Latest news with #culturewars
The Guardian
23 minutes ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Labor and Greens unite to condemn One Nation senators for snubbing acknowledgment of country
Labor and the Greens have united to condemn One Nation senators for turning their back on parliament's acknowledgement of country statements, describing them as 'incredibly childish' and 'hurtful' stunts. One Nation's leader, Pauline Hanson, stood in the chamber as the Indigenous affairs minister, Malarndirri McCarthy, government Senate leader, Penny Wong, and Greens leader, Larissa Waters, all made statements criticising the rightwing minor party's 'deliberate acts of disrespect'. 'Whether it is for attention or for clickbait, whether it is to cause offence, whether it is to stoke division, these senators have made a deliberate decision to disrespect First Nations Australians,' McCarthy said. 'You'd think that they'd have heard the clear message from the Australian people in May, the politics of culture wars were rejected. The politics of disrespect and nastiness were rejected. The politics of punching down on First Nations people were rejected.' Hanson doubled down on the stance, telling her Senate colleagues the acknowledgements and welcome to country ceremonies left her feeling 'disenfranchised'. 'We don't want this division in our nation. So it's the steps that I've taken to speak up on behalf of those Australian people that don't want this division. I don't want to have to do this,' Hanson said. The Greens leader, Larissa Waters, also stood up to condemn Hanson, who she accused of being 'entirely blind to her own privilege'. Just the day prior, Waters' colleague, Mehreen Faruqi, was sanctioned for holding up a sign protesting against Israel's war on Gaza during the governor general's address. While holding a prop in the Senate – as Faruqi did on Tuesday – is a breach of the standing orders, turning your back to an acknowledgment of country is not. Sign up: AU Breaking News email 'It's a bit rich to get a lecture on First Nations culture from the likes of Senator Hanson and it's also a bit rich to get a lecture about not wanting division from the likes of One Nation,' Waters said. 'It is not welcome to countries and acknowledgement of countries that is dividing the nation. It's racism.' The former shadow Indigenous affairs minister, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who is a known critic of acknowledgment ceremonies, said was 'absolutely done with the virtue signalling that takes place'. Price acknowledged the significance of the conduct by One Nation senators but supported their underlying intention. 'I am of the belief that it is not necessary to have an acknowledgement, because we are all Australians. Every single one of us, including the Ngunnawal and the Ngambri, are Australians, and we are here to serve all Australians equally in this country. Not praising or acknowledging one group above others,' she said. Penny Wong rose to her feet to offer a short statement: 'Senator Hanson speaks of division, but it is she who peddles in division. Senator Hanson speaks of respect, but it is she who peddles disrespect.' In her short time as opposition leader, Sussan Ley has delivered an acknowledgment of country at her National Press Club address and attended Parliament's opening welcome to country ceremony earlier in the week, describing it as a reminder that 'parliament doesn't begin in isolation'. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Wong said she hoped Ley's more supportive approach to the protocol might 'set the tone' and that 'the opposition would reflect on the words of their own leader in relation to welcomes to country'. 'I would just end on this: decency and respect cost us nothing, but it goes a long way to building a sense of unity. And if you want to see what grace and respect look like, perhaps remember what Senator McCarthy said just a few moments ago,' she said. The opposition's new Senate leader, Michaelia Cash, launched into an animated defence of Price, accusing Wong of pontificating on the issue. 'I will stand by and respect Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who, every day, has lived and breathed reconciliation in this country,' Cash said. 'Her father is white, her mother is black, so please don't ever come into this place again and pontificate to us like you've just done.' Days before Australians went to the polls, the former opposition leader, Peter Dutton, declared welcome to country ceremonies were 'overdone' and should be limited to major events such as the opening of parliament, after a small group of neo-Nazis booed a ceremony at an Anzac dawn service in Melbourne. Advance, which Price was formerly an official spokesperson for, has launched campaigns urging an end to welcome to country ceremonies and the use of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags in official government backdrops. In an email to supporters in June, the rightwing group encouraged followers to 'speak up and take on' welcome to country ceremonies, criticising them as a 'tool to indoctrinate' children. 'And if you and I don't stop it, they'll go further,' the email said.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Wants To Make Offensive Sports Team Names Great Again
Amid ICE raids, tariff tumult, health concerns and increasing anger about his alleged ties to predator Jeffrey Epstein, President Donald Trump is keeping his eyes on culture wars. In a Sunday morning post on Truth Social, the president wrote, 'The Washington 'Whatever's' should IMMEDIATELY change their name back to the Washington Redskins Football Team. There is a big clamoring for this. Likewise, the Cleveland Indians, one of the six original baseball teams, with a storied past.' Both football's Washington Commanders and baseball's Cleveland Guardians walked away from their controversial old names in the wake of the 2020 racial reckoning sparked by the murder of George Floyd. The moves were a culmination of yearslong campaigns by Native American groups and advocates who argued team names evoked harmful stereotypes of Indigenous savagery along with logos that were often offensive caricatures. But in his post, Trump claimed that public sentiment had since shifted and even Native communities were asking for the teams to reverse course. 'Our great Indian people, in massive numbers, want this to happen,' his post went on, saying, 'Their heritage and prestige is systematically being taken away from them.' 'Times are different now than they were three or four years ago,' Trump continued. 'We are a Country of passion and common sense. OWNERS, GET IT DONE!!!' The president made similar comments earlier this month when asked about the Commanders' old identity. 'I wouldn't have changed the name. It just doesn't have the same, it doesn't have the same ring to me,' he told a reporter. Washington D.C.'s football team dropped the Redskins name in July 2020 and rechristened itself as the Commanders in February 2022. But when members of congress approved a bill paving the way for Washington to build a new stadium last November, it reportedly came with a condition they bring back its former mascot, which was based off the image of real-life Piegan Blackfeet Chief John Two Guns White Calf. While there have been some discussions about reviving the logo, the Commanders' front office has said there was no chance the team would be reviving its racist old name. In 2023, the club's then-president, Jason Wright, told Washington radio station 106.7 The Fan: 'Going back to the old name is not being considered. Period.' One year later, Commanders owner Josh Harris said that reviving the old team name was a nonstarter for 'obvious reasons.' Cleveland's baseball team ditched its controversial logo, a smiling crimson-faced man named 'Chief Wahoo,' in 2018, but it took another two years to walk away from The Indians moniker. The organization rechristened itself as The Guardians a year later. Related... Trump Admits He Misses Sports Team's Old, Racist Name Cleveland's Baseball Team Finally Has A New Name After Dropping Racist Logo Washington's NFL Team Is Finally Changing Its Racist 'Redskins' Name
Washington Post
6 days ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Democrat from Trump country auditions for 2028 with plan to win culture wars
PAWLEYS ISLAND, S.C. — Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear had plenty to say about the culture wars that have divided his party as he laid groundwork here this week for a possible 2028 presidential run. As some prominent Democrats warn the party has gone too far left on trans rights, the governor from the deep-red South quoted scripture to explain why he vetoed 'every single piece of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation' that GOP state lawmakers sent to his desk. As some institutions back off racial justice initiatives that have faced a fierce backlash and that Republicans call 'woke,' Beshear said he was proud to make Juneteenth an executive branch holiday and remove a statue of Confederate president Jefferson Davis from the Kentucky Capitol. 'I'm a proud pro-choice governor, I'm a proud pro-LGBTQ+ governor, and I'm a proud pro-diversity governor,' Beshear said at his final stop, a dinner for Democrats in conservative Georgetown County. 'Now some people would tell you that a Democrat can't win in a state like mine or yours with that resume. Yet here I am.' Beshear occupies a singular position in the early 2028 Democratic sweepstakes as a two-term governor in a state President Donald Trump won by 30 points who is pitching himself as a blueprint for the party to start winning again. As Democrats fight over whether they paid a price for moving too far left on some social issues, Beshear is using his red-state experience to argue the party need not run away from those topics. Democrats can win voters who disagree with them on those polarizing issues, Beshear argued, if they do a better job of explaining their reasoning and focus most of their energy on basic needs such as jobs, infrastructure and health care. Over two days of packed receptions and private meetings in South Carolina, he urged Democrats to talk 'like normal human beings,' cut down on activist-driven jargon and show voters they are focused on bread-and-butter issues. 'Folks, this isn't an either-or,' Beshear told a crowded reception at a Charleston law office on Thursday. 'We can stick up for everything we believe in while still convincing the American people that we are going to spend every single day working on those things that lift everybody up.' That pitch was part of a broader upbeat message that Beshear took around the state as Democrats reel from Trump's second term, soul-search about their losses last fall and debate what they need to do differently. He pointed to his 5-point reelection victory in ruby-red Kentucky two years ago as evidence that Democrats could 'win everywhere' with good governance and a determination to be 'the party of common sense, common ground and getting things done.' Some are skeptical that Beshear's success in his home state can translate more broadly. He rose in Kentucky politics as the son of a former governor, aided by voters' familiar with the family name. Nationally, he isn't as well-known as other Democratic governors such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who was also in South Carolina last week. And his message, as a red-state governor used to working with Republicans, is not as fiery and combative as some in the party are seeking. Beshear rebuked Trump and the GOP during his stops — calling the president's agenda a 'punch in the face' to the rural communities that voted for him — but also talked about creating 'the grace and the space for people to disagree' on hot-button issues. Beshear is one of many Democratic leaders making early overtures in South Carolina, which has played an outsize role in the party's presidential nominating process in recent years. The state could do so again in 2028, though the primary calendar for is not yet set and will be the subject of fierce jockeying. Advocates of South Carolina's early primary status say it has a track record of picking the ultimate nominee and reflects the party's diversity, with a primary dominated by the Black voters at the core of the Democratic coalition. Beshear's appeals to issues of race and civil rights could resonate with those voters. Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-South Carolina), an influential voice in the primary whose endorsement was pivotal for Joe Biden, said any Democrat hoping to succeed in 2028 cannot shy away from identity and diversity. 'We are the party of Lyndon Johnson, of Harry Truman, we are the party of Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden,' he said in an interview Friday. 'These are pro diversity candidates, and if you're going to be anything else, you're not going to survive in a Democratic primary.' Asked about transgender rights in particular — an issue that many Democrats are wary of discussing — Clyburn turned to his faith, echoing Beshear. 'I know that God made us all in his image,' he said. South Carolinians who came out to hear from Beshear — and who sometimes talked like he was already running for president — were eager for a standard-bearer who could connect with moderate voters and make the Democratic Party more palatable in the Bible Belt. Beshear leaned into Kentucky's similarities with South Carolina, telling crowds that as a southerner, 'I know if you say 'bless your heart,' it's ain't good.' Jim Hodges, the last Democratic governor from South Carolina — who left office in 2003 and introduced Beshear at one event — said in an interview that Beshear was on the right track with his line about talking like 'normal' people. 'I do think that it's a disease of the left, primarily,' Hodges said, 'and as a result of that we've alienated, at least in this last cycle, working class voters who should be for us.' Beshear was less blunt in his 10-to-15 minute speeches, urging Democrats to stop using wonky terms such as 'substance abuse disorder' and 'justice-involved populations' — a phrase that prompted members of one audience to wrinkle their faces and exclaim, 'What?' Voters often said Democratic leaders should spend less time on the most controversial issues in the party. 'We cannot throw anybody under the bus,' said Donna Tate, 69, who came to hear Beshear in Columbia. 'But people who can't afford diapers can't understand why someone's focusing on trans rights. We have to pull everybody in the fold.' Beshear has tried to strike a balance in Kentucky. He won reelection in 2023 while focusing heavily on local, economic issues and building a personal brand separate from the national party. His team also filmed a viral ad featuring a rape victim criticizing Kentucky's near-total abortion ban, and Beshear often talks about his election-year veto of a bill curtailing transgender rights. Trans issues have been especially divisive for Democrats in the wake of the 2024 election, when Republicans used the subject to cast Kamala Harris and other opponents as out-of-touch. Newsom, another possible 2028 contender who visited South Carolina last week, drew backlash from activists and some liberal colleagues this year when he said 'it's deeply unfair' for trans athletes to participate in women's sports. In South Carolina, Beshear was eager to talk about how he had handled LGBTQ issues, however. 'I vetoed it because it was the right thing to do,' he said of the bill in Kentucky. 'I said my faith teaches me that all children are children of God, and I didn't want people picking on those kids.' Beshear has drawn some contrasts with Newsom as he travels the country. Early this year, taking questions from reporters at a Virginia retreat for House Democrats, the Kentucky governor jabbed at Newsom's decision to invite far-right guests such as former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon onto his new podcast. Newsom 'bringing on different voices is great … But Steve Bannon espouses hatred, and anger, and even at some points violence, and I don't think we should give him oxygen on any platform ever, anywhere,' Beshear said. But the Kentucky governor, who will soon lead the Democratic Governors Association, was complimentary this week on his tour. He called Newsom a friend and said it's 'great that a lot of leaders from all different states are coming through' South Carolina. 'I would have never considered this a couple years ago, but I will not leave a broken country to my kids or to anyone else's,' Beshear said of potential presidential run this week on 'Meet the Press.' 'And so if I'm somebody that at that point, that I believe that I can heal the country, then I'll take a look at it.' In South Carolina, however, he insisted he was visiting because local groups had invited him and because his 16-year-old son had a baseball tournament in Charleston.
New York Times
6 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Who Gets to Wear a Mask?
Although we are five years out of the Covid pandemic's most desperate hours, debates about masking have clung to their fiery place in the culture wars. The context has shifted — from public health emergency to campus protests over Gaza to immigration raids on Home Depot parking lots. But the various arguments, deeply politicized, remain entrenched in a single question: Whose personal liberties ought to be sacrosanct? In the past few weeks there has been an expansion into new territory, perhaps the most contentious of which pits the rights of law enforcement against anyone immigration agents and police officers deems suspicious. Less than a year after signing into law the Mask Transparency Act, a statute more or less banning face coverings in the western half of Long Island, Bruce Blakeman, the Republican Nassau County executive, amended it via an executive order, creating an exception that allows police officers to wear masks on duty. This was necessary, he maintained, to ensure the safety of those executing the raids, as well as officers' family members, who might be sought out and threatened. He signed the order the same day that the Department of Homeland Security issued a news release asserting that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Portland, Ore., had been subject to a surge of assaults after their personal information was publicized. Objectors to Mr. Blakeman's move pointed to an inherent contradiction. By allowing police officers to wear masks on the job, the law gives them the freedom to conceal their identities while they are rounding up immigrants who (at least on parts of Long Island) are prohibited from wearing them. It permits officers, as Beth Haroules, a staff lawyer for the New York Civil Liberties Union, put it, to act as both 'sword and shield.' The N.Y.C.L.U. is already suing Nassau County over the warm relationship it has maintained with the Trump administration in regard to immigrant detention. The explicit partnership, lawyers argue, undermines Fourth Amendment protections regarding searches, seizures and privacy. The mask exemption has only amplified these concerns, given that it brings local police closer in appearance and style to ICE agents, who are now arresting 500 percent more noncriminal immigrants than they were eight years ago. And to what end, all this ominous camouflage? For years, local governments have been striving to strengthen the relationship between the police and the constituents they are meant to safeguard, to refashion law enforcement as less intimidating, not more. 'People are concerned about community policing and the relationships we've built with our officers,' Seth Koslow, a county legislator and Democrat who is running to replace Mr. Blakeman, told me. 'Nassau County police officers are fantastic, and the ICE agents are coming in and eroding that trust. We've worked very hard to get here. And now we're going backward.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
The Guardian
16-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Ministers to enshrine UK charities' right to peaceful protest in new ‘covenant'
The right to engage in political activity and protest peacefully is to be enshrined in a new agreement between the government and UK charities and campaigners aimed in part at ending years of damaging 'culture wars'. The agreement is intended to reset relations between government and the voluntary sector after years of mutual distrust during which Conservative ministers limited public rights to protest, froze out campaigners, and targeted 'woke' charities. The so-called 'civil society covenant' will also commit ministers to giving charities and campaign groups a formal partnership role in helping design and fulfil the government's missions to achieve economic growth and tackle social problems. Keir Starmer will announce the covenant on Thursday in what is seen as the most serious government engagement with the voluntary sector since David Cameron's ill-fated attempt to co-opt charities into his 'big society' vision in 2010. The prime minister is expected to say: 'This is about rebalancing power and responsibility. Not the top-down approach of the state working alone. Not the transactional approach of markets left to their own devices. But a new way forward – where government and civil society work side by side to deliver real change.' The government has highlighted the covenant as a way of putting charities and social enterprises at the centre of plans to provide publicly funded grassroots services in areas such as domestic abuse, youth services and employment programmes. But the covenant is expected to addresses more fundamental principles of civil society independence and rights, and commits the government and charities to continue to engage respectfully even where they disagree on policy. A key passage in the covenant is expected to say the government respects the independence and legitimacy of civil society organisations to advocate and campaign, will protect their right to engage in peaceful protest, and hold the government to account. The commitment was welcomed by civil society leaders. Jane Ide, the chief executive of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations, said: 'This is an essential part of a healthy democracy and speaking truth to power is central to the role of civil society.' There is widespread optimism in the voluntary sector that the covenant, which was negotiated in recent months, signals a genuine attempt by the government to embrace civil society groups and draw on their expertise to drive social change. One senior voluntary sector figure said: 'This is something everyone has wanted to see for some time. It is easy to be cynical about words on the page but it is a massive opportunity to do things in a different way.' There is broad relief the covenant appears to signal that the tide of aggressive criticism of charities from rightwing politicians in recent years, seen as an attempt to undermine charities' legal rights and restrict their role in public debate, has receded. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion These have included hostile 'culture war' attacks on charities including the National Trust, the RNLI and Barnardo's by politicians and media over so-called 'woke' issues such as race, immigration, the UK's colonial legacy and the climate crisis. Charities that provide public services have also railed against 'gagging clauses' inserted into delivery contracts preventing them from speaking out on behalf of beneficiaries, and many will hope the covenant will end such practices. But there is also scepticism about the covenant in some quarters, given the government's recent banning of the Palestine Action protest group, and amid fears that police handling of some peaceful pro-Palestine marches risks criminalising legitimate protest. Some charity figures contrasted the commitment of the covenant to 'coproduce' policy with campaigners with the failures of ministers in recent months to consult civil society over unpopular cuts to disability benefits and the winter fuel allowance. There is also concern that the financial difficulties faced by many charities, often as a results of cuts to local authority and NHS board funding, will severely limit the ability of many civil society organisations to engage in partnership.
