A NEWSLETTER FROM DAVID CORN |
A NEWSLETTER FROM DAVID CORN |
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Is Anti-Wokeness All the GOP Has? |
By David Corn March 18, 2023 |
Appearing at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington, DC, on March 3, GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley calls wokeness “more dangerous” than the Covid pandemic. Francis Chung/Politico via AP |
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I didn’t pay much attention to this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, the annual gathering of right-wingers that has in recent years become a Trump cult revival show. I did notice that the crowd seemed smaller and less enthusiastic than in past years. (Look at this sad clip.) The Trump rah-rahing appeared lackluster, though when he spoke before the group he tried to juice up attendees with the frightening—and fascistic—rallying cry: “I am your retribution!” This is how a wannabe-authoritarian talks, or bellows. (Trump won the CPAC presidential poll with 62 percent of the vote, as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who didn’t bother to show, placed a distant second with 20 percent.)
But aside from Trump’s vow to be the avenging angel of the right, what most grabbed my notice was a remark from Nikki Halley, Trump’s onetime UN ambassador and former South Carolina governor, who is officially running for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. “Wokeness is a virus more dangerous than any pandemic,” she declared, “hands down." |
Think about that. The Covid pandemic has taken the lives of 1.1 million Americans, and it is still killing two to three thousand people a week in the United States. An unknown number of Americans are contending with debilitating symptoms from long Covid. More than 20 million people lost their jobs due to the crisis. Yet for Haley, wokeness—whatever it is—is a bigger threat to the nation.
Wokeness—a vague term conservatives use to describe almost anything they don’t like, but especially any recognition of social injustice or racial bias—has become Public Enemy No. 1 for the right and for a certain slice of white voters and their would-be leaders. And the charge of wokeness is being deployed as a one-size-fits-all political weapon.
When a train derailment caused a dreadful toxic accident in East Palestine, Ohio, numerous Republicans and conservative influencers tried to racialize the event by claiming the supposedly woke Biden administration was too slow to help the affected community. Why? Because East Palestine mainly comprises white people. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) griped that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was more concerned with wokeness than rail safety, claiming that he was “not talking about this issue” and had been “talking about how we have too many white male construction workers instead of the fact that our trains are crashing at alarming rates.” Fox host Tucker Carlson brayed that Buttigieg was more concerned with efforts to increase job opportunities for people of color than ensuring the safety of white communities. In other words, he was too woke and that endangered white citizens. This was preposterous, but it bolstered the ugly narrative that the Dems and the libs only care about Black people and are indifferent to perils and challenges faced by white Americans.
More recently, the right turned the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank into another front in its cherished culture war. Numerous conservatives blamed this financial implosion not on shoddy management, or loose banking regulations (that were eased by Republicans and a few centrist Democrats during the Trump administration), or macroeconomic conditions, but on...yes, wokeness.
DeSantis led the way. During an appearance on (obviously) Fox, he declared, “I mean, this bank, they’re so concerned with DEI and politics and all kinds of stuff. I think that really diverted from them focusing on their core mission.” DEI stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion, which conservatives typically denigrate as wokeness. On the same network, Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus said, “I feel bad for all of these people that lost all their money in this woke bank…They’re a woke company.” Trump fanboy and Turning Point USA chieftain Charlie Kirk suggested SVB’s commitment to diversity caused the bank to implode.
Andy Kessler, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, also pointed to the bank’s DEI policies as a possible explanation for its downfall: “In its proxy statement, SVB notes that besides 91% of their board being independent and 45% women, they also have ‘1 Black,’ ‘1 LGBTQ+’ and ‘2 Veterans.’ I’m not saying 12 white men would have avoided this mess, but the company may have been distracted by diversity demands.” Actually, it seems that what Kessler claims he was not saying was what he was saying.
Prominent Republican lawmakers joined the chorus. Rep. James Comer (R-Tenn.), the chair of the House Oversight Committee; Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.); and Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) each derided SVB as a “woke” bank. In a tweet, former Trump aide Stephen Miller asked, “How many hours & dollars were spent on equity/DEI/ESG/climate scams?” ESG refers to corporate policies related to environmental, social, and governance issues—which are frequently cited by conservatives as evidence of corporate wokeness. As the New York Times recently reported, congressional Republicans have been waging a crusade against ESG investing, which they assail as “woke capitalism” but which has become routine on Wall Street and within financial behemoths, including Vanguard, Black Rock, and Citibank.
SVB did indeed have a page on its website attesting to its commitment to DEI initiatives: “We also know that diverse perspectives and inclusive environments ignite new ideas to power innovation. That is why we’re building a culture of belonging with a global workforce that celebrates greater dimensions of diversity and reflects the markets we strive to serve.” But the bank was not known for being a pioneer in this area. According to its own reporting, 91 percent of its board was white. That’s hardly wokeness running wild.
But whether SBV was super-woke or not is irrelevant. No serious financial experts have cited its DEI policies as a factor in its demise. This was a rather traditional bank run (think It’s a Wonderful Life), triggered by concern over the bank’s portfolio and rising interest rates. Even House Speaker Kevin McCarthy recognized this. On a conference call with House Republicans about SVB, he emphasized the role of inflation and the failure of banking regulators to head off trouble at the bank.
This episode shows that Republicans and conservatives are shooting blanks. Their policy arsenal is empty. Remember, during the 2020 convention, the GOP didn’t bother to write a platform. It has become the party of division, trafficking in culture battles and exploiting assorted grievances, including racial resentment, with little to say about health policy and many economic matters (other than calling for more tax cuts and urging initiatives that would threaten Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits). Many on the right apparently believe their political success depends on trans wars, bashing gays, and stirring up white backlash. Whenever they can, they will try to turn an issue or event into another front in the culture war. Hours before Russia invaded Ukraine a year ago, Steve Bannon sided with Vladimir Putin and praised the Russian tyrant for being “anti-woke” and for not flying gay pride flags. Hooray for Vlad!
Woke is the right’s all-purpose insult for liberal and progressive busybodies who dare to raise questions about social inequity and who conservatives denigrate as people who believe they know more (and are more enlightened) than you. It’s a label that distinguishes the right-wing tribe from those minority-loving elitists who yearn to order you around, telling you what you can do and say. It’s a shortcut, an easy soundbite. You’re one of us, or you’re woke. It explains everything that may go awry and impugns anything the right doesn’t like. Train wrecks that endanger communities with toxic spills are not the fault of the GOP opposition to health and safety regulations. It’s wokeness. Banks that crash are not a sign the financial system is rigged. It’s wokeness. Public health measures that tell you how you should act. More wokeness. And any calamity or policy that can be tagged as woke can be pinned on the libs.
It's unclear whether anti-wokeness is ultimately a winning political issue for Republicans. A recent USA Today/Ipsos poll found that 56 percent of Americans defined wokeness as being “informed, educated on, and aware of social injustice”—which is not necessarily a negative characterization—and 39 percent considered it to mean being “overly political correct and [eager] to police others’ words.” But within the still-Trumpified GOP, being anti-PC and owning the libs is priority number one. Thus, the competition over who can be the most anti-woke will continue to be a driving force within the party and its 2024 presidential sweepstakes. Which explains why Nikki Haley was there waving the anti-woke banner in a supremely ignorant manner. Worse than Covid? With remarks like this one widely accepted as applause lines on the right, it will be a while before the GOP wakes up from its latest fever dream.
Got anything to say about this item—or anything else? Email me at ourland@motherjones.com. |
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Dumbass Comment of the Week |
No surprise, with the Republicans seeking to exploit the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, Donald Trump Jr. was jockeying for the lead in spreading idiocy. Trying to jab at the Biden administration, he declared, “I don’t remember banks collapsing under Trump.” |
Maybe he doesn’t remember because he wasn’t paying attention to such matters when his father was in the White House. According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, there were 16 bank failures between 2017 and 2020. Silicon Valley Bank was the first to implode during Biden’s tenure.
Meanwhile, Daddy Trump further headed into fascist territory after his ugly CPAC speech. On his possibly Russian-financed social media site, Trump—I will spare you his all-caps—recently proclaimed: “Let the January 6 prisoners go. They were convicted, or are awaiting trial, based on a giant lie, a radical left con job. Thank you to Tucker Carlson and Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy for what you both have done. New video footage is irrefutable.” Trump was referring to the January 6 video that Carlson received from McCarthy and then aired after selectively editing to make it seem that the January 6 riot was merely a calm gathering of patriotic, Trump-loving tourists. Anyone with the slightest tether to reality knows this is another lie being propagated by Carlson so he can make millions by feeding the paranoia, fear, biases, and grievances of the Fox audience.
And here was a former president—and current presidential candidate—declaring that violent marauders who tried to sabotage a constitutional process and impede the peaceful transition of power did nothing wrong and are being unfairly prosecuted. This comment was a dangerous expression of authoritarianism, essentially an endorsement of political violence. Given that Trump spews a tsunami of outrageous remarks every week, this statement did not receive the attention it deserved. But it should not be ignored or forgotten. Yet again he is displaying an autocratic impulse that threatens the republic.
Did I say everyone knows that Carlson’s January-6-was-no-big-deal schtick is a lie? Well, apparently Elon Musk doesn’t. In response to Carlson broadcasting a clip of Jacob Chansley, the headdress-wearing QAnon shaman, being led quietly through the Capitol by the police on January 6, Musk, the most prominent alt-right troll now on Twitter, denounced Chansley’s four-year prison sentence for what he called a “non-violent, police-escorted tour” in the Capitol.
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Musk apparently missed the footage of Chansley being part of the violent mob that smashed through windows and doors to illegally enter the Capitol. |
By the way, Chansley pleaded guilty. I know we want to believe that the wealthiest and most powerful corporate titans are intelligent, especially when they control auto companies, rocket ships, and an important social media site. But Musk’s infatuation with Carlson’s easy-to-debunk propaganda makes it easy to question his capacity for critical thinking.
Speaking of Musk, at a House hearing on the so-called Twitter Files, Michael Shellenberger, one of the authors of this skewed series of reports about pre-Musk Twitter, was asked by freshman Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) about his previous assertion that every single fact in the New York Post’s infamous 2020 article on the Hunter Biden laptop was accurate. Shellenberger reaffirmed this assessment. Goldman then pointed out that the very first paragraph of the story falsely declared that Joe Biden had pressured Ukrainian officials to fire a prosecutor who was investigating Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company for which Hunter Biden served as a board member.
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Goldman was echoing a point I made when that New York Post story first appeared: A key issue regarding this article was not whether the Hunter Biden laptop it cited was real, but that the Murdoch-owned paper was disseminating disinformation being pushed by Trump consigliere Rudy Giuliani in conjunction with a Russian intelligence asset. Shellenberger’s ignorance of this undermined his credibility and placed him in contention for the top spot in this week’s competition.
But the winner is former veep Mike Pence, who harbors the outrageous fantasy that he can be president someday. He made news this past weekend when he declared at the annual Gridiron Club dinner, “President Trump was wrong. I had no right to overturn the election. And his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol [on January 6], and I know history will hold Donald Trump accountable.” This was far from being a stupid remark. What made it somewhat dumb for Pence to say this was that he has refused to bring about the accountability he called for. Pence declined to testify to the January 6 House committee about Trump’s attempts to pressure him to overturn the election results, and he is currently fighting a subpoena from special counsel Jack Smith, who is investigating whether Trump and his crew committed any crimes related to the 2020 election and the January 6 raid. Pence claims to be for justice and accountability; he just doesn’t want to assist those seeking it.
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I am highly appreciative of all those readers who made it through my in-the-weeds reply to the questions Jeff Gerth sent me regarding my critique of his massive and misguided Columbia Journalism Review essay on the Trump-Russia scandal.
Karen Martin emailed:
Unbelievable. Seven years later, there are still people who refuse to accept facts about ex-President Trump and Russian interference, despite overwhelming evidence. Incredibly sad and scary. I appreciate your efforts and due diligence.
I too consider it odd that we still must fight over obvious points about Putin’s attack on the 2016 election and how Trump and his crew aided and abetted that assault on American democracy. But the war to preserve an accurate history of the Trump years will continue for a long time.
Constance Newman read my mind:
As a fan of your book on the subject [Russian Roulette, co-written with Michael Isikoff] and your work in general, thank you for continuing to fight the misinformation over the Trump-Russia connections. It's so aggravating to see so many bad-faith and badly informed people asserting that it was all manufactured. Your rebuttal wasn't too in the weeds for me! CJR should let you in on the forum. I'm not a subscriber to CJR, but this is absurd that they would first let that guy misrepresent the truth and then try to control the reaction.
Steve Wollmer wrote:
I just read your demolition of Gerth's work, and it was so air-tight and aggressive at the same time. "If it was a fight, they'd have stopped it!" Anyway, I just signed up for the $5 a month support level (I'm already a Mother Jones subscriber), since your piece got me off my duff, and helped me realize reporters like you deserve all the support we can provide.
Thanks, Steve, I appreciate the appreciation.
Many readers were happy to learn of the wonderful Tucson Festival of Books that I wrote about recently. Deborah Lynch sent in this note: Nice to know there are a few places left where l would feel a sense of community with people still considered human and intellectual beings. Thanks for giving me a rare smile.
Fran Cary had this to say: The Tucson Book Festival brings some light in the darkness of the times. Thanks for a wonderful article. Lindy Mullinax wrote:
Thank you for the kind words about TFOB. We work hard to make it just what you noticed and are proud of our stripe of sanity in a, hopefully, increasingly purple state.
Sara Hammond, a member of the festival’s book and author committee, emailed:
Someone on our festival leadership team just forwarded your newsletter. Wowsa. I was in the theater after your panel and saw you dashing back and forth. You looked intense, so I didn't want to interrupt you to say hello. Thank you for coming to Tucson and for your super kind words about our festival and our great city. Hope we can have you back here again! Sara, just ask!
The issue that examined the recent battles of the Covid wars generated much interest. It prompted Richard Middleton to share this story:
About 50 years ago, I was rapporteur for an expert panel convened by the World Bank to examine the economic benefits of providing clean drinking water, since the Bank required an economic justification for all its loans. The panel had remarkable people, from the CDC, WHO, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and other institutions. But a review of every known study on the benefits of clean water essentially concluded that they all had methodological flaws of one sort or another. (A parallel study by USAID of its work in Guatemala found that there actually were benefits, only to be overturned by a US Census review which said its statistical analysis was incorrect). The panel came to a sensible and illogical conclusion: We can’t prove clean water is better for you, but if you want to lead a healthy and productive life you need clean water. So investing in it is to the benefit of developing countries; go ahead but try to devise better-designed studies. That’s what I put in my report.
I think the situation with mask-wearing is almost identical, and I am in full agreement with your comments. The studies were somewhat inapplicable and so the conclusion is not definitive, but the number of “excess deaths” in the US, over a million, is so prodigious that requiring masks (and vaccines) is probably good public policy, or at least should not be dismissed out of hand—especially because if you are infected the person you kill may not be yourself but some innocent person with whom you come into contact. The response of the previous administration was incoherent and irresponsible, and the persistence of the misinformation industry in politicizing public health advice is deplorable.
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“Why are you guys shouting so much?” “Moxie, 16th-seed N. Kentucky is ahead of top-seed Houston!”
“What are their mascots?” “A wildcat and a cougar.” “How can you root for either of them? Go UConn.” |
Read Recent Issues of Our Land |
March 15, 2023: A debate (of sorts) over the Columbia Journalism Review’s huge Trump-Russia fail; Iris DeMent sings out about our current troubles; and more. March 7, 2023: I visit paradise (the Tucson Festival of Books); do we need the blood and guts of All Quiet on the Western Front?; and more. March 4, 2023: The (very selective) Covid wars; the never-ending story of George Santos; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Bezalel Smotrich); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.
February 28, 2023: Ron DeSantis’ war on freedom; Racist of the Week update; Your Honor’s double jeopardy; Richard Thompson keeps getting better; and more.
February 25, 2023: The GOP plays the race card with a train wreck; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Scott Adams); an Our Land focus group—do you wanna zoom; the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more. February 22, 2023: The corruption of Fox News—worse than you thought; the GOP’s very long war on Social Security; The Banshees of Inisherin is no laughing matter; and more.
February 18, 2022: Trump vs. DeSantis, Round 1: who’s a groomer?; a Chinese balloon and Chinese history; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Nikki Haley); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.
February 14, 2023: The Trump-Russia denialists still can’t handle the truth; American Psychosis: an update; Joe Henry’s stunning new album; and more. |
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Got suggestions, comments, complaints, tips related to any of the above, or anything else? Email me at ourland@motherjones.com. |
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