To Be or Not to Be…Woke

         Trump and his henchmen like to pretend they are defending us against “wokeness.” By wokeness they seem to mean “frivolous and un-American concern over questions like who has the right to access women’s restrooms.” This question might be debatable in public forums, but Trump’s followers don’t want to debate it. They want to marginalize anyone who considers it debatable. Their clamoring for hostility against what they call wokeness is energized by their portrayal of it as a threat to “traditional American values.” They consider it helpful that the term “woke” has its roots in African American slang. Trump is, after all, pro-bigotry, as are Ron DeSantis, J. D. Vance, Marco Rubio, and other Republicans who sidle up to Trump, anxious to feed on his table scraps.

“Woke,” as I understand it, originally meant “on guard against being ripped off.” This is a worthy American value, but its original meaning has been overshadowed, at least among the general public. Now, the right-wing, crypto-racist aspect of anti-wokeness has taken over. Its subtle connection to African American slang is useful to Trump, DeSantis, and others want to promote bigotry. I think those of us who believe in the best of America’s traditional values - like democracy, fair play, and the rule of law - would be well advised to emphasize the original sense of wokeness. We need to be on guard against getting ripped off and we need to make clear that is what we’re all about. “Ripped off” also has roots in African American slang, but it has become so widely popularized that Trumpians can’t easily use it as a crypto-racist dog whistle.

Which brings me to the American Eagle ad that talks about Sydney Sweeney’s “great jeans.” I think fighting over the crypto racism in this ad is a mistake, a mistake that the bigots are happy to exploit. The underlying idea that some genes are better than others and that a pretty white lass like Sydney Sweeney represents the best kind of genes (slyly referenced via “jeans”) is a racist idea. But it requires too much explanation to make its prejudicial aspect “in your face” obvious. I believe in the political maxim that says, “when you’re explaining, you’re losing.” So, while genuinely inclusive pro-American critics can make a fuss over the implicit racism in the ad, prominent bigots like J. D. Vance will make political hay by accusing these critics of being out of touch with the ordinary Americans. Let’s not let them get away with this.

I recommend that we keep the focus on the steady ripping off of ordinary Americans by Trump, Vance and their ilk. Let’s set aside the convoluted issues that can’t be summed up in a bumper sticker. Let’s fight simply, directly, and fiercely to protect our democracy from the billionaires who seek to profit from sabotaging it.

And now, a quick acknowledgment: I concur with the “when you’re explaining, you’re losing” principle, and yet I just spent a whole blog post explaining my position on wokeness. I felt that this was a special case. And I hope you, dear reader, can overlook my contradiction. But if you cannot, I will have to refer you to my team of attorneys. 

 

Sydney Sweeney, 2024 (Jay Dixit, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

 

Make America American Again

Happy Independence Day, everyone! But independence from what? The 1776 ideal highlighted independence from tyrannical bullying. Yet look at us now: we have a tyrannical bully in the White House who wants to rip apart America’s Deep Democracy, And he is backed up by a cabinet of sycophants who are anxious to bend to his whims. He also has help from spineless Republicans in Congress as well as the psychopathic liars at Fox News.

As a result, military units are arrayed against blameless citizens. Another result is federal agents seize and bully public officials who openly disagree with the president’s plan to undo our democracy. To me, it’s beginning to feel a lot like Russia around here.

And so, on this Independence Day, I want to suggest a few bumper-sticker type slogans in support of democracy.

1.      End Russian Style Crackdowns!

2.      Putin Hates Our Democracy!

3.      Keep the Oval Office Felon-free! (At least from now on)

4.      Families Yes! Concentration Camps No!

5.      Make America American Again

 What do you say, Fellow Citizens, is it about time we started getting our country back on track?

 

 

Americanism versus Fascism

As a student in Lakeland High School in the 1960s I was required to take a course on Americanism versus Communism. I didn’t mind the course, though it required that I get up an hour early and sit in an auditorium listening to a lecture by an ill-prepared teacher try to explain why American democracy was better than communism. And I still believe that it is. It is also better than Fascism, though we were not required to take an Americanism versus Fascism class. I think such a course should have been required.

Speaking of Communist authoritarianism, I believe it’s important to distinguish China’s authoritarian government from China’s people, about whom I have many happy memories form my time in that country. J. D. Vance doesn’t get this distinction as was shown by his recent insulting remarks against the Chinese. His comments were not only insulting, but also crude and stupid. On top of this, they served the Chinese government’s purpose by helping them promote the idea that American is an evil and dangerous enemy to China. My god, J. D., what were you thinking?

Back to my main point. Why isn’t Americanism versus Fascism taught in our schools? The short answer is that a lot of super-wealthy Americans with Fascist leanings would like us to remain ignorant about how they have slurped up so much of our nation’s wealth. They want to use this wealth to bend political leaders to their will. And do so at our expense. Understanding Fascism means understanding how Germany’s corporate interests lined up behind Hitler as he rose to power. That is something people like Trump and Musk want us to remain ignorant about.

The essence of Fascism is rule by those who use money and threats of violence to support selfish bullies. It is a simple formula, one used by ordinary thugs like Al Capone. How would it be to have someone with Capone’s character in the Oval Office? I’m afraid we are now finding that out.

 

  

Al Capone: Prototypical Fascistic Thug

Abraham Lincoln expressed the meaning of Americanism in his Gettysburg Address in which he embraced the ideal of a government “of, by, and for the people.” Not the rich people, not the white people, not the native-born people, but all the people. I believe Trump would try to ban Lincoln’s inspirational address because of its implicit DEI message. That is, if he ever read and understood it, neither of which is likely to be the case.

When Trump approached the vicinity of the Gettysburg battlefield during the 2020 campaign, he chose to focus not on Lincoln’s famous speech, but on his own bizarre misrepresentation of Pickett’s Charge, saying, “Never fight uphill, me boys.”  Like most fascists, Trump is not a fan of Lincoln nor of the ideals expressed in the Gettysburg Address. His approach to governance is like Al Capone’s approach to mob thuggery.  The only important thing is the power to force everyone to submit to the leader.

Fascism on a national scale is always strengthened when the leader can scare the populace by claiming that others – Haitians, Mexicans, immigrants, and so on – are “not like us” and therefore a threat to us.

Standing beside the thuggish Trump is Elon Musk, “the world’s creepiest billionaire.” His usefulness to Trump comes from his access to wealth and his control of a big chunk of social media. Fascists, like Communists, seek to control a nation’s media and its institutions of education as a way of convincing people that their outrageous lies are actually solid truths. Our nation is being led down a dark and undemocratic path by our Fascistic leaders. I’m not sure a course on Americanism versus Fascism could have prevented the rise of people like Trump and Musk, but I’m pretty sure it would have helped.

So, come on, Governor DeSantis, let’s let Florida take the lead in teaching Americanism versus Fascism in high school! Oh wait. Never mind. I forgot who I was talking to.