From a Google Image Search - New York Times
Biden passes whatever progressive legislation he can get through Congress, although an infrastructure bill can hardly be considered progressive. However, the IRA which might help get America to zero carbon emissions flies in the face of climate deniers and is anathema to many conservatives, and probably weighs in on the progressive end of the scale. Even as Biden moves the nation forward, "MAGA-cized" conservatives make it harder to vote and they take rights away from women, they rail at the Department of Justice calling it unjust, and bemoan their inability to taint Biden and the Democrats with anything other than propaganda.
But women are not Christmas decorations taken out of storage on special occasions (e.g. a man is horny or needs some arm candy) and packed away in a shack or a McMansion until a man has a use for them besides housework and childrearing.
Democrats may appear to have the conn unless you look behind the scenes where there is a conservative plan in motion and gaining ground. 1) States can ban abortion says the Supreme Court. 2) Mifepristone (or similar meds), conservatives say (Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito) was rushed out by the FDA and approval should be withdrawn, a transparent ploy to ban a drug these men of no science wish to ban for religious reasons, inaccurate religious reasons. 3) Next, they could and would like to pass a national abortion ban. 4) Make contraception illegal 5) Women will procreate or else (unless they rebel and avoid sexual relationships with men.
Conservatives have been less worried about Congress and more worried about stuffing the federal courts. Mitch McConnell would conduct no business except confirming appointments to federal courts and the Supreme Court. He radiated stubbornness and defiance and could not be swayed. He was proud of his control over the Senate. While the courts are not supposed to legislate, they can overturn past legislation which is just fine because taking away rights and protections from certain Americans is their whole agenda.
Conservatives are using the purity arguments of Viktor Orbán in Hungary. We must preserve America's traditional national flavor (very vanilla). Well, Hungary is a small nation that has experienced several traumas such as being taken by Hitler in World War II and then becoming part of the USSR after the war. Perhaps even in ancient times, people like Attila the Hun, Charlemagne, or Alexander the Great marched across Hungary. But it is a nation that still has a more consistent national history than America. America doesn't have a cohesive ethnic flavor.
America advertised itself as a "melting pot" because such a big country required workers and settlers. Although it is the modern tendency to point fingers and label actions and remarks as "cultural appropriation," America has always enjoyed the richness of our ethnic groups. Traditions adopted from influxes of groups from a wide variety of nations worldwide are so ingrained in our lives that it is impossible to say what a quintessentially American culture even looks like.
Terrorism changed us from confident and brash Americans to paranoid Americans. The terrorists who brought us the shock and horror of 9/11 were accepted into the bosom of America, given opportunities even many Americans can't afford. They learned to fly planes and then weaponized our planes against us. Our fears want us to push back against all that is now labeled liberalism.
Conservatives argue that America's true tradition is that we are a Christian nation, so they want to legalize some religious tests for "true patriotic Americans." They want Christians to be identified by the white cowboy hats and everyone else by the black cowboy hats. Oh, if only it could be that simple to tell whose intentions are those of enemies of America and those of the most loyal patriots. It is never clear who might be an enemy and who is loyal. People dissemble all the time. Conservatives began throwing around the term patriots to describe other white Christian conservative Americans, thereby defining liberals as the enemy and all things that came from "globalist" ideologies as foreign influences that could allow our enemies to hide in plain sight. Now they want to know who has the white hats and who has the black hats. DEI is the new woke.
From a Google Image Search - USC Economics Review
If you want to see how much "globalization" has infiltrated America just sign up for the recipes from the Washington Post or the New York Times. To cook all that delicious-sounding food you will need to expand your pantry items significantly. Do you have any harissa, how about halloumi, miso, sriracha, black garlic, or bok choy? Not one of these ingredients originated in America but Americans are in love with restaurants that cook foods from around the globe. Globalization and powerful women - it seems that conservatives have taken on some pretty powerful culture wars that might be impossible to win.
Although women and non-Christians are groups that conservatives believe are destroying America my vote would go to all the millionaires and billionaires who are fomenting the backlash for greedy reasons and because the world is a scary place sometimes. Will we give up our freedom for a narrow version of America and a false sense of security that all the isolation in the world cannot offer? Watch what the conservatives are able to do without having control because we may be living in their reality soon. If we win big in 2024 we will at least have to undo what conservatives have managed to accomplish so far.