It seems ancient history, but do you remember when conservatives blew up about being told what to eat, drink, and smoke? In particular, New York City’s mayor Bloomberg’s public health campaign to combat obesity and heart disease. This included limits on trans fats in foods, calorie labelling on menus, restricting smoking in restaurants and public spaces, hiking cigarette taxes, even trying to ban large sugary drinks. Cries of excessive government intrusion into personal choice and freedoms were raised. His public health campaign was derided as the personification of the “Nanny State,” which Cambridge Dictionary defined as “a government that tries to give too much advice or make too many laws about how people should live their lives, especially about eating, smoking, and drinking alcohol.” Other definitions use ‘overprotective’ or ‘unduly interfering.’
In a great 2022 article in the Columbia Political Review, “The Nanny State: A Conservative Concern or a Misogynistic Myth,” Alannis Jaquez, cogently argues that it is a misogynistic myth, concluding “If conservative politicians continue to dismiss certain policies merely because they appear to feminine, effective policies will continue to be lost. It is only once we leave behind the language that connects the welfare state and paternalism to women and femininity that we will be able to extend beyond the limitations human prejudice poses in lawmaking.” I think she hit the spot, especially considering more recent history.
Unsurprisingly, during the last election cycle, conservatives went full boar (no not a misspelling) on the nanny state, not only doubling down on misogynistic attacks on female candidates, particularly Harris, but going full tilt into fetishes of spanking errant girls and inventing what could only be termed the “Daddy State.” How Epsteinian!
One only need recall Carlson Tucker’s introduction of candidate Trump at a political rally to understand the MAGA transformation into hypersexualized daddyism: “Dad comes home. He’s pissed. Dad is pissed. And when dad gets home, you know what he says? You have been a bad girl, and you’re getting a vigorous spanking because you have been a bad girl ….” This followed shouts of ‘daddy, daddy’ at the Republican national convention.
Fox News recently swooned over Trump’s “dad strength” following the NATO Secretary’s ill-conceived comment about ‘Daddy Trump.’ The White House even posted a video of Trump set to Usher’s sexualized “Daddy’s Home.” Check out some of the lyrics: “And I won’t knock, won’t ring no bells/You just float that bottom up in the air/I’ll get you hot, I know you, oh-so well/And when I walk in, all that I wanna hear.” Given the Epstein sex trafficking and statutory rape scandal enveloping Trump, one would think the White House would avoid such postings.
This is all about sex, gender, and Patriarchy. It is the main battleground in America’s culture wars. For the evangelical right, it is grounded in biblical interpretations of God’s word and the reestablishment male preeminence as head of the family and government. This is not new in American history. It brings to mind the brutalist treatment of women suffragettes and arguments made by Southern slave holders desperate to redefine slaves as members of a broad loving family lead by a benevolent father, as the abolitionist movement gained traction in the north.
To add complexity to this notion of patriarchy, MAGA Republicans have weirdly fetishized it, however. This does make some sense given conservativisms long voyeuristic angst with women’s sexuality and bodies, homophobia and transgender folks. If I were to define Daddyism it would be an American 21st century fetishized revival of patriarchy and male paternalism, white male paternalism in particular, of family and government.
When you study Trump’s mannerisms, his dictates, his threats, his attempts to discipline and punish errant children, and his followers’ fervent shouts of daddy, his governing style comes into focus. It is extreme paternalism, it is authoritarian. He is Pappa Don.
What galls me the most, however, is conservatives hypocrisy. They decry the so-called nanny state and an overbearing government, but welcome with open arms a patriarchal regime that wants to dictate practically everything in our daily lives, like a strong father is supposed to rule his family. I welcome the quaint old days when government was interested in my health, not my reading list, not my history books, not my kids gender identity, not my daughters or wife’s body.
