The collapse of the woke appeal

Victor Davis Hanson asks,

So, what did the people conclude 10 months out from the Woke getting their wishes?

The polls reveal that voters don’t like open borders at all. They disapprove of illegal immigration as much they support legal immigrants. They worry about crime and drugs. They don’t want the unvetted and unvaccinated flowing across their open border.

The people want cheaper, not pricier gas. They prefer American energy self-sufficiency. Why, with cup in hand, go begging to Saudi Arabia and Russia to pump more supposedly Satanic oil?

The people like the police and hate crime. Even the rich among the woke are now scared—some of whom sowed the wind of decriminalization and are themselves reaping the whirlwind of crime.

Most voters care less about our color, but far more about our character. They think a meritocracy, not quotas and tribal chauvinism, explains the exceptional American standard of life.

They despise inflation as much as recession—and fear they may now get both soon.

Freedom-loving individuals don’t like cancel culture, ostracism, iconoclasm, Trotskyization, and commissars. They prefer free speech. They treasure the Bill of Rights.

So, in just 10 months the Left got what it wanted. And the people are becoming not just sick of what has followed, but disgusted. They are terrified that the Left is not just failing, but also wrecking the country and them along with it.

The ages have left us adages for the people’s growing anger at the hubristic and now unpopular Left. We know the ancient warnings variously as, “What comes around, goes around,” “You reap what you sow,” “Be careful about what you wish for,” and “The law of unintended consequences.” Words like “nemesis and “karma” also come to mind. But of the collapse of the woke appeal, perhaps we could say, “It couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of zealots.”

Read more here: https://amgreatness.com/2021/12/08/woke-got-what-it-wanted-and-then-what/