Photo Credit | Gage Skidmore
There were many reasons that President-elect Donald Trump won in such a resounding victory this week: inflation, the bewildering open border policy, the Afghanistan withdrawal humiliation, the world on fire, etc. But let’s not forget one of the top ones: This was a resounding defeat of wokeism.
Voters have rejected wokeism—defined here as an unhealthy obsession with viewing all of life as a struggle between oppressors and oppressed, or, as the woke would put it, being “awake” to the misfortunes of the marginalized.
This would still have been true even if Vice President Kamala Harris had won.
Throughout her long public career, the vice president has embraced all the woke nostrums. She was particularly adept at describing equity—the government and the private sector treating Americans differently depending on their race—and how it is different from equality.
“So, there’s a big difference between equality and equity,” she voices over in a 2020 animated video. “Equitable treatment means we all end up at the same place.”
President Joe Biden spoke the word “equity” constantly, but he struggled with it, at times starting to say “equality” before catching himself. And he never described or defined in any way the thinking behind it—probably because he lacked the knowledge.
Harris, however, completely abandoned her views during the three months she ran for president, and the media, of course, never held her accountable.
This was a tacit admission that she understood how much the country hated the use of race to justify dismantling society or the promotion of the idea that the United States is systemically racist. Voters also happen to disagree with allowing males to use women’s bathrooms and allowing minors to surgically or chemically castrate themselves or remove other healthy body parts.
It is, of course, an open question whether Harris’ sudden march to the center on these issues was a political ruse and whether she would have turned around and promoted these policies once elected.
But Trump was elected and will now be our 47th president. And we know from his time in office that he is anti-woke in word and in deed. He will take measures against this ideology—as he did in his first term with his ban of so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion trainings in the government workforce and government contractors.
And there is so much to do in his second term.
An anti-woke agenda would comprise clawing back the cultural institutions that the Left has penetrated and subverted for decades now.
This Left long ago abandoned doing things frontally, such as launching bloody revolutions, and has opted instead for infiltration and indoctrination.
Of course, as we saw with the 2020 riots instigated by the Marxist-trained founders of Black Lives Matter, this Left will also opportunistically launch street violence when it thinks it can deliver a knockout blow against society.
But violent action must be preceded by, and act in tandem with, capturing K-12 school systems, so “educators” can weave Marxist programming into standards and even curricula. It must accompany the complete takeover of the university, where many departments no longer have a single conservative, and the takeover of museums by curators and administrators who are busy “decolonizing” our cultural institutions.
So the anti-woke agenda must prioritize doing everything possible to ensure that universities can no longer compel speech, whether it is forcing students or faculty members to express or affirm the falsehood that America is “systemically racist” or to break the rules of grammar by referring to a male as “she” or “they.”
Of course, Trump must also reinstitute the ban on DEI in the government force and contractors.
Another measure that must be part of the package is taking back control of public museums and restoring them to their original mandate of increasing and diffusing knowledge and away from efforts to become a change agent that seeks to deconstruct society.
And because the lifeblood of identity politics, one of the central aspects of wokeism, are the racial categories that the Left has painstakingly created in the past five decades, the new administration would also do well to eliminate these groups from government paperwork.
Lastly, if this election has taught us anything, it’s that the Left has captured legacy media, whose bias in this election was unrelenting.
There is little the government can do about ABC News, CBS News, etc. as long as they don’t violate their license, but NPR and PBS have violated the public trust with their extreme and biased coverage of this election. They are subsidized by the taxpayer, conservatives and liberals, through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
It’s high time to yank those subsidies. The defeat of wokeism requires it.
Mike Gonzalez is the Angeles T. Arredondo E Pluribus Unum Senior Fellow in the Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at The Heritage Foundation.
Reprinted with Permission from The Daily Signal – By Mike Gonzalez
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
Misleading headline! Their agenda hasn’t DIED. They take two steps forward and one back but still head toward their goal of crushing America! “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” We CANNOT lie back and think everything is all right now! The traitors will keep attacking after they rest and catch their breaths.
A beautiful and informative article that is in line with our conservative thoughts. We pray for God to keep blessing Trump with wisdom to tackle & realign all the dangerous path the Democrats has led our country. To these we pray O Lord. Amen.
In order to accomplish all that is needed, we must demand republicans do what we voted for, and rinos be held accountable if they refuse to do the will of the people. IMO
Just because its dawn and Dracula went back to sleep thru the day in his coffin doesnt mean hes dead. We need to at least nail the lid shut. The leaders of the left never give up because they’re captured by evil. Even tho this has been a tremendous victory, we must not go back to sleep as many did in the 80s with Reagan at the helm. Four yrs after his second term clinton was elected. The left isn’t accepting defeat and never will.
The left has an agenda and a plan leading to socialism and eventually, communism. They will not give up. We must constantly be vigilant.
Hey Paul E, have heard or read about the new scheme that the Demos are dreaming up to do with Kamala — Get a Left US Supreme Court Justice to retire then nominate Kamala to be the replacement for that open seat and all that is needed is a simple majority from the Senate to put her in that position. Scary for someone as illiterate as KH is. Your thoughts?
I am extremely pleased with the outcome of the 2024 Presidential election and the improvement of our House of Representatives and the Senate conservative numbers.
While the election results are certainly good news, the Left will never give up its quest for power and total control.
Excellent article. Go WOKE, Go BROKE.
Well said. I’ve echoed much the same message here for years. This is a long-term effort that will ultimately take at least a couple of decades or more to ensure we’ve swept the last remnants of their corrupt ideology from the system.
The Left has been dealt an extreme setback, but by no means are they either gone or likely to change their agenda and goals anytime soon. They are currently just in momentary shock, as they try to fathom why their coordinated efforts, on multiple fronts, didn’t result in yet another useful idiot, leftist puppet being installed in the White House to finish the job. That state of disarray won’t last long on their side, as they are already formulating several approaches to try and obstruct and undermine the Trump administration before it is even in office. Eternal vigilance and the courage to stand up to whatever the Left throws our way is indeed needed by everyone on our side to prevent any backsliding towards the disaster we’ve just narrowly forestalled.
Beware the calls, some coming from bad players on our side, for what is being called compromise (the Left is looking for points of weakness that they can exploit to get back into control again) of our ideals and agenda with the Left. That is how, over the decades, that we ended up at the ragged edge of nearly losing this country completely.
I guess the one speaker about harris must like high inflation, everything costing 20 to 30 percent more and lots of illegals along with higher crime must be in an institution or still on the illegal drugs coming into the country. It truly amazes me that people can’t look at all that’s going on for what it is. Haven’t these people read some of the reports stating most Democrats suffer from depression and should get help.
It is like whack a mole. The devil is the master of deception. They’ll be back in a different form. The Democrat Party is a master of deception and is the epitome of evil. You’re kidding yourself if you think they are gone
Regarding Gage’s argument on “oppressors vs. oppressed”, I keep seeing the dark motivations of the left originating, in large part, from jealousy and spite… mainly directed at ordinary people who make a good enough living to live in somewhat bigger houses, drive somewhat fancier cars, and, occasionally, go on nice vacations. Of course, the price paid for those luxuries, in terms of work hours per year, work stress, related time spent on professional, continuing education, work travel, “all-nighter” work sessions, etc., is pretty steep (having “been there” myself, including having financed my own education by working through college). Call me heartless, I don’t feel “wrong” in NOT voting for national leadership that buys “democrats” votes with what should have been my Social Security money… that I already paid into the system… AND lost the interest on. Though there are other issues that the “democrats” mismanage horribly, I’ll save the for later…
Wokeness breeds weakness
That’s why President Reagan said we must stay vigilant and fight for the rights and freedoms promised in the Constitution because we can lose it all within one generation…maybe even with the next election. Trump won decisively, so, as long as he and his administration can stay on track, a large majority of Americans will be “retrained” to value the common sense policies that make America great. I hope this will forever relegate the Marxist and ridiculous woke and DEI principles to the trash heap of failed thought.
Thanks for your service.
I’d send the woke agenda a sympathy card but the stores are closed. Due to lack of sympathy. ????
LT Beale, you are correct, the enemy will never stop. They will find a way for an end run.
Their “woke agenda” is disgusting and in my opinion is just one of the ways they are trying to divide people and cause chaos in our nation. I still have never heard anyone state that one of the main reasons they lost was the way they have treated we citizens for the last 4 years. They act as if we are a bunch of totally ignorant, uneducated, unclean rabble. Hillary called us “the deplorables” and Biden called us garbage!!! They have worked to drive a wedge between children and their parents yet they call us evil! They seem to forget that WE are paying their salaries and they have spent our money on their evil acts. There truly is good and evil in this world and the so-called “progressives” are beyond evil. God has shown the country that evil does not win out in the end!!
Don’t be naive! Of course the woke left will try again, presumably with the same results. Only if intelligent moderates resume leadership of the Democratic Party do they stand much chance of becoming relevant again.
Education has been destroyed with DEI and brainwashing our children into trans. To destroy and depopulate America. Merit has to return in hiring. Including teachers and professors. Smart students should be advanced and not be held back to the level of students less capable of learning. The whole WOKE movement was nothing more than to make zombies out of the people. Docile little lambs that would obey and follow the dems anywhere. With Trump we are once again the America that was admired and looked up to. The past 4 years has seen the destruction of our inner cities. Proud boys were called out for their policies BLM destroyed whatever policy they had which was destroy the inner cities and those in charge of BLM became millionaires. Sounds familiar? Harris paid millions of dollars to billionaires and millionaires to endorse her. And now they are 20 million in debt. Trump offered to pay that debt. Ironic how fast the dems have fallen. But even with a billion dollars in campaign funds they could not win. They should have given every American a couple of thousand dollar instead of buying endorsements from the elite. Nobody cares if Gaga or Clooney endorsed her. We have brains to figure it out for ourselves. The Hollywood elite is no smarter than the average voter. They are even smarter I think.
I can’t agree more that NPR (No Point Relevant) needs to lose the tax payer umbilical cord. If they hate America SO bad, they need to support themselves.
To me that means you don’t give money to Kamala to help pay for her campaign expenses. Trump has suggested doing that in the name of “unity “ ????
I dunno but I can’t help wondering why everything costs so much today but cocaine still costs the same as it did in 1982.
NO, it didn’t….. it just crawled under a rock for a while and like ALL democrat policies, it will rebrand itself and resurface again at a later date.
I”m not so sure anything has died yet. From what I’ve read/heard, it sounds like the Dimms are making sure that enough of their candidates win in the House, so that Republicans do not have a majority. That will make a huge difference to Trump’s agenda.
Agreed, but nice to see this public rebuke of the leftist agenda. Keep praying for God’s grace and mercy on this nation and our newly elected president.
I’m not hearing the real reason I voted for the President. I like a two party government. Not a One Party government, that those 10 to 15 million New Democrat voters represent. Right, the Illegal Migrants Coup! The VP wanted a quicker road to citizenship. Well, she and the Dems wanted a One Party Government. And, to pack the Supreme Court, thereby change our government forever!
D E I has D I E D. Thank God.
Thank GOD America woke up (no pun intended) from this nightmare we’ve been living through and FINALLY voted correctly and decisively!!!!! Bravo!!!!!
I would love to think you are right, but the dim Dems will never give up. I refuse to bow to a WOKE agenda and I think it will take all of us refusing to bow. President Trump has his work cut out for him, and I, for one, will support everything he does to dismantle the WOKE agenda once and for all!!
The inclusion of museums was interesting and true. My wife and I went to Colonial Williamsburg a couple years ago and on one tour, led by a former college professor, she had to keep interjecting her false opinions on modern times and how woman don’t have rights. We wanted to hear about the “colonial” period and not her biased opinions on modern times. It ruined it for us. Why do libtards have to interject their politics into everything (rhetorical question)?
As a baby boomer … and a conservative, the left is afraid, that with the rise of Trump and conservative policies, that homosexuals will be the enemy. That men will figuratively beat women down, some even think that we will diminish the value of other races. It took many races to put Trump into office … and takes an equality of races to make America Strong, as it takes strong MEN and strong WOMEN to make the parental backbone of America strong. I was angry at the homosexual trend, as they didn’t want to be accepted, they wanted to shove their standards down the throats of heterosexuals … be more than equal. Personally I have no issues with gay marriage … why shouldn’t gays and lesbians be as miserable as the majority of humans on this planet. I draw the line at adoption … as children learn by example. But I don’t want to see homosexuals punished for their concepts. I don’t have issues with immigration. I do have issues with ILLEGAL immigration, and countries sending their most vile criminals to America to disrupt and break America.
Our government is so close to breaking, and with it’s break, goes our republic, the UNITED states of America. It needs fixing, and Trump is the only man who has stepped up and said that he wants the job, and I truly think with some help, can fix what ails us, and make America Great Again.
But it can’t be done in a twisted woke manner … that has been proved over the last two democrat administrations. It is popular to a very small sample of Americans.
You completely missed “wokeism” in the Military. Please write about this in a future report. Thanks!
I’m glad D.E.I. is getting kicked to the curb, it was nothing but racist not to look racist. This country was on the way to complete destruction, thank God the assassin is gone and not our president, a very close call. In my lifetime there was two great presidents Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan. And the two worse presidents Jimmy Carter and Joe Biden but President carter was a saint and a genius compared to Joe Biden. This country has been saved from intentional Marxism with deliberate destruction in mind. Tear down the past and start anew, despicable and failed ideology. I know our president will do an excellent job as being president as he has done like his first term. But you would never think it with all the communist propaganda from the controlled news media. Thank God common sense has prevailed as a majority of this nation. Instead of getting all those so called democratic votes by our current leading immigrant invasion we have allowed this country to be infiltrated by terrorists, criminals, murderers etc. With Donald Trump as president we can now have some confidence in aborting these potential threats to our country. Hopefully this country will be able to disintegrate the wars that the democrat party has ignited so we can live in peace again along with our allies eventually before it has the potential to lead to nuclear destruction by the ignorance of malice leaderships and dictatorships.
Just make sure the term “Yanking” is used when describing cutting federal funding from public broadcasting. The incels that watch the brain poison will immediately take a liking to the action as “yanking” is all they do for social recreation.
Wanna bet the “woke” agenda died?
Kamala will embrace anything if she thinks it will do good for her, personally or politically!!! And then she will immediately turn to the next person and totally embrace them and their ideology even though that is the opposite of what she just embraced, which makes her a totally empty vessel, void of any intelligence, incapable of any independent thought!! She doesn’t know what she really believes since her brain isn’t capable of that kind of thought!! The woke agenda shouldn’t have taken this long to die off and it probably isn’t gone for good, unfortunately, but also, how many people have actually been hurt, physically, emotionally or mentally, by their pushing of all of these deviate behaviors!! And some of these people will deal with their mistakes for the rest of their lives, having to take drugs for the rest of their life just to stay alive!! Pathetic!!
People become complacent. When they do the Left will pounce.
Good article.
I’m sure Trump will do his best for the country but I hope he isn’t continually sabotaged by the RINOs in congress like he was previously. I also worry about who will take the seat in 4 years when he cannot run again.
I pray for the well being of our country and I feel sorry for all the evil folks who betray their oaths of office and fight in what looks almost like a feeding frenzy of sharks for what they think is power. In the end, they will be consigned to the eternal lake of fire for their sinful actions and when they stand before God on His throne and are judged there’s going to be a lot of shock and dismay before the eternal agony is applied. And it will be their own fault.
I will take great pleasure in seeing Harris certify DJT as President.
Let’s HOPE!
You are correct.Living in CA,I can tell you that they NEVER stop “progressing”.No matter how much government screws up everything,they just continue adding more government control.
RIP WOKE and Kamala’s political future.
TRUMP 2024!
It’s past time for common sense to prevail. The left was against everything that made sense to normal people. From removing obscene books from access to young children to allowing men to compete in women’s sports. It can’t happen too soon for me.
Isn’t it time for the next Trump impeachment?
2012 Obama/regime snuck into NDAA HR4310 sect 1078 giving Gvt media/media the ‘right to lie’ all they want with NO repercussions. It Voided the 1948 Smith Mundt Act that protected us from media propaganda! This must be repealed or whatever it is, then a beefed-up Smith Mundt Act 2.0…with penalties, fines and third time- licenses rescinded. Congress can do better in getting MSM, Legacy media under control. Give us the ability to sue – relook at Sullivan v NYT. Clarence Thomas said he was going to look into/re-evaluate but dropped the ball. This case makes it almost impossible to sue media etc. Gotta somehow make media personalities say- ‘In MY opinion’ and not be allowed to report as if what BS comes from their mouths is actual ‘news’. Maybe a ‘good guy’ will buy the losing station MSNBC,change it up, give Fox a run for their money too.
In the words of Dave Meyer “Freedom is Costly, But Priceless.
It’s about time.Terrible time and way to many ding-bats on that side. REST in piece~~
The whole Left machine died