The Spell of Woke
Commentary
At American Greatness on May 25, there was an article by Joshua Mitchell that should be read by anyone perplexed and frustrated by the very strange current political condition of the United States. It bears a surprising title: “The Formidable Candidacy of Joe Biden.” Mitchell argues that conservatives and Republicans who take delight in the president’s many weaknesses and blunders, stumbles and mumblings, misread the situation. Those flaws are the very reason a good portion of the electorate supports him.
Those Woke Americans who love identity politics, along with liberals who sign on as fellow travelers, actually prefer a leader who has shown his willingness to voice the dogmas of identity politics with all the obedience of a robot who’s been properly programmed. If he proceeds to exert his power to implement those dogmas, he neatly fulfills the Woke demand for change. They want their leader to be a follower, and a few defects and incapacities signal his fitness for the post. Yesterday I heard a conservative radio host laughing at one of President Joe Biden’s tumbles, enjoying the exposure of his doddering state, as if such moments prove to the American people the danger of a debilitated figure remaining in the White House. In truth, Mitchell says, each lapse reinforces Biden’s reelection. (Mitchell believes he will win in 2024.)
There’s another factor in this perverse mix. In a nation overtaken by identity politics, in which individuals are ranked by their demographic, white, straight, Christian males stand at the bottom, the guiltiest ones, those who must pay for the crimes of the past (and present). In America 2023, Mitchell says, “we have arrived at the end of history.” At this point, we don’t do ordinary politics, the standard power struggles of factions and interests. “The only thing that matters now is squaring up old debts—say, historical wounds from hundreds of years ago—between so-called identity groups.”
Oddly enough, however, the whole setup works only when a white man, one of the “prime transgressors,” sits at the head of the multicultural table. Identity politicians need him as a focal point. He plays a unifying role for all those people who are not like him, not white, straight, Christian, and male. In truth, the collectivizing label “people of color” is but a “contrived unity.” Poor Hispanics in Los Angeles have little in common with Asian small business owners in Atlanta or black students in prestige colleges. Only their victimhood unites them, and a victimizer in the room firms up their shared suffering. Take away the white man and those groups’ divergent subcultures and interests would come forth. The commonality would end.
Hence, the necessity of a white male president. But he must be the right kind of white male: guilt-ridden, deferential to people of color and females and LGBTQ+. He must be ever ready to apologize for his identity, to withhold any positive judgment of that identity. Biden’s declarations about race, gender, and sexuality are empirically false and patently absurd, but truth isn’t the point. (“There’s not a single thing a man can do that a woman can’t do as well or better. Not a single thing”; “Why in God’s name don’t we teach history in history classes? A black man invented the light bulb, not a white guy named Edison.”) Those statements have another purpose: to reassure the Woke masses that he knows his place and keeps the faith.
If Kamala Harris replaced him, the entire layout would explode. A victim would now hold power, one with no guilt and proud of her identity. She wouldn’t unify the victims. She would automatically elevate two victim groups (black, female) over all the others. She couldn’t dispense social just with the same neutrality that Biden displays.
No, it must be a white, straight, Christian male who is weak and cooperative. Conservative commentators and Republican strategists who don’t understand this think and act as if it were 1995. They’re in denial, or maybe just too scared to address identity politics with force. When Donald Trump denounced political correctness again and again in 2016, we can imagine the consultants wincing and muttering, “No, no.”
And yet, he won. Trump went straight to the heart of the real battle in America today, which is why the RESISTANCE began on Day 1 of his term and never stopped. Mitchell calls the reign of identity politics a “spell” that has been cast over the country, one that ordinary politics will not remove. We are in a “grotesque chapter of American history.” For Mitchell, the only solution is “a reinvigorated Christendom.” But, of course, Republican politicians can’t say that. They’re in an unequal position. The Woke have their religion and preach it loudly. Unless they learn to present another, better religion, Biden will win a second term no matter how many times he garbles names, trips on the stairs, and grimaces over his forgetfulness.
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
