Wokeism Has Weakened The State of the Union
No nation, not even this great country, can withstand wokeism's constant assaults.
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President Biden closed his recent State of the Union speech by saying that "The State of the union is strong because you, the American people, are strong." It was a nice sentiment but was only half-truth. While the American people are strong, the State of the union has been weakened by wokeism.
Look at the state of our economy. In February, U.S. inflation rate reached almost 8%, the highest since January 1982. We don't need economists to tell us how bad things are. Every time we pump gas and every trip we make to the grocery store, we see how high prices have become, and we feel the economic pain. President Biden and his team blame Putin for all the price hikes, and they even invented a hashtag #Putinpricehike (this administration is known for its Twitter diplomacy).
The Wall Street Journal editorial pushed back, “Russia’s invasion has certainly contributed to rising oil and gasoline prices in recent weeks…But inflation had already hit 7.5% on an annual basis in January before Russia invaded Ukraine.” It’s not Putin, but Biden’s policies and the Federal Reserve’s easy money are responsible for inflation Americans have been enduring for almost a year.
Let’s use gas prices as an example. We have seen gas prices go up since Biden took office due to his green crusade against fossil fuel. Even before he became the President of the United States, Biden vowed to end oil and gas drilling on federal land. On day one of his presidency, Biden rescinded the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline project and killed thousands of well-paying job opportunities for American workers. Yet, Biden gave the green light to Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, which would bring Russia's gas into Germany.
Biden's decisions helped deepen our European allies' reliance on Russia's energy sector, enriched Russia's Putin, and limited the U.S. response in the event of Russian aggression, i.e., Russia's invasion of Ukraine (more on this topic later).
But canceling Keystone was only the beginning of Biden and his allies' war on fossil fuel. The Biden administration also established a moratorium on leasing federal lands for oil and gas production; re-imposed the Obama-era rule requiring "oil and gas producers, processors and refiners to install expensive technology to detect methane leaks;" and rolled back "Trump-era reforms that lowered costs for energy producers."
In addition to the Biden administration's ruinous energy policies, woke Wall Street bankers have done plenty of damage to the U.S. energy industry too. Led by woke CEOs such as Blackrock's Larry Fink, Wall Street firms use their financial might to push corporations to comply with ESG (Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance) and do whatever it takes to meet the "zero-emission" climate goal. Wall Street's climate activism has created a hostile environment for fossil fuels investment. By the way, these woke financiers see no problem investing either in Russia's energy industry or helping China to extract minerals needed for solar panels and electric vehicles in the most environmentally harmful ways.
Between the Biden administration and woke Wall Street bankers, the United States lost its hard-won energy independence. Under the Biden administration, gas prices have skyrocketed 60 percent, and the United States has doubled the crude oil imports from Russia last year.
After Russia invaded Ukraine, President Biden, citing rising gas prices as a concern, exempted Russia’s energy sector, which contributes 40% to Russia’s federal budget annually, from his economic sanctions. Only after a bi-partisan pressure, including some accusing him of underwriting Putin’s war crimes through importing Russia’s oil, Biden finally sanctioned Russia’s energy industry, and he wasted no time to blame all price hikes on Putin.
President Biden doubles down on his climate agenda and strangles the U.S. energy industry from thriving. Meanwhile, he has been begging authoritarian regimes such as Venezuela and Saudi Arabia to produce more oil.
While sanctioning Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, the Biden administration reportedly has relied on Russia to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran, which would shower another murderous regime with billions of dollars to fund terrorism worldwide. The Saudis wouldn’t even take Biden’s call because they were upset that Biden’s deal with Iran would bring new instability in the Middle East. Has any other U.S. president been humiliated like this before?
Don’t be fooled by White House spokesperson Jen Peski’s claim that the administration has done nothing to tramp U.S. energy producers because there are over 9,000 leases for drilling. As Katie Pavlich explained, “Leases for drilling are not the same thing as permits. You can have tons of leases (WH claims 9000) and no permits. Permits can take ages to get approved by the government, federal and local.”
Don’t even get me started on Biden’s so-called climate czar, John Kerry. He is less concerned about Ukrainians’ sufferings but more worried about the “massive emissions consequences.” He doesn’t want Russia’s invasion to distract Putin from the “real existential” crisis -- climate change.
Biden’s transportation secretary scolded us to stop worrying about high gas prices if we drive electric vehicles. Millionaire comedian Steve Colbert, who isn’t very funny, told America that he has no problem seeing $15 per gallon of gas because he drives a Tesla.
Tesla ranges in price from around $80,000 to about $40,000. The median household income in the U.S. was $67,521 in 2020, which meant 50% of Americans made less than that amount in 2020, and they couldn’t afford Teslas. Not Steve Colbert, whose salary in 2020 was $16 million. In addition to the fact that many Americans can’t afford EVs, about 61% of electricity generation was from fossil fuels, and 20% from nuclear, which means driving EVs doesn’t reduce demand for fossil fuels. But don’t count on the woke left to understand the facts or to feel our pain. They have repeatedly shown us that they don’t care about ordinary Americans throughout the pandemic.
Economists predict that inflation hasn’t peaked yet. They warn that the U.S. economy is entering into a 1970s’ style stagnation: high inflation accompanied by little growth. Jimmy Carter should thank Biden for making him look like a genius.
Besides ruining our economy, wokeism has weakened other areas of our Republic. Take the U.S. military. After patting itself on the back for diversity and inclusion, the U.S. military decided last year that it would "lower the standards of the Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) because 'biological differences' between men and women were resulting in an appalling failure rate among women.
As the Russian military is raining bullets and bombs on Ukrainian cities, killing both the Ukrainian military and civilians, the U.S. Army is "putting its soldiers through training on gender pronouns and coaching officers on when to offer soldiers gender transition surgery." The U.S. Navy announced that it wouldn't deploy a warship because the ship's captain wouldn't get COVID19 vaccination, so the Navy " has lost confidence in his ability to lead." Raise your hand if you seriously believe that lowering training standards, gender pronouns, and COVID19 vaccination will protect Americans from foreign adversaries’ missiles and tanks.
Wokeism has done severe damage to our nation's education system. As the New York Daily puts it, “we’re in a full-blown educational emergency.” In the name of equity, the woke left has been actively lowering education standards, gutting AP math and the gifted and talented programs, eliminating merit-based admissions to elite high schools, dropping SAT and ACT from college admissions. Rather than teaching kids 2+2=4, the woke left is indoctrinating American children with the Critical Race Theory and age-inappropriate over-sexualized content.
Want to hear something even more ridiculous? Early this month, the California Supreme Court decided that UC Berkeley must reduce its student enrollment because woke Berkeley residents claimed that the growing student body harmed the environment.
Does America have a future when the next generation grows up, believing that white supremacy rules America and this nation is morally bankrupt, that knowledge and merits are racist, the color of their skin predetermines everyone's destiny, and they shouldn't have kids because earth is going under the water in 10 years due to climate change?
I grew up in a repressive regime -- Communist China. I count one of the biggest blessings in my life is to become an American citizen. The freedom and prosperity Americans have enjoyed are unprecedented in human history. But we are losing this republic fast. The woke left has taken control of our academia, government, corporations, media, and military. They are actively working to bury this great American experiment and replace it with a Marxist regime. No nation, not even this great country, can withstand wokeism's constant assaults.
Hemingway famous said that when something bad happens, “It occurs first very slowly, then all at once.” Our nation’s decline has passed slow stage. The most important question we Americans need to ask ourselves is this: are we going to be a passive witness of America's decline or are we going to do something about it?
As sobering as this was to read over what you wrote, what you state here is all true, Helen. It is very upsetting to think about the arrogance, entitlement, and uncaring disposition of those in positions of power and influence in terms of how they advocate and lobby for destructive policies and programs. Fink is especially harmful, so thank you very much for continuing to bring up his hypocrisy, as he advocates ESG for companies on one hand all the while kowtowing to totalitarian regimes on the other. It also pains me greatly to know that there are young people who will defend despotic states like North Korea and Cuba while simultaneously attacking the United States. There are times where it seems like we inhabit different worlds than them.
At the same time, knowing there are individuals like the fathers you interviewed in San Francisco, those who see the unraveling of a country they view as one of hope, that in turn gives me hope that all is not lost and things can turn around for the better. Your own story and testimony of what you have accomplished and done in this country inspires many (and as someone who works in the financial sector, for you to obtain a CFA is an incredible achievement and is a personal inspiration for me and my goals in this industry). You and others are fighting the good fight, and it’s greatly appreciated, ma’am.
Great article, Helen. I agree with everything you wrote. The "woke" narrative makes everything in our lives worse, makes us weaker in the face of our foreign enemies, and undermines the foundations of our great country. But like Mr. Richardson, I think people are starting to wake up, and that things could turn around for the better.
Many thanks to you for alerting people to the dangers of wokeism and leftism. You've lived under communism, and it's given you a better understanding and appreciation of freedom than many other Americans seem to have. Keep up the good work.