Woke Got What It Wanted—and Then What?

[davidp]

Woke Got What It Wanted—and Then What?
Of the collapse of the woke appeal, perhaps we could say,
“It couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of zealots.”
By Victor Davis Hanson, Dec. 8, 2021

The woke movement was giddy after Jan 20, 2021. The Left
controlled both houses of Congress. Joe Biden was drafted as
the necessary veneer of 1980s Democratic normality to ram thru
an otherwise hard Left agenda. All the major cultural, financial,

economic, entertainment, and media institutions had played
various roles in seeing Trump not just defeated, but also
impeached twice. He was written off as persona non grata
after the January 6 riot at the Capitol.

So, academia, the corporate boardroom, Hollywood, the media,
the Pentagon, professional sports, Silicon Valley, and Wall
Street in near hysterical fashion all boarded the woke train.
All now boasted of ferreting out “white rage,” and hiring legions
of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” czars. Critical race theory
would be mainstreamed to excise racism and discrimination by
embracing racism and discrimination.

“Crime” was to be seen now mostly as a construct created by
the elite to protect their own privilege, prerogatives, and
property. Shoplifting, looting, and street thuggery were just
part of living in a normal city.

Social justice warriors could replace defunded police. Gone
would be most bail, incarceration, mandatory jail time, stop-
and-frisk, and broken-windows deterrent policies.

Green agendas would fundamentally transform America to put an
immediate stop to man-made “climate change.” So, lots of oil
& gas leases were either canceled or their fees vastly increased.

Pipelines were stopped. Gas and oil companies were warned that
everything from lack of financing to new regulations would put
them soon out of business. The golden age of wind and batteries
was already upon us.

Modern monetary theorists assured us that printing money “spread
the wealth”— devaluing the cash of undeserving capitalists who
had too much and implanting it in the hands of the needy who
unfairly had too little.

To the extent inflation followed, it would be a good thing—a
sign of a newly empowered robust consumer class too long denied
“equity.”

COVID was virtually over. We were assured by Joe Biden that
Trump had killed over 350,000 Americans by his lax policies.

In contrast, Biden would soberly vaccinate us all, claiming
its efficacy as his own. He would predict victory over the
virus by the Fourth of July. The Delta variant was still then
just an obscure rumor from abroad.

The border would be opened—and stay open. No more walls. As
citizens of the world, the Left welcomed in 2 million, arriving
illegally without audit or vaccinations in time of a pandemic.

As the woke drove terrified old liberal Democrats into hiding,
all the old wisdom about human nature vanished.

Forget that criminals hurt the poor the most. Discard the
quaint idea of Martin Luther King, Jr. that our character not
our color determines who we are. Ignore the passé idea that
inflation eats away at the wages of the working class.

We could always resume the quarantines, lockdowns, & shutdowns
that made Amazon, Target, Walmart, and other conglomerates
hundreds of billions in profits, while the mom-and-pop small
businesses went broke.

So, what did the people conclude 10 months out from the
Woke getting their wishes?

The polls reveal that voters don’t like open borders at all.
They disapprove of illegal immigration as much they support
legal immigrants. They worry about crime and drugs. They don’t
want the unvetted & unvaccinated flowing across their open border.

The people want cheaper, not pricier gas. They prefer American
energy self-sufficiency. Why, with cup in hand, go begging to
Saudi Arabia and Russia to pump more supposedly Satanic oil?

The people like the police and hate crime. Even the rich among
the woke are now scared—some of whom sowed the wind of
decriminalization and are themselves reaping the whirlwind of crime.

Most voters care less about our color, but far more about our
character. They think a meritocracy, not quotas and tribal
chauvinism, explains the exceptional American standard of life.
They despise inflation as much as recession—and fear they
may now get both soon.

Freedom-loving individuals don’t like cancel culture, ostracism,
iconoclasm, Trotskyization, and commissars. They prefer free
speech. They treasure the Bill of Rights.

So, in just 10 months the Left got what it wanted. And the
people are becoming not just sick of what has followed, but
disgusted. They are terrified that the Left is not just failing,
but also wrecking the country and them along with it.

The ages have left us adages for the people’s growing anger
at the hubristic and now unpopular Left.

We know the ancient warnings variously as, “What comes around,
goes around,” “You reap what you sow,” “Be careful about what
you wish for,” and “The law of unintended consequences.”

Words like “nemesis and “karma” also come to mind. But of the
collapse of the woke appeal, perhaps we could say, “It couldn’t
happen to a nicer bunch of zealots.”

https://amgreatness.com/2021/12/08/woke-got-what-it-wanted-and-then-what/