There is a saying that goes something like, “Politics is downstream of culture.” No one seems to know where the phrase first came from, but it was brought into mainstream terminology by conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart, and has been parroted in political circles for 20-odd years.
The main idea conveyed by this statement is that culture has more importance than politics, and that it affects politics while avoiding any inverse effects of politics. It posits that culture and politics are separate entities, and that politics is a slave of the culture. Following the train of thought, it becomes clear that focusing on politics will not reap the same reward as focusing on culture, and therefore to spend time or energy on politics would be a fool’s errand. Why spend time on politics when you could be “upstream”, focusing on cultural things that really matter?
For most people who take this view, “focusing on culture” means spending their time on education, media, or religious pursuits — changing hearts and minds instead of changing laws. It becomes a strategy of backdooring our political opinions into mainstream culture by destigmatizing things we like, shaming opponents for things we don’t like, and moving the Overton window. The theory is that by changing minds and redeeming hearts, we’re playing the long game. Eventually, by focusing on a vaguely defined idea of ‘culture’, our preferred politics will simply fall into place.
But this idea starts to unravel when we think about it at any depth. The terms are undefined, and it’s not clear what being “downstream” even means. The main problem comes from trying to put culture and politics into some kind of linear progression, as if culture affects politics and not the other way around. The reality is that politics is a piece of culture, both affecting and being affected by the culture it is in. In fact, it’s likely that culture and politics shouldn’t even be considered on the same level: Culture is a stew of tradition, religion, social mores, technology, politics, media, education, and many other factors. Politics is a lever of power, and it affects culture any time it affects these constituent elements. It is, in turn, affected by education, media, tradition, religion, technology, etc. We will run into issues if we try to ignore or downplay the importance of any element of culture, including politics. Far from being downstream of culture, law and politics are a piece of the greater whole, an integral part of the cultural struggle.
Every element of culture has nobility, and each deserves to have specialists who take great pride in doing their part to advance culture through excellence in their field. If someone wants to focus on media or religion instead of governance, that’s fine. But don’t let them tell you that they are working on ‘culture’ and you’re not.
Politics and culture are completely intertwined.
Bill updates:
Last week, our bill to limit the Emergency Powers of the Governor passed a full committee in the House. It will head to the floor on Monday, where we expect passage, and having already passed the Senate, we now expect that it will become law. Also, a bill banning Red 40 in public school lunches passed an education subcommittee as part of our MakeTN Healthy initiative.
This week, we have bills limiting the authority of state agencies to enter private property, significantly reducing regulation for small farms, clarifying the Mature Minor doctrine, and limiting the power of the commissioner of Agriculture.
If you think of it, pray for us! We have a lot of irons in the fire and the executive departments have come out in force this week to protest our bills and amendments.
Media Mentions:
David Tucker, one of our board directors, was honored to be on the T.Rex Talk podcast with Isaac Botkin last week. They spoke about some of our bills and work in the Tennessee legislature, as well as the ethos of our organization and some broader lessons on political involvement. You can listen below on both Youtube and Spotify.
If you know anyone who prefers to listen to podcasts instead of read newsletters, please take a moment to share our mission with them!
David
Thank you for your thought provoking essay and the legislative update. We will prayer for you all as you represent "We the people "
https://substack.com/@chandler67/note/p-161055109?r=3mzod3