The Age of Un-Enlightenment
Lauren Boebert says she will never go woke.
Elon Musk calls a union dispute at the New York Times ‘woke vs. woke’.
Dude-bro podcasters and self-referential comics print cash complaining about political correctness.
Republican campaign speeches often close with the obligatory snark of a comment about pronouns.
Sensibility itself often seems under attack and one cannot help but think this is all by design.
The assault on our arts and humanities became a theme in the GOP ecosphere beginning in the Reagan Administration.
Which is ironic since the former actor’s leadership skills and fitness for office were themselves a theatrical construct and more akin to showmanship than substance.
An archetypal caricature of what it meant to be a ‘real American’ mixed with snarling contempt for anyone who didn’t fit into a narrowly defined image of what it meant to be a patriot.
The war on ‘the other’ that began with the war on the arts and the dulling of the sensitivities of a few generations of mostly white, mostly suburban and rural citizens was deliberate and well planned.
Make no mistake about the conservative strategy that is bearing fruit now, it leaves a bitter taste in the mouth of anyone with a palate for equanimity.
The subtextual racism that Reagan laced into his rhetoric was real though, as was his war on the poor, and his turning his back on gay men at the onset of the AIDS crisis in America.
The rewriting of history in places like Florida under Ron DeSantis along with his ‘anti-woke’ GOP initiatives; cynical candidates like Herschel Walker, along with rampant voter suppression, are more links in a long chain of ugly stunts designed to shackle the freedoms of any Americans the Republicans now treat as ‘the other’.
These ‘others’ somehow seen as not as deserving of the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, as those born under the baleful moon of whiteness.
Just look at how the GOP/MAGA universe reacted to the release of Brittney Griner earlier this week. If ever there was an event that should be universally applauded by the national punditry it should be the release of an unjustly imprisoned American athlete being held by our historical adversary.
Yet within minutes of the good news, the Right reacted with thinly veiled racist and homophobic slurs decrying Griner’s release as unjust since a white marine (who had been dishonorably discharged and court-martialed by his own government) was still being held in a Russian prison.
As if Biden’s administration had a choice and chose one over the other (they did not and efforts are still under way to free the later) but the instant framing of this an unequal negotiation had its intended effect on the MAGA psyche.
The message rang out that somehow a black lesbian athlete deserved her sentence because she ‘hated America’.
These lies were spewed by the former President’s drug-addled, eldest son and repeated throughout the week - taking their awful rhetoric to a new low, as almost a churlish pay back for the drubbing they took in Georgia where their last Senate candidate, and Trump’s personal candidate lost (though not by the margin he deserved to lose by given his complete unfitness to hold elected office).
As the brilliant Joy Reid pointed out on election night in Georgia this past Tuesday, the laws that Governor Kemp put into effect concerning voter access to the polls were essentially Jim Crow 2.0 when it came to black voters.
Senator Warnock in essence had to run and win his seat twice - despite his being a most qualified and excellent public servant. Compare him with the handpicked-by-Kemp, Kelly Loeffler, who was appointed to her seat and spent her time insider-trading and spreading COVID disinformation for Trump.
Kelly Loeffler herself was a recent owner of the WNBA team the Atlanta Dream, whose own players protested the former Senator’s rhetorical attacks on the Black Lives Matter movement, eventually forcing Loeffler to sell the team - worth mentioning in light of Brittney Griner’s release and the vocal efforts of the WNBA and NBA in bringing Griner home - by bringing her plight to prominence and keeping it there until her release earlier this week.
But that is the unjust system the Right is fighting to protect.
In the GOP, a white man can pick venal, mediocre and unqualified candidates as long as they participate in the ‘good old boy’ racism that still exists in the South and seems to be metastasizing throughout the United States.
One can see the Confederate flag flying proudly in places like Michigan and Pennsylvania these days, proving not only that irony is dead but white supremacy and ignorance are increasing their market share.
How many Senator Warnocks have we been denied in the last century or so due the prevailing institutions of racism?
When excellence is suppressed and fairly seeking higher office is denied to a portion of our population based on race we all suffer for it in the end.
Republicans love to use the analogy and allure of big business when touting their candidates.
Think of a company that failed to hire the most qualified and skilled employees for no other reason than to protect the ignorance and repugnant heritage of its corrupt CEO.
Would that be seen by any objective outsider as a venture destined for prosperity and adaptability in a rapidly changing world - or would it viewed be as one that is stunted, hobbled and blind to its own limitations and mediocrity?
A case can be made that as long as we allow racism to dictate the terms, editing the chapters of the American story, we will never know our nation’s true potential.
Jim Crow laws and their modern echoes have the effect of institutionalizing racism: their effect was to subjugate and punish black Americans but the result was it made victims as well of anyone who cherishes humanity and freedom, and sees human progress as the true goal of a democracy.
We all benefit from diversity and equal representation - many of the things this country prides itself on in matters of culture, commerce and the academic fields are a direct result of black excellence.
This is not a position I will move from nor will I allow it to be framed as pandering by those in opposition to progress.
In my own life and experience I know it to be a fact.
Trump knew the moment he had to lock his supporters in the ballroom at Mar-a-Lago - midway through his most recent campaign announcement speech - that his campaign was doomed.
So he will decide to double down on the stochastic terrorism side of his operation.
He will stoke fears and resentments, and encourage his followers to attack their fellow Americans.
A more dangerous and destructive man has never existed in the national political landscape.
This strategy will be repeated by Ron DeSantis and others in the GOP crowd looking to duplicate and expand upon the MAGA lurch toward authoritarianism and kleptocracy - in place of an actual democracy.
They will be cheered on by chaos agents and grifters, the narcissistic and venal.
Much like Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who did her best to throw a Molotov cocktail back into mix and upend a very successful week for President Biden by declaring herself no longer a Democrat on Friday morning, essentially taking away the brief but satisfying 51-50 majority.
Elon Musk tweeted very early Sunday morning that his pronouns were ‘Prosecute/Fauci': Dr. Anthony Fauci, a man who should only be viewed as an American hero given his lifetime of service to this nation and the health of its citizens.
Not to mention his steady and compassionate leadership during one of the darkest hours of the pandemic, one in which Trump essentially behaved like a circus clown not a president.
A serious man does not call for the prosecution of Dr. Fauci. That is the work of a chaos agent and a coward.
There are many insurgents in our mix now - a good way to spot them is when they say the word ‘woke’ as something to fear instead of the way it should be heard, as something to aspire to and work towards.
Much like freedom itself.
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Hey Noel, post your home address! Don't worry it's publicly available information. It will be used for good!