Elections have consequences. We are now living the result of the narrow triumph of Donald Trump and his MAGA philosophy in the 2024 election. And that result is, what Trump describes as a war on \u201cwoke\u201d. Now what does \u201cwoke\u201d mean? It\u2019s an attack on a laundry list of alphabet soup acronyms: from LGBGTQ rights to DEI hiring to CRT teaching. And it\u2019s granular: a Presidential executive order against the ten collegiate and (maybe as many as) a hundred high school athletes who are transgendered women. Think of that; the President writing an order against 110 Americans out of 335 million ( that\u2019s .00000328%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And sometimes it\u2019s just silly. Defense Secretary Hegseth, with all of the issues of US Defense in the world, spent time to \u201cre-name\u201d Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg, and then blithely commented that it wasn\u2019t after Confederate General Braxton Bragg, but World War II Silver Star Medal winner Roland Bragg. Another \u201cwin\u201d in the war on \u201cwoke\u201d: Pete Hegseth really \u201cgot the libs\u201d that time. And I won\u2019t even get into mis-naming of Denali back to McKinley, or re-naming the Gulf of Mexico. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can rewrite the signs at the gate, or the labels on the map. All that does is grate against the \u201clibs\u201d. And it does. It\u2019s the old taunt of kids in backyard football: \u201cwinners talk, losers walk\u201d. But there are much sadder consequences, deadly consequences, of Trump\u2019s war on \u201cwoke\u201d. Because MAGA believes that America isn\u2019t strong enough, isn\u2019t compassionate enough, to help other folks in need. And one of the alphabetical targets of Make America Greedy Again, is the USAID program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So let\u2019s get something clear: USAID had a budget of $63 Billion. That\u2019s a lot of money, but, out of a total US annual budget of $6.75 Trillion, it\u2019s LESS THAN ONE PERCENT. So for less than one percent of the US government spending each year, America had a tremendous impact on the world. We saved millions of Africans from dying of AIDS, we fed starving people, starving kids, in countries all over the world suffering from droughts and wars. We brought medical care to folks who never had it before, and shelter to those made homeless by nature and man. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
USAID supported Ukraine with food assistance. And it supported US farmers by buying grains here, and taking it there. Right now, almost $500 million worth of food is rotting on the docks, because USAID is stopped. And right now, folks are dead, because Trump wants to wage a war on \u201cwoke\u201d. He directly intervened to prevent them from getting lifesaving help. He killed them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
MAGA has convinced many Americans that the money would be \u201cbetter spent here\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0But, of course, that money isn\u2019t coming back to \u201cregular Americans\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0What will happen to the less than one percent saved by letting folks die?\u00a0\u00a0It will go into Trump\u2019s proposed tax cut for the top one percent of Americans, just like last time.\u00a0\u00a0So when MAGA folks admire Elon Musk for the \u201csacrifices\u201d he\u2019s made to \u201cMake America Gross Again\u201d, realize this. He paid $277 million for Trump\u2019s election to gain access to power, and he\u2019ll make billions back in the resulting tax cut.\u00a0\u00a0He\u2019s all sorts of things, but he\u2019s not stupid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The saddest part of Trump\u2019s war on woke, is that it is based on the premise of victimhood. Trump wants Americans to feel that they are victims of the \u201cwoke\u201d philosophy, victims of attempts to make America a place where \u201cAll men are created equal\u201d. Trump\u2019s vastly white following feels that they have lost something, and they want it back. He has convinced them that they \u201cdeserve\u201d the advantage. Why else would MAGA wage a war against the true story of America, white-washing it into some fairy tale where African-Americans and Native Americans were treated fairly?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He is calling on Americans to say that we don\u2019t have the \u201cguts\u201d to live up to \u201ccreated equal\u201d. Instead, we need to take the advantage, white over minority, American over the world, and be the \u201cwinner\u201d, and make them the loser. Because MAGA sees only a \u201czero sum\u201d game; to win someone else must lose. And if you\u2019re winning, then don\u2019t dare show strength and magnanimity to help others. You simply rejoice in your winningness, and take advantage of their loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
MAGA is based in fear.\u00a0\u00a0And now, the \u201cwar on woke\u201d is trying to generate fear in \u201cthe libs\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0They are rejoicing in their winningness, and literally rubbing dirt in the face of the \u201closers\u201d: me, you; all of us who don\u2019t want to be victims.\u00a0\u00a0So we can decide.\u00a0\u00a0We can be overwhelmed by MAGA, or we can fight back.\u00a0\u00a0We can fall to the hurricane onslaught of Trump depredations, or we can stand firm for the America we believe in.\u00a0\u00a0Americans who truly believe America is Reagan\u2019s \u201cshining city on the hill\u201d know that if we slam the gates shut and ignore the world suffering around us, eventually that world will come for us.\u00a0\u00a0Trump is slamming the gates shut in fear: fear of change, fear of difference, fear of the unknown.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Be not afraid.\u00a0\u00a0Instead, act, in one way or another, to demonstrate belief in America.\u00a0\u00a0Dan Rather said it best when he used one word to close his nightly newscast.\u00a0\u00a0He told Americans what they needed then, and now.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was this word — Courage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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