Is “woke” on its way out, now that Donald Trump is on his way back in? Is a seismic shift in American culture just over the horizon?
Ever since hyper-politically-correct culture took hold in America about 15 years ago, all it took was the wrong joke, a red hat, or even an American flag to get you dragged in front of the woke inquisition, if not physically attacked.
Rahm Emanuel — the long-time Democratic insider — was on to something when he said, “When the woke police come at you, you don’t even get your Miranda rights read to you.” They don’t need evidence that what you said really was bigoted and mean-spirited. They just need to be offended — or claim they are — and you’re guilty.
We now appear to be at an inflection point. The cultural pendulum is swinging back. Donald Trump may be why it’s happening.
It may not sound like a big deal, but after Trump won, red hats started showing up in blue places. “The most polarizing fashion statement of the decade has been cropping up more often than usual,” said the Washington Post in a story about red MAGA hats showing up in deep blue strongholds like Manhattan. “Clearly, Trump’s supporters in this Democratic-leaning area are feeling newly emboldened to wear their beliefs on their heads.”
And the same thing is happening 3,000 miles away in Beverly Hills. Just a few days after Trump won, Los Angeles Times reporter Noah Goldberg posted on X a photo with the caption: “Six young women wearing MAGA hats in Beverly Hills all having lunch together would simply not have happened eight years ago.”
No, the city council isn’t planning to rename Rodeo Drive MAGA Boulevard anytime soon. But something is happening in America. Cracks are developing in the woke culture.
Trump has many faults — and “many” feels like an understatement. But he has managed to turn the culture war into his personal professional wrestling match. He didn’t tiptoe around political correctness — he put it in a headlock, gave it a nickname, and posted in on Truth Social at 3 a.m. To his critics, this made him a villain. But to millions of Americans who were sick of being thought-policed by the woke mob, he was more like a hero.
Sure, he wasn’t subtle. Trump doesn’t understand the concept of subtle. But subtlety doesn’t work when your opposition is armed with hashtags and cancellation petitions.
For years, a lot of ordinary Americans have been terrified of the cultural enforcers, silencing themselves to avoid becoming the next victim. Say the wrong thing at work, and you could lose your job. Utter an “unacceptable” thought on a college campus, and you could wind up in front of a tribunal.
Trump is many things, but woke isn’t one of them. And when the woke police came for him, Trump didn’t just stand his ground — he invited them to take their best shot. In the process, he sent a message to everyone else: You don’t have to bow down to the outrage mob. You don’t have to issue groveling apologies for so-called offenses no reasonable person would even notice.
As a consequence, many Americans felt they had an anti-woke crusader on their side — that he will soon return to the White House, understanding that in a free country no one should be afraid to express opinions that the woke morality police don’t like.
With Trump’s win, is a seismic shift in American culture on its way? It is too early to say, but this much do know: Americans are tired of being afraid — afraid to express an opinion, an idea, a thought, that someone might find offensive.
Trump’s election may put a dent into woke culture. Liberal elites — in the media, in academia and even in corporate America — may be weaker now that he will be returning to the White House. When Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough leave their studio at MSNBC and go to Mar-a-Lago to make peace with the man they’ve called a fascist and compared to Hitler, you know something is going on.
Even so, the woke culture is like a bad sequel. It goes on a lot longer than it should. So even Trump won’t be able to kill off wokeness all by himself.
But at least he has already done something just as important: He has given Americans permission to stop fearing it.
And so, for a lot of Americans, the air is getting a little easier to breathe.
Bernard Goldberg is an Emmy and an Alfred I. duPont Columbia University award-winning writer and journalist. He is the author of five books and publishes exclusive weekly columns, audio commentaries and Q&As on his Substack page.
