US Policy: No War But Culture War
With no moral center, no economic theory of change, and no shame, American politics remains trapped in a cycle of culture war at home and genocide abroad.
At this morning’s UN Security council meeting, members voted on a draft resolution moved by its 10 elected members (E10). The resolution called for an immediate, unconditional, and permanent ceasefire by all parties, and in the subsequent paragraph, called for the Hamas-led coalition to immediately and unconditionally release of all hostages captured during the October 7th raid. It also called for the provisions contained in UNSC Resolution 2735 to be implemented, including the withdrawal of Israeli troops, unhindered distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza, and the beginning of a multi-year reconstruction plan.
The draft resolution had the support of 14 UN Security Council members, which might as well have been none, because it was, of course, vetoed by the United States.
“We made clear throughout negotiations we could not support an unconditional ceasefire that failed to release the hostages,” wrote Robert A. Wood, alternative US representative to the UN, in a letter to UN Security Council President (and primary US ambassador to the UN) Linda Thomas-Greenfield, “Because, as this Council has previously called for, a durable end to the war must come with the release of the hostages. These two urgent goals are inextricably linked.”
The gap in linkage being that, according to the view of the Biden administration, the Gaza coalition’s release of the remaining Israeli hostages must come as a precondition to the end of Israel’s genocidal campaign. And because the remainder of the Security Council would not give Israel the maneuvering room, in the even that all hostages and remains couldn’t be accounted for, to continue that campaign unabated, the US effectively voted for the slaughter to continue.
This isn’t, however, the major topic under discussion in US media.
This was, of course, bound to happen, once incoming Delaware Representative Sarah McBride’s positive news cycle was masticated into the endless right-wing culture war against all things “woke.” This years-long campaign is, of course, the latest mutation in an unbroken narrative of mythologized decadence and degeneracy preached by American conservatives since the revivalist movement of the 1970s. But the rapid-cycle positive feedback loop between social media and legacy media has produced a distortion effect rather akin to a fishbowl lens, warping the image of politics to push cultural flashpoints to the foreground, and relegating everything else to the back. Whatever issue gains the fastest traction on social media therefore gains the fastest traction in the news cycle, regardless of its truthfulness, longevity, and overall impact on the day-to-day lives of people unlucky enough to fall off the media radar (if they were ever on it, in the first place).
One can see the pernicious effect of this culture war feedback loop reflected in the way western politics are conducted: UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy (a man more than happy to co-opt the anger and frustration of protesting Black Brits when Labor was the opposition party, and then playing sheepdog once they’re returned to power) recently invoking his enslaved ancestors to call Vladimir Putin a modern-day plantation owner, and then seeming to forget those ancestors exist less than a month later, when admonishing the use of the term “genocide” to describe what is happening in Gaza. Elon Musk claiming, for whatever bizarre reason, that diversity, equity, and inclusion policies were somehow responsible for the numerous mechanical problems plaguing Boeing 737 passenger planes, and then cheering Trump’s incoming cabinet of unqualified buffoons, cronies, accused pedophiles and rapists, and Deep State accomplices.
The ability of politicians and media to use the Culture War as a smokescreen for the continuance of plunder and exploitation at home, and imperialism and genocide abroad is nothing short of staggering. By pinning a target on the back of Sarah McBride, Nancy Mace (who once described herself as a supporter of LGBT equality) not only managed to push Gaza off the front pages, but accelerated the shift of politics from concrete reality to abstractions of identity and ideology. Today, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that single-sex facilities in the Capital and House Office Buildings (i.e. bathrooms, locker rooms) are “reserved for individuals of that biological sex.” Democratic leadership, of course, offered little pushback, and even McBride herself capitulated in a boilerplate statement on Twitter.
And then, once social media furor on either side of the transgenders-in-bathrooms argument has died down, McBride will, as per her staunchly pro-Israel statements to Jewish Insider in 2023, vote for US funding and arms to continue to flow to Israel, which will be used to continue the campaign of genocide, torture, and rape against Palestinian people. Because, of course, Sarah McBride, the first openly transgender member of the US Congress, was funded to the tune of over $38,000 according to AIPAC Tracker. Which further demonstrates the only true viable multipartisan consensus in the Western world is that Israel — and all other western proxies in the MENA region — have an unfettered right to inflict whatever atrocities they want.
And after the anti-wokes and culture warriors have had their turn at the trough, whether one more term under Trump, or two consecutive terms under JD Vance, the technocrats and institutionalists within the Democratic party will, of course, come roaring back to power with promises to enact sweeping change and restore the rights and dignity of marginalized people ground beneath the heel of America’s collective MAGA fever dream. Bombs will continue to rain down on the anti-Israel resistance and civilians alike, America’s working poor will continue to slide into wretched penury, and marginalized minorities will continue to be offered token representation in media, business, and government as a empty and anemic mea culpa for their suffering.
When a state has the money, the surplus arms, and the ability to nullify any multinational steps towards peaceful resolution that it wants, still manage to fail at fulfilling the needs of its own people, and still manage to slide into global irrelevance, what else can it do besides periodically slap down marginalized people and call that a culture?