The Awakening of the Woke (3½ min read)
Last Week’s Failure of the Democrat-Controlled Congress to Pass Infrastructure Legislation is an Even Bigger Deal Than it Seems
Last week was a busy news week, but by far and away the most important story was House Leader Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) failure to whip enough votes for either the $3.5 trillion “infrastructure” bill, OR, its watered-down $1.5 trillion version. Moderate and progressive Democrats engaged in a game of political “chicken” with one another – and neither party flinched. As a result, Congress passed nothing on infrastructure… zero! This is a train wreck for the Biden administration, as its Build Back Better agenda is officially failing, even in the eyes of its most vociferous advocates. Moreover, the consequences will extend well beyond merely continuing the administration's recent streak of bad press coverage in the short term; it will set off a domino effect that could ultimately lead to the aforementioned awakening of the woke. Some brief context is necessary:
Pundits from both sides of the aisle acknowledge that there is a “moderate” wing and a “progressive” (or “radical”) wing of the Democrat party, and at some point, these two factions will have to reconcile the fact that their interests are not aligned. That’s a not contested statement. Up until recently, the hoards of twenty-something, self-appointed social justice warriors who had never voted or consumed news media until 2016 (or even 2020) didn’t quite understand this – they were sort of dimly aware that the “old folks” in the Democrat party weren’t always so woke, but they were under the impression that their “noble sacrifices” of the past four years had won over the hearts and minds of the party’s power center. For many of these bright-eyed kids, this past week was a light-bulb moment; it’s beginning to dawn on them that the Democrat party establishment used them for political momentum against Trump and in fact, doesn’t really give a shit about them or their far-left causes.
Two weeks ago, pop music icon Nikki Minaj made a relatively innocuous comment on Twitter, urging her 22 million followers to do their own research on vaccines and “don’t be bullied” into taking medicine you don’t want or need. For that bit of apostasy, Ms. Minaj was attacked swiftly and severely by the Twitterati and cable news arms of the Democrat propaganda machine – but she fought back. Tucker Carlson, the only person who can compete with Donald Trump for ultimate left-wing boogeyman status, featured this story on his cable news program. Minaj tweeted his coverage the next day; he followed with more coverage and she tweeted him out again… it went on and on like this. They’ve formed a sort of online symbiosis and millions of young people actually heard Tucker Carlson speak for the first time in their lives. Up until then, they only knew him as the “Hitler of Fox News” who is so frequently the target of Vox, Atlantic, and WaPo headlines which Apple, Google, and Facebook constantly pump into their phone’s newsfeeds. Politics truly does make the strangest of bedfellows.
Just this weekend rapper Pitbull, a Cuban-American, aggressively advocated against “socialism,” saying “fuck you” to those that hate this country; he suggested they go to Cuba to see how well socialism works in practice. At the same time, in its October 2 season premiere, Saturday Night Live parodied the Democrat party – openly highlighting the incompetence they displayed on Capitol Hill last week.
Look, I think Twitter (and indeed most of pop culture) is stupid and childish, but being “red-pilled” is about seeing things for what they are, stupid or not. In today’s culture war, this stuff matters – a lot! These recent events signal the beginning of the inevitable reckoning inside the DNC. How it shakes out in the end will have extraordinary implications for all of us. If the progressives win in the end, the Culture War will progress to the next level… and frankly, I have no idea just how ugly that could get – I sincerely hope we never find out. On the other hand, if the establishment wins out, the momentum of the so-called “social justice” movement that has been so disruptive to Western societies for the past five years, will likely retract back to the margins of left-wing culture; confined to the most radical factions of university faculties and groups of eccentric Hollywood wackos. Soccer moms, corporate board members and much of mainstream American youth will awaken from being woke. It could be years before we find out which way the proverbial cookie crumbles but it’s clear that this is a truly pivotal moment for us all.