January 1, 2018--Liberal Fallacy: The "Woke"

One of my favorite Morning Joe guests is political and cultural columnist Anand Giridharadas (AG).

Friday, on the last show of the year, he was the final guest. It fell to him to sum things up.

He was asked about the status of the Resistance, the movement to resist the worst of the Trump presidency. Appropriately, for our tragically divided nation, he offered an expansive call for national reconciliation. 

Nothing to argue about with that, but there is much to be concerned about in the specific ways in which he hopes to see that reconciliation occur. 

To me it is representative of the Liberal Fallacy.

What he calls for embodies engagement in some of the very-same virulent behaviors Trump supporters participate in to support him.

After the show, AG summed this up on his Twitter feed. He wrote--

"In 2017, the Resistance was, and had to be a fortress, protecting America from a grave threat to the republic. 

"In 2018, it must be a church seeking converts. It must persuade. 

"Is there space among the woke for the still-waking?"

If one is serious about seeking ways to come together to seek reengagement, isn't it necessary for that dialogue not to be so one-sided? It is clear that he sees virtue only in his dug-in position along the cultural divide and calls for those of us who are of that persuasion to look for ways to be persuasive. Not to listen, not to be open to the heretical possibility that we too might be influenced.

Isn't this a version of the very thing so many Americans hate about the cultural elites? That we claim to embrace the truth, reject or not even listen to other views, and are eager to lead those our candidate called deplorables, irredeemable deplorables, and who AG, literally with pink patches on his jacket sleeves, also seeks to enlighten? About the truth. Our truth. To convert those who are "still-waking."?

To in effect say, "Better than you, we know what's good for you." 

And then what condescension, what self-assigned superiority is revealed by the "woke"-still-waking" paradigm.

This call is not going to get the job done. Actually, it will have the opposite effect. If we seek understanding and perhaps the beginning of reconciliation this is not the vision we need to guide us in 2018.

I was saddened that Willie Geist and the other Morning Joe guests hearing this, uncritically, without evidence of self-insight, came close to clutching hands and breaking into Kumbaya. 

It was a depressing moment at the end of a tumultuous year that summed up entirely too much.