Disney Didn’t Leave the GOP Behind — Culture Did

Disney's characters were used as propaganda during World War II. The original vision for Walt Disney World was a model for a healthy civic society. Conservatives don't like the corporation's morality, which includes progressive ideas about multiculturalism and personal identity.

The story of fighting back against that gradual, seemingly inevitable leftward cultural creeps is more or less the story of conservatism itself. The incentives and pressures that have led conservatives on this particular quest, one that is almost certainly hopeless, has led them into sinister rhetorical territory in referring to opponents of the law as groomers.

The company that bears Disney's name has baked his personality and imagination into it. There is a love of sound and visuals for their own sake, and an optimism from Steamboat Willie to The Avenger. If that sounds similar to the hazily defined American character in pop culture, it's not an accident.

Disney was accused of spreading the post-war nuclear- family myth to unwilling recipients across the globe. The company's cultural architects and critics both agree that it was represented by the standards of pop culture, the middle-brow American mainstream.

The conservative critique of Disney is based on the idea that by aligning with liberal social causes it leaves the mainstream behind. There is polling that shows that the specific Florida bill is popular with voters. Chris Rufo, the impresario of last year's critical race theory, has turned a disagreement over a piece of legislation into a full-blooded culture.

Disney is accused of grooming children by misappropriating a term used to describe pedophiles. Sex education has been found to be the most effective way to prevent sexual abuse, and has been caught in the backlash.

The approach is reminiscent of the anti-gay crusades of the 1970s. Since the introduction of the Florida bill, there has been a soundbite from conservative activist and former pop star Anita Bryant that has made the rounds. They need to recruit the youth of America.

To middle-American, small-c conservative parents of young children, waiting until after third grade for their kids to learn about homosexuality, or simply teaching them about it themselves, as is their right, sounds pretty reasonable. To argue that corporate America is involved in a mass conspiracy to turn your kids gay does not make sense. The conservative culture-war tactics of 2021, exemplified by Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, were predicated on real and widespread discontent with liberal management of the Covid-19 pandemic. Disney's move toward broader LGBTQ-friendliness is in lockstep with the American public's growing support for gay rights.

The GOP attacks on Disney are similar to their unsuccessful campaign against the NFL because of their support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Ideological conservatives are nowhere near the rooms in which decisions about those institutions are made. Conservatives have conflated corporate messaging with support for extreme edge cases within each issue, hoping that Americans will do the same.

The recognition that the ship has sailed leftward since the 1960s is embedded in that effort. If you are a conservative activist, that is a genuine cause for concern. If you're an ambitious Republican like Ron DeSantis, you have a chance to win the base's fealty. He and other Republicans are betting that they can make a difference against Disney without alienating the middle. They have revealed how little leverage they have when it comes to America's cultural mainstream by attacking all but the most online conservative activists.