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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
David Smith in Washington

Republicans’ midterms pitch: never mind the policy, here’s the culture war

Senator Ted Cruz holds a book titled Antiracist Baby while speaking during the confirmation hearing for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Senator Ted Cruz holds a book titled Antiracist Baby during the confirmation hearing for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, offering a preview of Republican election strategy. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

“Sue-thy-neighbour” laws that ban abortions after six weeks of pregnancy in Texas and now Idaho. A “don’t say gay” bill censoring discussion of sexual orientation in schools in Florida. A ban on Maus, a graphic novel about the Holocaust, by a school board in Tennessee.

America’s national government might be under Democratic control but its red states are on the march with sweeping laws targeting abortion, LGBTQ+ people and the teaching of race in schools that threaten to turn back the clock to an era when a citizen’s rights depended on where they lived.

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