Political bystanders might wonder why culture war debates have picked up with increasing speed and ferocity over the past few years. The answer danced its way across the CMT Music Awards stage last night.

During her performance at the awards ceremony on Sunday, country artist Kelsea Ballerini was joined by several drag queens onstage, which was lit up with pride colors and the transgender flag. The display followed a tribute Ballerini offered to the victims of the Nashville, Tennessee, school shooting by a transgender shooter.

The connection between the tribute and the performance was obvious to those who have been paying attention to the media’s coverage of the Nashville shooting: The Left is convinced that the “trans community” is the real group of victims since the shooter identified as trans and conservatives had the audacity to point that out.

Ballerini’s performance was also certainly meant to be a response to recent legislation in conservative states, such as Arkansas and Tennessee, restricting inappropriate “adult cabaret performances” in the presence of children. It is apparently unthinkable to Ballerini and the CMT executives who approved her performance that a good chunk of the public would want to shield children from inappropriate displays of obscenity.

However, it certainly was not lost on either Ballerini or CMT that many of the people who support laws such as Tennessee’s are the same people who listen to country music and even tune into country music awards programs. Indeed, that was the entire point. The Left is determined to force its values onto every segment of the population, especially those segments that disagree.

Consider another example. This weekend, Bud Light revealed it was partnering with Dylan Mulvaney, a man who achieved viral fame after deciding he was a girl and documented the first year of his “transition.” Mulvaney is hardly the kind of figure who appeals to the Bud Light-drinking customer base. But again, Bud Light knows that. Its goal is to take advantage of the cultural space it occupies, which has historically been among blue-collar workers, and flood it with woke values that its customers would otherwise reject.

This is why the culture war began in the first place. It is impossible to keep up a “live and let live” philosophy when a militant and very influential political group relentlessly demands the celebration of its values — values that grow more perverted and more at odds with the public with each passing year.

The Left demands tolerance and acceptance but is always the first to deny that same respect to those who think differently. They will harass and berate everyone into submission by making sure that no stone is unturned, no corner of society untouched by their malign influence. Corporate boardrooms, public school classrooms, television shows, and hell, even grocery store aisles have been transformed into nauseating advertisements for woke-ism.

What other response is there than to fight back aggressively?