The Obama era delivered rapid measured gains in cultural cosmopolitanism and inclusion.

Evidence

Yet, outside the gridlock of formal politics, the overall culture seemed to shift decisively toward cosmopolitan values. Obama’s presidency repaired America’s global image: In 2016, confidence in the US president “to do the right thing” surged to 86 percent in Germany and 84 percent in France. Domestically, the Obama years saw dramatic progress in racial and sexual inclusion. In 2011, a majority of Americans supported legal same-sex unions, culminating in the Supreme Court’s landmark 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges that enshrined marriage equality. Transgender visibility also increased, with Caitlyn Jenner’s public transition receiving widespread support. In 2015, Jenner followed Kimye’s Vogue cover by appearing on the cover of Vanity Fair. By 2016, one third of Americans identified as “socially liberal,” the highest percentage ever recorded, while the political power of the religious right waned alongside rising secularization. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 410

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘one third socially liberal, highest ever recorded’ and waning religious right set the factual baseline against which Marx’s later thesis that progressivism was culture but not structure collapses; connects to the Frankfurt School analyses of how cultural ‘inclusion’ can mask unchanged material hierarchy.