TRUMP THE GENIUS!!!!!!!!!!!

[stevenkesslar]

2 hours ago, Pete1111 said:

Stay woke  was a term of encouragement among southern Blacks and was part of their lingo for communicating in white society, in the old South.  Young folks nowadays might not understand that original meaning, how it referred to Black people remaining alert to racial discrimination and violence, e.g  men in white shirts burning crosses on your lawn during the night, or tossing young Black men in jail for looking at white women. 

That would not be untypical.  That's the history of America, to me.  I don't think there is any specific social justice gene that Black people get that White people don't.  But based on the specific history of the US, it is no surprise that many of our shared buzzwords and moral understandings and icons come from some movement against slavery or for civil rights.   MLK.  The arc of the moral universe is long.  I have a dream.  "Woke" fits right into the pattern.

So let me give anyone reading this a trigger warning.  I am about to be savage to woke college students.  Because I was once one myself.  Even though it was not called "woke" at the time.

And let me propose this as an appropriate 2025 definition of woke.  In 2025, a "woke" person is one who votes for Black Republican Byron Donalds, a Trump ally, to replace DeSantis.  

Poll shows Byron Donalds starts with 6-point lead over David Jolly in 2026 Governor’s race

 

So why is it "woke" to vote for Donalds?  I'll answer that from the perspective of a Black Democrat who I saw ask Donalds a question on Mark Halperin's Two Way channel.  The guy, who identified himself as a Black Democrat, basically said how will the Republican Party help Black people like me?  Donalds talked about lower energy costs due to drill, baby, drill.  He talked about more affordable housing due to cutting regulations and NIMBY zoning in Florida.  Everything he said had NOTHING specifically to do with Black people.  He did not even mention assistance to historically black colleges.  Which would be a no brainer standard answer most White Republicans would give.  His point was clear:  lower gas prices and more affordable housing helps us all, regardless of the color of our skin.  Which is of course true.

So one definition of "woke" today could be that if you want cheap gas and affordable rent and are Black, vote for some Black Republican leader who is aware of working class challenges.

So this is one of the interesting things about today's GOP.  I credit Kevin McCarthy more than any other single person, although former Black RNC head Michael Steele would be #2 on my list, for actually integrating the modern Republican Party.  One way I think of it is that Jim Clyburn is a Democratic leader because when he was a kid Strom Thurmond left the Democratic Party because we Democrats were too welcoming to Blacks.  Now Tim Scott is the Black US Senator from the same state.  And a Republican.  And I basically buy what Scott says explains it:  "a change in the Southern heart".  I can see that in the Southern Republican wing of my own family.

Meanwhile, some Black activist said that when America elected Donald Trump in 2016, we did not realize we were voting for a restoration of 1980's New York racism.  I think that is true as well.  in a big diverse nation, many contradictory things can be true at once.  So under Trump and Hegseth, who are way behind the curve, you have these almost comical and constant stupid fucking things to remove the name of Jackie Robinson from something or go out of their way to make it seem like Black people and especially DEI are just not welcome in our White Party.

My own opinion, until proven wrong, is that a lot of the movement by Blacks and Latinos to the GOP, especially in the last four years, was all about inflation and prices and rent.  And part of a global "throw the bums out" reaction.  In our case, the bum was named Joe Biden.  So when the Republicans fuck with Medicaid and go out of their way to trash efforts to help Blacks, even when they are put forward by Black Republicans like Tim Scott, I think they are just driving Blacks away.  We'll see.  But for sure running a Black guy like Byron Donalds for Governor does the exact opposite.  It says, "We welcome Blacks to thrive and lead in our party."

So now let us throw in the clueless and mostly White "woke" college students.  Who I am quite sure all have their hearts in the right place.  The best single example to me is "Latinx", which thankfully never got off the ground and never will.  I choose that in part because it is a great example of the kind of thing that would likely come out of academia.  Some poll done showed something like 95 % of Spanish speaking Americans do not like the idea.  And without doing anything that actually impacts the price of gas or rent or giving you a child tax credit or no tax on tips, it makes some weird cultural statement about something.  Thankfully, it is not as toxic as "defund the police" politically.  But this is how Democrats are going to win the Latino vote?  Give me a fucking break.

2 hours ago, Pete1111 said:

Can we begin to understand how society is getting tired of being on the defensive, like how the professor felt after speaking at the Pride luncheon?

I am quite sure this is how Ruy Teixeira feels.  He articulates all these arguments way better than I do. 

When Republicans ran everything from 2000 to 2008 or so, and fucked it up good with the Iraq War and subprime lending and losing about 6 million factory jobs so capitalists could get rich building factories in China, Teixeira and his democratic socialist pal John Judis delivered a road map to how you actually can have a Democratic majority.  As I said in an earlier post, to me it seemed like a fucking joke.  And then it happened under Obama. 

Fast forward.  Teixeira gradually grew to feel utter contempt for mostly White college educated woke people who push these agendas that are just deeply unpopular with working class voters.  And while some of it is almost comical, like "LatinX", some of it is very complex.  Like "woke" people tend to be associated with purist "climate change" ideas. But most working class people like the idea of cheap fossil fuels.  Ruben Gallego has a great line right now, because he wants to be a Latino Democratic POTUS.  He says every Latino man wants a big ass truck and cheap gas to fill it with.  La verdad!  And people who work in the industry hate the woke bullshit.  Did I mention Democrats lost Pennsylvania in the last election?  Do we want to win the Presidency?  Do we want 51 or 60 US Senate seats?

So now I am going to sound cruel.  Especially for Trump, it is open season on these people.  He is going after Harvard, and all these liberal educational institutions.  And DEI, and all these groups that were the ones that advanced arguments like "defund the police" and America is this horrible racist place.  I hope he scares the living shit out of all of them.  Because maybe that will help Democrats.  They pushed some of this shit too far and too hard.  And while I know their intentions were good, it contributed to this idea that Democrats are out of touch.  And it is one of the easiest things in the world to lampoon on Tik Tok.  And now we have a massive backlash, led by Donald Trump, who I actually do believe embodies 1980's NYC racism.  So what the fuck did they get by being so "woke"?

We all learn from our failures.  Hopefully the "woke" folks will.  And they will moderate and instead try to figure out, like Teixeira and Judis did, how we can end this cruelty and trickle down "America is for the rich" bullshit by building a left-of-center majority?  

That, again is what AMLO did in Mexico.  Pan comido!