Former President Donald J. Trump's re-emergence onto the national stage coincides with a waning of woke attacks on American culture. This is no coincidence.
Regardless of your opinion on 45Number One thing is beyond doubt about the president: He has little interest in pretense of civility or political correctness — in fact, he has built his later political career on disparaging and mocking the traditional political order, including but not limited to giving his Democratic and Republican opponents biting (and sometimes witty) nicknames.
Trump's simple (and sometimes brutal) rhetoric resonates with the average voter, many of whom prefer direct, blunt language that is not the communication style traditionalists (let alone more conscious rhetoricians) would choose.
In Washington DC, Trump’s relentless opposition to the ways, means and ends of the “woke” is well known. Readers know the details well. He denounces ESG control over liberals in the Chamber of Commerce and the C-suite, he denounces politicians and liberal arts students who pretend to have a monopoly on the truth of climate change, he denounces judicial activists whose American Bar Association supports the fundamentalist ideologues of the Federalist Society, and he regularly (with glee) denounces liberal pundits who pose as “mainstream” news reporters in the national media. This is a completely different tactic from his (all of) predecessors. But there is another element in Trump’s attacks on progressivism and the woke that tends to drive the left crazy: humor.
As we all know, Trump delights in denouncement and banishment of progressiveism’s most outrageous practices and beliefs, including electric cars (and their charging stations) that freeze up in cold weather, the insanity of backing off domestic oil and gas exploration while begging dictators like Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro for dirty fossil fuels, the spectre of physically advanced biological males dominating female athletes, hypocritical “defund the police” politicians who demand 24/7 security, the incomprehensible specter of so-called “elite” universities that beg Jewish alumni for annual donations while hiring and bribing anti-Semitic professors and administrators, and even overly flexible paper straws that often snap in defeat when faced with something like an ice-cold chocolate shake.
Trump's essential appeal here is not hard to understand: he is ready to label stupid as stupid, without worrying too much about the subsequent downfall of self-proclaimed cultural value creators. It's not such a bold move in a bygone era when a sense of humor was more valued, but it's pretty outlandish in an age of progressive intolerance. What's more, he continues to speak his own (ordinary) language while confronting an American establishment media every day bent on bringing him down for good. This makes him loathed by both party establishments, but still hugely popular in a hopping America weary of humorless, over-the-top attacks on objective truths within its institutions and culture.
Presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan used humor frequently to great effect, and perhaps President Trump will join this special league of American presidents as he spends the next four years indicting woke people's most ludicrous policies and practices.
God knows the progressive agenda provided him with ample fodder.
Bob Ehrlich is a former Governor, Congressman, and State Representative of Maryland. He is the author of five books on American politics and opinion pieces that have appeared in major American newspapers and periodicals. He and his wife, Kendel, host a weekly podcast, “Bottom Line with Bob & Kendel Ehrlich.”
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