There are two primary dimensions going on the way Im thinking about it

1) The political theory or moral aspect, where you start deconstructing values like "primacy of the individual" and "being on time is white culture", and come to whatever conclusion

and 2) the political popularity aspect. With this one, it's not a popular issue for Ds, thus Rs are pushing it to the hilt

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This cannot be said of a wide variety of cultural issues that have come to the fore in Democratic party circles and have vigorous advocates within those circles and more broadly in Democratic-adjacent nonprofits, media and academic institutions. These cannot be said to be centrist in any sense of the term and are typically embraced by only a small percentage of voters overall and are not generally majoritarian even within the Democratic party itself.

That is because the center of gravity of American public opinion includes the following views and values, which are clearly at odds with causes embraced by a substantial sector of party activists and intellectual supporters:

Equality of opportunity is a fundamental American principle; equality of outcome is not.

America is not perfect but it is good to be patriotic and proud of the country.

Discrimination and racism are bad but they are not the cause of all disparities in American society.

No one is completely without bias but calling all white people racists who benefit from white privilege and American society a white supremacist society is not right or fair.

America benefits from the presence of immigrants and no immigrant, even if illegal, should be mistreated. But border security is still important, as is an enforceable system that fairly decides who can enter the country.

Police misconduct and brutality against people of any race is wrong and we need to reform police conduct and recruitment. More and better policing is needed for public safety and that cannot be provided by “defunding the police”.

There are underlying differences between men and women but discrimination on the basis of gender is wrong.

There are basically two genders but people who want to live as a gender different from their biological sex should have that right and not be discriminated against. However, there are issues around child consent to transitioning and participation in women’s sports that are complicated and not settled.

Racial achievement gaps are bad and we should seek to close them. However, they are not due just to racism and standards of high achievement should be maintained for people of all races.

Language policing has gone too far; by and large, people should be able to express their views without fear of sanction by employer, school, institution or government. Good faith should be assumed, not bad faith.

Given these views, given the very high probability that Republicans will continue to attack the Democratic party on the grounds they are deviating from and even contemptuous of these views and given the likelihood that party activists and intellectuals will continue to press causes that are largely antithetical to these views, the potential vulnerabilities for Democrats are obvious. This will act as a counterweight to Democrats’ attempt to dominate the political center and reap the dividends of successful economic management and benefit distribution.

Here are some areas where trouble for the Democrats could emerge.

* “Anti-racism” and “Anti-bias” training and education. The spread of training and curricular models that are highly ideological and counterposed to the views and values summarized above poses genuine problems. To the extent Democrats are viewed as promoting these models and making them standard within schools, workplaces and government offices, the party’s ability to occupy the center ground will be compromised.

* “Equity”-driven programs. So far, including in the American Rescue Plan, Democrats have been putting their chips down on universal programs and benefits, which disproportionately help blacks and Hispanics because they are disproportionately lower income. However, there is considerable pressure to promote “equity”, which has come to mean equality of outcomes rather than equality of opportunity. This has led to calls for racially-focused programs to eliminate outcome disparities, rather than relying on the provision of universal benefits and opportunities. To the extent Democrats becoming associated with equity in this sense, it also pushes them off the center ground.