We Lost the Flag — and the Feeling That Went With It
While the right turned culture into a weapon, Democrats surrendered the story of who we are. Now, everything from sports to art to gaming is the battlefield for America’s soul.
By Lawrence Winnerman
Last night proved what’s been true for years now: everything is political. Even sports. Even the World Series. Sure, it was just a game — but it felt like a proxy war between Canada and the United States—and between two visions of America. Did you see the passion with which the Jays fans sang O, Canada every damn night?
I dare you to watch and not cry a little at what Canada has recently found, and at what we have lost. The Dodgers’ historic win hasn’t diminished the growing patriotism of our northern neighbors; it merely forestalled it for a moment.
That tension — north versus south, fact versus fantasy, democracy versus the creeping urge to dominate — runs through everything now. There’s no such thing as an apolitical space.
The old etiquette of “don’t talk politics, religion, or sex at the table” was always bullshit. Politics decides who gets to sit at that table. It decides who eats, who has medicine, who has a home. And these days, it decides who gets deported in the middle of the night through helicopter ICE raids, or whose kid is targeted by a state legislature for existing.
The wall between culture and politics isn’t just crumbling — it’s gone. “I just want to watch the game” has become “shut up and dribble.” Every arena of American life — sports, gaming, film, art, music, even coffee chains — is a battlefield of worldviews.
Look at the last month’s headlines. The Ryder Cup wasn’t just a golf tournament; it was a test of national identity wrapped in a red hat. Fans hurled beer and bile at Rory McIlroy’s wife like they were defending a flag instead of watching a sport.
In response, he vowed never to compete in America again — and can you blame him? Golf, the most sedate of games, turned into a grievance rally. Jeering has become liturgy.
Meanwhile, Jared Kushner and Saudi money circling Electronic Arts isn’t just about profit — it’s about control. EA’s worlds — FIFA, Madden, The Sims — are cultural ecosystems shaping millions of young minds. When autocrats buy the pipelines of imagination, they don’t need to censor outright. They just erase. That Pride kit in FIFA? Gone. Diverse Sims households? Quietly “rethought.”
That’s how authoritarianism works in 2025: not by banning what it hates, but by buying it outright and then quietly deleting it.
And it doesn’t stop there. The Supreme Court is now the front line of the culture war — a six-seat fortress of grievance poised to rule on LGBTQ rights, gun laws, and redistricting. These cases aren’t about law anymore. They’re about reshaping the nation’s moral DNA.
The Court has become the final arena where culture and politics merge into something harder and colder: power without accountability.
The right understands this perfectly. The left still doesn’t.
Republicans long ago turned culture into a weapon — every school board, every sports league, every library, every corporate DEI policy. They wrapped fascism in the flag and called it freedom. Democrats responded with press releases and sternly worded letters (paging Chuck Schumer, your retirement is ready).
And now, even the strategists who once knew better are folding. David Plouffe, James Carville, and David Axelrod — men who built modern Democratic messaging — are publicly urging the party to ditch what they sneer at as “interest-group politics.” Translation: throw queer people, trans kids, and anyone inconvenient under the bus to “win back the middle.”
That “middle” doesn’t exist. It’s a ghost conjured by consultants too afraid to stand for something real. You may not like Zohran Mamdani, but you sure as shit know what he stands for—and come Tuesday, he’s going to be the Mayor-elect of New York City.
When the party of democracy decides certain people are expendable, it’s not strategy — it’s surrender.
Let’s be clear: people are dying because of that cowardice. ICE raids are sweeping up citizens. SNAP benefits are gutted. States are criminalizing healthcare for trans teens while their governors smirk for the cameras. This isn’t abstract politics. It’s state-sanctioned cruelty. And it’s happening because the people who were supposed to fight for decency decided it was too impolite to make noise.
Democrats lost the emotional narrative. We ceded patriotism, symbolism, and moral clarity to a party that burns books and worships billionaires. The GOP made bullying feel like belonging. They made hatred look like community.
And too many Democratic leaders still think data points can out-argue demagoguery.
That has to end. Culture isn’t the sideshow — it’s the main event. It’s how people feel seen or erased, protected or endangered. The right knows it. That’s why they’re fighting like their lives depend on it. Because politically, they do.
So what do we do? We stop pretending neutrality is noble. We stop being polite about fascism. We build the new infrastructure ourselves — in schools, in art, in music, in journalism.
We take back the culture so that we can take back the future.
That’s already happening here — in independent media networks, in Substack newsletters, in podcasts, and in collective voices that refuse to be silenced. The corporate media sold its soul for access and ad revenue.
Look at Bari Weiss cashing out The Free Press for millions — the right understands that culture is the battlefield. They’re building their empire right here on Substack while too many progressives are still debating tone.
The only honest future is independent, sustained by people willing to pay for truth.
If you believe in a voice, fund it.
If you believe in democracy, subscribe to it.
Because the other side is funding propaganda with billions, and the only counterweight is us — loud, unfiltered, unbought.
This isn’t about comfort. It’s about survival. The cultural front is the political front. Ignore that at your peril, and you’ll wake up in a country you don’t recognize — one where your kids’ favorite game, your local library, your own body, are someone else’s property.
Politics is culture. Culture is politics. That’s the deal now. You can keep pretending you’re “not political.” But while you sit on the couch, there are billionaires, preachers, and strongmen writing the script for what you’ll be allowed to see, say, or dream.
Silence is complicity.
People are dying.
Fight like hell.
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Peoplesunion.com is a group that is suggesting a rolling set of financial freezes to unite people against corporate greed, rising inflation, tariff turbulence, eliminating SNAP while doling out millions to foreign countries, and not caring about the climate. The economic freeze is to not spend a single penny on certain specific days to show an impact with unity.
The origin of this plan was to save us all from public rallies to avoid tear gas and riots. It’s a peaceful way to show unity from the people.
The rolling no spend days I believe is weekly to gather the people together. It’s a collective voice from a united people so hard to obtain. It’s been going on for some time and other organizations are using this same pattern. The people can potentially gain control of Federal spending by not paying Federal income tax between future specific dates. Most people will probably individually choose not to pay federal taxes only if something drastic should happen like dictatorship. It’s your choice to work together or not. Please spread the word to any and all especially to individuals who have group members. Apparently Anderson Cooper posted on Instagram about the financial freeze that took place November 1st which is the day SNAP got laid off.
THE NEXT FINANCIAL FREEZE or NO BUY DAY WILL BE BLACK FRIDAY. So stock up on all your needs the day before. The deals last a week or more anyway. So go shop for them on Saturday. SPREAD THE WORD.
Over 70,000,000 people voted for democrats. To indicate they’re losers and have lost their base is not true. I don’t see us throwing anyone under the bus. What the hell are you talking about?? So the repubs win the house, senate and executive. In a damn close race. I think you’re flat wrong about the Democratic Party. How do you think they can change the direction of the country when they have now so little say in our government. Instead of just being critical offer some positive advice if you’re so smart. Whew! Can’t agree with you on this at all.