Lodged in the farthest corner of my closet, I uncovered a dusty but well-preserved copy of the December 2008 issue of Rolling Stone. It’s a time capsule into a by-gone era that wasn’t too long ago. The cover features a giggling Britney Spears and a headline that plays on the Obama campaign slogan: “Yes She Can!”
The self-diagnosed ‘Hot Issue!’ advertises stories about Twilight’s sexy vampires, Gossip Girls’ sensational actresses, and countless glossy photos of rock stars. There is a list of the best DVDs of the year and a photo of Kid Rock toasting champagne with Snoop Dogg and Taylor Swift. There are write-ups for The Sopranos and Mad Men, think pieces about Russell Brand, and advertisements for CD box sets.
This 2008 copy of Rolling Stone reads like one of the last vestiges of American culture. It features many of the same stars we still fawn over, praises many of the same shows and albums that are endlessly re-played, and advertises tours for the same musicians who are still drawing crowds today. In the 18 years since this issue went to print, we haven’t moved past the celebrities and art that dominated the early Obama years. We have become culturally stuck. The creative output of our nation has stalled out, forcing many artists to cyclically return to old intellectual property with endless remakes and reboots. As Matt Walsh once pointed out, “We’ve been on a cultural, political, and intellectual decline ever since” Obama won.
Despite all of the correct analysis over our stuck culture, there is one section of Rolling Stone that has changed dramatically: its political coverage. Like most mainstream publications, RS has always leaned left, famously criticizing Richard Nixon and both of the Bush presidencies. However, there’s still a noticeable change between 2008 and the present day. In the first of two political pieces, Matt Taibbi analyzes the lengthy recount of Al Franken’s race in Minnesota. His analysis of the campaign is fair and factual, with him reaching out to both sides of the at-the-time hotly contested race, while offering commentary that is witty without being nasty.
In the second political piece, Tim Dickinson bemoans how California voters passed Proposition 8 by a four-point margin, banning gay marriage statewide. In that same election, California voters broke for Democrat Presidential candidate Barack Obama by twenty-four points over his Republican adversary. At the time, it was the largest margin for any candidate since 1936. The same voting base that carried Obama to victory in 2008 also largely rejected the legalization of gay marriage. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, considering that Obama’s running mate, future President Joe Biden, stated during a televised debate that “Barack Obama nor I support redefining from a civil side what constitutes marriage.” The Democrat party of 2008 openly disavowed gay marriage.
Dickinson has since become the Senior Politics Writer at Rolling Stone. His criticism against the passage of Prop. 8 seems mild compared to some of his recent articles. Like many mainstream reporters, he has become obsessed with Trump. He has claimed that Trump used ICE to kidnap people, has claimed that Trump’s cuts to global health aid will “kill millions of people”, and published a Guide to Trump’s Fascist Presidency. When Trump signed an executive order preventing the federal government from recognizing individuals as transgender, Dickinson lamented that this would prevent prisoners from receiving federally-funded transitional surgeries. He framed it as an attack on “The reality of transgender individuals.”
In comparison to the political pieces published by RS in 2008, the current bevy of political writing seems extremely radical. The liberal-but-fair journalism of the magazine’s past has been replaced by seething rage and endless fear mongering. While they were once able to engage in thoughtful discourse between parties, they have now succumbed to linking Republicans with Nazis, fascists, and criminals in an attempt to sow the seeds of hatred.
Rolling Stone isn’t the only magazine that has become increasingly radicalized, but their shift feels particularly poignant considering that they were primarily seen as a culture-and-arts publication. Unfortunately, this tracks, as our entire culture has become more political and more extremist. The Democrat Party has spent the past two decades pushing farther and farther to the left. The shift in the legality of gay marriage is a clear example: It went from being voted down in the liberal stronghold of California during Obama’s first term to being nationally permitted during Obama’s second term.
Britney Spears, Kid Rock, and Russell Brand are all still making headlines in 2026. Our pop culture has stalled, but our political culture has ramped up. Social media has accelerated our news cycle, which has placed politics at the forefront of culture. The old copy of Rolling Stone is a relic that lays out how we have regressed artistically and accelerated politically. For a culture that is stuck, we certainly have managed to spiral out of control. Perhaps America is something of a rolling stone itself.
