RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://tomklingenstein.com/elite-holdouts-will-keep-wokeness-alive/

While we’ve since learned that Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai’s legendary quip about the outcome of the French Revolution being “too soon to tell” was the result of a mistranslation rather than a zen-like sweep of history, there’s something wise about taking the long view.

The defeat of some of the most obvious excesses of “wokeness” — both in policy, through a flurry of Trump executive orders, and among the public, as seen in recent polling — is certainly cause for celebration (and, for those of us who’ve been on the battlefield in large or small capacities, a sense of accomplishment). Perhaps the greatest sign of its waning power in the public consciousness is that it has, finally, become ridiculous; its association has traversed the distance from earnest righteousness to a source of mockery.

The Right should be cautious, though, as political and social battles are rarely (if ever) won for all time. “Liberalism” and “Progressivism” are two labels that required multiple rebrands across several generations due to failing fortunes with the public — and yet maintained enough elite support to return, just as powerfully as before.

Those of us on the Right understand that what’s now known as “wokeness” isn’t new or a heretical deviation; rather, it is the necessary outgrowth of the Left’s assumptions and assertions about the world, inseparable from its conception of “progress.” Most ordinary Americans, though, are busy with their lives and haven’t traced the Left’s radicalism as it lurched from college campuses in the 1970s into the mainstream of elite consensus.

The Right’s smarter activists understand that, since its inception, the Left fails when its excesses are made flesh. For example, women’s sports and childhood medical transitions were crucial battlegrounds in the war against “wokeness,” as they exposed the radicalism of gender ideology in ways that didn’t require lengthy philosophical explanations. Even in defeat, Americans need to be shown the horrors of childhood medical transitions just as the victorious Allies needed to remind the world of the Nazi death camps: the fight was a righteous one, and the enemies deserved destruction for what they’d done.

Given enough time and distance, however, a period of revisionism always arrives, and the battle must be taken up anew.

https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/5180888-democrats-missteps-trump-hate

Democrats did not just lose an election in 2024 — apparently, they lost their minds, too.  

Consider, for instance, how they kicked off Women’s History Month — by voting against protecting women and girls in sports, against guaranteeing them a fair playing field.   

That’s right: Every single Democrat voted down the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which would prohibit federally funded schools from allowing male transgender athletes to participate in women’s sports. 

It would prevent girls and women from being injured by bigger, stronger biological males. And, just as importantly, it would prevent girls who have worked like crazy to excel in sports from being humiliated by a men dressed like women. 

Take, for example, the basketball game that took place a year ago between two Massachusetts teams — the Collegiate Charter School of Lowell and KIPP Academy in Lynn. A transgender player for KIPP, at six feet tall and sporting facial hair, injured multiple opposing female players, eventually forcing Collegiate to forfeit the game.  

Or consider the gruesome injury sustained by Payton McNabb in a 2022 volleyball match, when a transgender opponent spiked the ball into her head and nearly killed her. Some 79 percent of Americans, including 67 percent of Democrats, favor keeping men out of women’s sports and locker rooms, according to New York Times-Ipsos polling.  

So why fall on your sword by defeating a bill that so clearly aligns with the preferences of voters?

This is not the only recent foolish move by Democrats. In anticipation of President Trump’s speech to Congress on Tuesday, 22 senators in the Democratic caucus broadcast videos of themselves all reading the exact same script, which starts with the words, “S— that ain’t true,” mocking Trump’s campaign pledge to bring down prices on Day 1. Conservatives on social media quickly roasted the copycat stunt, and rightly so.