How Republicans got their big government groove back
If it's enforcing things like gendered bathrooms, conservatives seem happy with government coercion


If there's one thing the fragmented Republican Party can still agree on, it's that government coercion is extremely bad. The whole conservative brand is about having the freedom to live one's life without being bothered by lots of pesky meddlesome bureaucrats.
It's an appealing notion. But it's also fiction. Conservatives, like all political tribes, are big fans of government coercion when it produces results they like. A decade ago, their favorite coercive policy was gay marriage bans, which they pushed with remarkable, though temporary, success. Now that battle has been lost, and the bleeding edge of civil liberties expansions has moved to transgender rights. Conservatives have responded as usual with coercive government policy.
I'm referring, of course, to the recent North Carolina state law mandating that all schools and public agencies have gender-segregated bathrooms, banning transgender people from using the bathroom of their gender identity, and preempting several local anti-discrimination statutes which included transgender people as a protected class. Seven other states are considering similar laws.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The motivation here is obvious enough: Conservatives think transgender people are deviant, and so they should be prevented from gaining social status and broad respect. Some of them, like Ben Shapiro and Ted Cruz, seem obsessed with the prospect of "large men" peeing in the same room as girls to a frankly rather unhealthy degree (though of course such a description is itself wrong and transphobic). Nothing so surprising about that. Birds fly, cows go moo, and conservative politicians are weird about sex and gender.
But it's also a revealing instance of how conservatives actually use the state when they have the run of it.
Typically the conservative policy frame is at least nominally organized around "negative liberty," the idea that everyone should be left to their own devices as much as possible. Taxes should be low, regulations should be few, and nobody should be "forced" to do anything to which they don't freely agree.
One would think that for such a politics, the status of personal characteristics like gender ought to be given at least a respectful hearing. But no, conservatives reacted to the transgender movement with fear and disgust, and ran to the state to give their narrow vision of Approved Society the stamp of law.
So long as they are in charge, Republicans are happy to mobilize the police to enforce their ideas about which individuals should be using which bathroom. Only in a few years, when the tide begins to flow the other way, will they start moaning piteously about their own tribe being forced to accommodate transgender people.
At any rate, it seems virtually inevitable that transgender people, like gays before them, will eventually win their struggle for rights and recognition, and conservatives will be left with yet another culture war loss to stew about. I'd even guess that the whole idea of gendered bathrooms will go the way of the dinosaurs in about 10 to 15 years. A couple decades after that, conservative writers will pen goofy revisionist histories about how actually, liberals were the enemies of transgender rights. They could skip to the end of this process, and just let transgender people peacefully join society, but I wouldn't bet on it.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.
-
Kill the Boer: Elon Musk and the anti-apartheid song
Under the radar Billionaire reignites controversy by linking South African 'struggle song' to 'white genocide'
By Elizabeth Carr-Ellis, The Week UK Published
-
Critics’ choice: Restaurants worthy of their buzz
feature A fun bistro, a reservation worth the wait, and a modern twist on Mexican dishes
By The Week US Published
-
Film reviews: Snow White, Death of a Unicorn, and The Alto Knights
Feature A makeover for Disney’s first animated feature, greedy humans earn nature’s wrath, and a feud between crime bosses rattles the mob
By The Week US Published
-
The JFK files: the truth at last?
In The Spotlight More than 64,000 previously classified documents relating the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy have been released by the Trump administration
By The Week Staff Published
-
'Seriously, not literally': how should the world take Donald Trump?
Today's big question White House rhetoric and reality look likely to become increasingly blurred
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Will Trump's 'madman' strategy pay off?
Today's Big Question Incoming US president likes to seem unpredictable but, this time round, world leaders could be wise to his playbook
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Democrats vs. Republicans: who are the billionaires backing?
The Explainer Younger tech titans join 'boys' club throwing money and support' behind President Trump, while older plutocrats quietly rebuke new administration
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
US election: where things stand with one week to go
The Explainer Harris' lead in the polls has been narrowing in Trump's favour, but her campaign remains 'cautiously optimistic'
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Is Trump okay?
Today's Big Question Former president's mental fitness and alleged cognitive decline firmly back in the spotlight after 'bizarre' town hall event
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
The life and times of Kamala Harris
The Explainer The vice-president is narrowly leading the race to become the next US president. How did she get to where she is now?
By The Week UK Published
-
Will 'weirdly civil' VP debate move dial in US election?
Today's Big Question 'Diametrically opposed' candidates showed 'a lot of commonality' on some issues, but offered competing visions for America's future and democracy
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published