The Republican shift against American pluralism
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The Republican shift against American pluralism
From race to same-sex marriage, Republican voters are turning against inclusion.
Donald Trump greets supporters at a campaign rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Oct. 22, 2024. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
There is a common aesthetic in elementary schools, one centered on rainbows and stars. The world is grueling and cruel, but we generally let that reality sink in only once kids get a bit older. Until then, our presentation is optimistic, cheery and equal.
You can understand, then, why sixth-grade teacher Sarah Inama would have been surprised to learn that a banner hanging in her classroom was triggering an outcry. Showing a range of heart-holding hands, each in a different hue, the banner read, “Everyone is welcome here.” It’s an anodyne sentiment, at worst, but also a celebration of multiracial community. And for that reason — and explicitly that reason, as a school official explained in an interview in March — the banner was determined to be unacceptable.
Saying that “everyone is welcome” has become a political statement in the way that “science is real” has become one. Not because these statement themselves are political or even particularly controversial. No, they are now tainted with politics because they reject the right’s rejections of both objectivity and pluralism.
When the 10th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision arrived last month — the decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationally — a chart of poll data from Gallup began to circulate on social media . It showed that most Americans supported marriage access for same-sex couples, as has been the case since shortly before Obergefell . But it also showed that support had slipped slightly in recent years — driven entirely by declining support among Republicans.
In 2022, most Republicans supported same-sex marriage. Now, only 4 in 10 do, a level not seen since 2016.
By itself, this turn against equality for LGBTQ+ Americans would be striking — even more striking, really, than the rapid consolidation of support for same-sex marriage in the first place. But this shift did not occur by itself.
CNN released polling last month that illustrates another shift centered largely among Republicans. Conducted by the firm SSRS, the poll asked Americans whether “having an increasing number of people of many different races, ethnic groups, and nationalities in the U.S.” was threatening or enriching to American culture. Most respondents said enriching — though Republicans were about evenly split between the two.
Notably, the pollsters asked the same question in 2019 . Since then, Republicans have gotten 25 percentage points more likely to say that American diversity is threatening to our culture. Among White people, the increase was 16 points.
There’s obvious overlap here with the increase in hostility to immigration that occurred during Joe Biden’s presidency. Gallup’s measurement of the benefits of immigration saw a similar plunge among Republicans as was seen in views of same-sex marriage — though in this case support among independents also fell.
Another trend plays a role here as well: the backlash against efforts to address systemic racism.
It’s been the case for decades that Republicans are more likely than Democrats to think that affirmative action programs put Whites at a disadvantage (in part because Republicans are much more likely to be White). The divide between the parties widened dramatically after 2020, when protests centered on racial justice unfolded across the U.S. — and backlash against those protests hardened on the right.
Over the course of the Biden presidency, Republicans and the broader right elevated a series of racial issues as central to American politics. A focus on “critical race theory” — which often centered on the false idea that students were being taught a version of history centered on the disparagement of Whites — evolved into attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives that were aimed at addressing historiccal and current inequalities based on race, gender and sexual orientation.
Those attacks worked in part because Republicans generally don’t see economic inequality as a function of discrimination. General Social Survey polling shows that Republicans are instead more likely to attribute those inequalities to a lack of “will power” by Black Americans.
Race and party have been intertwined for years but once-subtle defenses of White people became overt as Donald Trump sought reelection to the presidency. Skepticism about equality efforts merged with the increased visibility of gay Americans and perceptions of uncontrolled immigration to make the subtext of Trump’s “make America great again” motto much more explicit. His was a candidacy centered on straight, White Americans. His second term in office has been centered in precisely the same way, often explicitly.
We can’t consider this tonal change to Trump’s politics without recognizing that, even with that more explicit frame, Trump did better among non-White voters in 2024 than he had in 2020 or 2016. Pew Research Center’s analysis of the electorate shows that Black Americans preferred Biden by 84 percentage points over Trump in 2020 but preferred Kamala Harris by only 68 points in 2024. Among Hispanics, the drop was even larger: from a 38-point advantage in 2016 to 25 points in 2020 and only 3 points last year.
How do we account for this apparent incongruity? Much of it, certainly, is that Trump’s victory was heavily rooted in Biden-era inflation . Some of it is that the extent of the administration’s efforts to scale back DEI and to detain immigrants have been much more significant than voters might have expected. YouGov polling has Trump’s job approval deep underwater with Black and Hispanic Americans — much wider than the gaps by which he lost their votes, though that’s admittedly an apples-to-oranges comparison.
We should recognize, though, that this incongruity doesn’t absolve Trump’s politics or diminish the reality of his base’s rejection of pluralism. Because Black Americans voted more for Trump in 2024 in the wake of surging prices does not mean that Republicans embrace the idea that America is becoming more diverse. In CNN’s polling, after all, we see that less than half of them do.
Sarah Inama, that Idaho sixth-grade teacher whose banner kicked the right-wing hornet’s nest, ended up leaving her position. A law passed by the state legislature this year attempted to formalize rules about what messages could be displayed in Idaho classrooms, with no banners permitted that “represent a political viewpoint, including but not limited to flags or banners regarding a political party, race, sexual orientation, gender, or a political ideology.”
So does a banner reading “everyone is welcome” fall into that pool of restrictions? According to the office of state Attorney General (and former congressman) Raúl R. Labrador (R), it does .
“These signs are part of an ideological/social movement which started in Twin Cities, Minnesota following the 2016 election of Donald Trump,” the office said in a statement to Idaho Education News. In the Trump era, offering a welcome to everyone, regardless of race, is unacceptably political for schoolchildren.
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Unfortunately the graphs wouldnt display.
Now we know what America First really means. Protecting whats left of the whites on top culture. According to the poll almost half of Republicans think diversity is bad for the country.
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Good call John - go to the . . . . .
Philip Bump take a look at that startling chart:
How about that chart at the top?
I don’t think they’ve changed, actually. I think they are just feeling they now have permission to say what they’ve always believed. They are feeling their oats.
Here’s a gift link to the whole piece. It makes me feel sick.
I’m having a hard time even thinking about the 4th of July this year. It’s usually a holiday where I allow myself to celebrate some of the good things about our system and our society and one of them was always the fact that we have always been a pluralistic, immigrant nation. I won’t take that for granted ever again.
We’re building concentration camps for immigrants.
“We’re building concentration camps for immigrants.
lol, and no doubt some will believe that bs.
I asked yesterday what concentration camps in the past had clergy for people to talk to. I have yet to get an answer.
“I have yet to get an answer.”
You never will because it’s a lie, a bizarre lie that some,,,,,,,, will continue to spread and some,,,,,,, will believe.
I didn't see that comment yesterday but the USA did provide clergy for the Japanese we interned during WWll.
Also the Union soldiers at the CSA Andersonville "prison" had two Catholic priests who served there.
Clergy and medical personnel are important components in efforts to control large numbers of prisoners.
Guantanamo has a Chaplain and assistants to attend detainees.
The Germans allowed many rabbis to be incarcerated in German concentration camps instead of being executed outright.
This is not a remarkable "benefit".
‘I didn't see that comment yesterday but the USA did provide clergy for the Japanese we interned during WWll.
Also the Union soldiers at the CSA Andersonville "prison" had two Catholic priests who served there.’
Were these places concentration camps?
No. They were not. One was a POW camp where the prisoners were mostly treated fairly and not used as slave labor.
The Japanese were interned (wrongly) because of the real threat from the Japanese on US soil.
When one thinks of concentration camps they think of the Nazi camps during WWII where the Jews were help in conditions not fit for humans, starved and worked as slaves until they died. At no time was there clergy provided to the Jews.
For leftists to classify these holding facilities as concentration camps is beyond stupid, but that is the state of many in the democratic party today
You have to have been raised pretty far south of the Mason Dixon line to believe that lie.
A; Andersonville had the highest mortality rate of any Civil War POW camp where as many as 45,000 POWS were crammed into a 1700 x 700 field enclosure.
13,000 POWs and 250 guards died in just 14 months.
Nice of you to acknowledge...
Because of the imagined threat of American citizens of Japanese descent in their own country? Amazingly short sighted and prejudiced.
No less than the American government and POTUS at the time referred to them frequently as concentration camps.
For partisan players to NOT classify these holding facilities as concentration camps is beyond stupid, but that is the state of many in America today. There I fixed it for you Chief.
History lesson, priceless.
Manzanar: The American Concentration Camp Few Learn About in School
"no banners permitted that “represent a political viewpoint, including but not limited to flags or banners regarding a political party, race, sexual orientation, gender, or a political ideology.”
The teacher's personal views on these issues have no place in American classrooms, especially in the lower grades. Neither should religious views held by teachers be displayed, because someone is bound to be offended. Higher grade levels and appropriate classes to discuss these ideas can come later
America seems quite diverse right now, in what ways is it not diverse enough? People of color in every level of society doing well, same can be said of LBGQ individuals. Most rational people are against the insanity of gender identity. And systemic racism is a lie, unsupported by any facts or reason.
What is missing is the democrats' terms of "inclusion."
1) thou shall not assimilate.
The younger generation assimilates within a decade or so. This is not some inane ping pong ball.
FCK U Stephen
Truth hurts don't it?
what would you know about it...?
is this a freaking joke ?
Our country iS in serious downfall
Donald Trump wants to celebrate 250 years of independence with a UFC fight at White House
We went from world renowned to the biggest joke and here is Trumps' punchline. We are rightfully the laughing stock of the world and we have people, right here, so darn proud of it. It is head spinning that these cult followers some see this as winning, probably dizzy they be, from all the spinning they can't see, yet so fckn obvious to say you, or possibly me. Having a bad mourning/afterloon, just informed of the passing of a froend I did try and help. Seems the world is full of bad news, and I'm gonna have to drink away the blues, so cheers !
More Orwellian nonsense. Go to a university controlled by progressives. They hate actual pluralism and instead demand intellectual conformity to their progressive religion.