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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Zoe Williams

What the latest Meghan story tells us about the culture wars

The Duchess of Sussex at the Invictus Games 2023 in Dusseldorf last month.
The Duchess of Sussex at the Invictus Games 2023 in Dusseldorf last month. Photograph: Shutterstock

The Duchess of Sussex is not, following the death of Dianne Feinstein, going to be the new senator for California. No, she was never in the frame, and no, her ultimate aim is not the White House. The ink was barely dry on the story in the MailOnline, and assorted rightwing titles globally, that Meghan was the “long shot”, before the real candidate, Laphonza Butler, was announced.

Butler, incidentally, is a politician with a hinterland, a former union leader, once adviser to Kamala Harris, and currently president of Emily’s List, a scheme to get more Democratic pro-choice women elected. What kind of mad hubris, outrageous self-regard, would lead an ersatz princess and failed podcaster to think she was better suited to the role? Well, none, necessarily. Meghan occupies a peculiar place in the international media imagination, where they can say almost anything about her, stick in a few “sources say” and “speculations”, and their evergreen story is ready to go, a tale of the prideful wokerati, oversharing, overprivileged, hypocritical. She is like an avatar for the ultimate, in-your-grill liberal.

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