to stand up for justice. The fascists are the ones who are working to destroy free speech, to intimidate and silence their opponents. The attempted deportation of Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil is the most recent and outrageous example.

Now, they’ve added DEI to their list of targets. DEI stands for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, so naturally the fascists hate it, just as they hate anything that promotes equal rights. Everything from the Los Angeles fires to the plane crash in Washington, D.C. has been blamed on DEI, the clear implication being that women or BIPOC just can’t do any job as well as a white man.

This madness goes beyond the firings the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General CQ Brown (black) and Admiral Franchetti of the Navy (woman). It extends to scrubbing the Department of Defense website of the page honoring Medal of Honor recipient General Charles C. Rogers (black) and the airplane that dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima, Enola Gay (gay?).

The right-wing rails against the so-called, “victim ideology” of the left, yet they portray themselves as the biggest victims of all. White nationalists claim that Christians are the victims of discrimination, despite still (temporarily) being the majority. The orange one now insists that white South Africans are also the victims of discrimination.

White people, Christians, and conservatives aren’t victims of discrimination — but they have lost power, both numerically and in the realm of public opinion. White people now make up about 60% of the U.S. population down from 75% twenty years ago. By most estimates, they will be a minority within another twenty years. The number of people who identify as Christian has dropped from 78% to 63%. That drop has plateaued off, but will soon resume falling.

Make no mistake. We’re in a dangerous fight in which hard-won rights are under attack. Democratic values of, yes, diversity, equity and inclusion, are being abandoned by corporations, large sections of the media and many universities. But as we engage in this fight, it’s important to understand our real strengths and weakness, so we don’t panic and retreat, and suffer more disgusting displays of appeasement like Gavin Newsom playing footsie with Steve Bannon.

The right-wing’s attack on DEI comes from weakness, not strength. As I said at the top, public opinion in every major “wedge” issue now favors progressives, sometimes by a wide margin. We are the majority, even if we failed to mobilize that majority in the last election. Our job is not to appease the fascists or try to win over the orange ones’ supporters, but to mobilize our side.

The fascists, in overturning Roe, have created deadly conditions and women are dying because of it. But there’s no way they are going to establish some version of The Handmaid’s Tale in the United States. Voters in Kansas, Ohio, Montana, Colorado, Missouri and Arizona all passed amendments to their state constitutions protecting access to abortion. In the battle over reproductive rights, the right has already lost. All they can do is create misery and pain, they can’t change the political landscape.

Do you think they can put gay people back in the closet? That ship has long sailed. In 2004, G.W. Bush ran against marriage equality. In 2025, the North Dakota senate just voted down a bill calling for the Supreme Court to reverse its ruling on gay marriage. I think that’s a sign the right has no more appetite for that particular fight. That’s why they’re targeting those they think are most vulnerable, who haven’t yet fully won the support of the public — trans people. On the broader question of queer rights, they have already lost.

In the same way, they’ve targeted their racism on people they think are most vulnerable — immigrants. Instead of explicit racist attacks like the one H.W. Bush employed with his infamous, “Willie Horton” ads in 1988, they use code words like “inner cities” and “DEI.” With their Nazi salutes and talk of white nationalism they are trying to make outright racism acceptable again, but so far, they have not succeeded.

And it’s good to remember that on every front, the right has lost the next generation. According to the Pew Research, “… similar to Millennials, Gen Zers are progressive and pro-government, most see the country’s growing racial and ethnic diversity as a good thing, and they’re less likely than older generations to see the United States as superior to other nations.”

Through a series of misfortunes, the right is now in power. We’re in a crisis, fighting the last battle of the sixties, or perhaps the last battle of the Civil War. Our victory depends on our ability to preserve the rule of law and democracy. The battle will be decided in the streets, in the courts and at the ballot box. If we can mobilize our side, it will be won by the majority.

The unending chaos, corruption and dictatorial moves, their attempt to destroy our lives, have already mobilized thousands of protesters. We are seeing the emergence of a broad movement. Veterans, who are among the hardest hit by the DOGE cuts, demonstrated on the National Mall on March 14. Bernie Sanders, AOC, and Tim Walz are traveling to red districts to hold rallies and alternative town halls, attended by thousands. Indivisible is calling for mass demonstrations on April 5, including one in D.C., under the slogan “Hands Off.” Hands off Social Security, hands off fair elections, hands off government workers, hands off LGBTQ rights, hands off free speech, our way of life, our lives, our bodies, our democracy.

The struggle ahead will be difficult. We must steel ourselves for a long fight. But we can move forward knowing that not only do we represent the side of justice, but the views of the majority of our fellow Americans.

We will win.

Extra Credit: "Thanks for Telling Me.”

There are a lot of (too many) anecdotal stories demonstrating the supposed excesses of “cancel culture,” often involving college students battling micro-aggression or the case of a wrongly denounced professor. Maybe some of these stories are accurate. I’d like to share a different sort of anecdote.

A few years ago, Angela Davis, 1970’s radical icon and long-time progressive activist, was speaking to a group of college students. She began her remarks in the time-honored tradition of our movement, “Brothers and sisters.”

“Angela Davis,“ the college students told her, “because we know that the binary definition of gender is exclusionary, we no longer say that. Instead we say, ‘siblings.’”

[Note: dialogue is approximated.]

Did Angela Davis say, “Don’t be so sensitive, college students”? Did she say, “Siblings? That sounds ridiculous. I’m not saying that.”? Did she say, “Don’t tell me what I can and can’t say. This is the way I’ve always opened my speeches and no bunch of college students is going to tell me what to do. Stop censoring me!” ?

No, Angela Davis didn’t say any of those things. Instead she said, “Thank you for telling me. I’ll try to remember that in the future.”

Imagine that. When someone tells you you’re saying something they find offensive or hurtful, your response shouldn’t be, “Too damn bad! I have the right to say anything I want.” No, the correct response is, “Thanks for telling me. I’ll try to remember that in the future.”

Thanks for telling me.