Opinion

L&T Publisher Earl Watt

It’s no secret that I am a Disney fan. First and foremost a Walt Disney fan. The man influenced culture in a way few could match in the past century. His imagination has provided our family with lifetime memories by visiting his parks and watching his movies.

The idea that Walt would turn over in his grave with what has happened to his company is also justified. It’s the same story around other parts of corporate America where the Woke movement planted its flag and demanded full compliance to its world view that was the antithesis of family values, faith and tradition.

America was on the brink of separation if the Woke movement would have been able to dictate national policy for four more years.

But in just four weeks of a new president, wokeism is being withdrawn, and it is now okay to be husband and wife, Christian and proud of your country again.

That doesn’t mean, as critics will scream at the top of their lungs, that those with alternative lifestyles are at risk.

Men can dress as women if they choose. They just can’t compete against actual women in sports.

The DEI extension of wokeism, the militant compliance of these fringe concepts, has also been rolled back even at the Disney company. With the realization of facing lawsuits for illegal hiring practices, Disney has withdrawn from the DEI movement, which is really a scaling back of wokeism.

For one, it is illegal to hire based on race or sexual preference.

Those who claim DEI was necessary to create fairness in the workplace don’t understand what fairness in the workplace means. Fairness is not using physical attributes as a means for employment. The Equal Employment Opportunity Act, the Civil Rights Act and other legal protections have already made it illegal to discriminate in the workplace.

Major national brands who were bullied by the Woke crowd are now complying with the law and ending discriminatory practices.

That doesn’t mean they have become conservatives.

Far from it.

The reaction to these moves has been the typical hair-on-fire response the far left usually does when they don’t get their way.

The Democratic Party has been hijacked by the fringe group, and they are experiencing an involuntary reckoning. The reasonably minded Democrats  are willing to seek common ground, but the power structure of the party still in the hands of the Woke are resisting despite the overwhelming popularity of the programs being rescinded.

Look no further than the treatment of Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams. As long as he carried the Woke water, he was a Democratic Party darling. But as soon as he pointed out the crimes happening in his city by some of the illegal immigrants as well as the added cost to operating the city, he reached out for help from the Biden Administration.

He didn’t get it, and when he criticized the response, he got what all critics of the Biden Administration got — a subpoena and federal charges.

Did other members of the party step up to defend Adams?

Of course not. Just this weekend several powerful Democrats went on the news circuit of the legacy media to throw him under the bus and accuse him of receiving dropped charges in exchange for his cooperation in fighting illegal immigration.

It’s not unlike Democratic mothers in Texas who didn’t agree with border policy and were ostracized by their party peers.

These mothers claimed the only people willing to listen to them were Republicans.

Tulsi Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the list goes on and on of Democrats who didn’t buy in to the Woke movement and were vilified by the party leadership.

Young girls, teenage girls and women gathered with Donald Trump to sign the ban on men in sports, something that a New York Times poll showed that 79 percent of Americans support.

But Democratic leadership and their allies in legacy media make it appear that the truth is the opposite.

The open border position of the DEI woke also came in to conflict with Hispanics who believed immigrants should follow the rules, and the law, when coming to America. It also conflicted with other minority communities in cities where major resources were diverted from their communities to deal with illegal migrants.

The concept of trying to create the idea that minority communities can unite against the false idea that race bias is what drives America collapsed when minority groups were placed in the unenviable position of having to choose one minority over another.

That’s the problem with Wokeism. It eventually eats its own tale.

In its place marriage is on the rise, families are seen as the ultimate “safe place,” and merit is again rewarded. We are pushing excellence over identity and your uniqueness isn’t found in your skin color or sexual preference but your character.

The concept that government is the only path to success is under fire as waste, fraud and abuse is being uncovered at the national level that has shown favoritism and financial success worked for the lawmakers and bureaucrats at the cost of the rest of us.

After decades of promises to uncover the waste, Trump is actually doing it, and those who have benefitted from USAID and other government handouts to the billions are trying to make Elon Musk the bad guy for discovering the abuse of the money.

This social realignment happened just in time to save America from the same downfall that has occurred to every major national power in human history.

Ronald Reagan said we were only a generation away from losing freedom. We were actually one election away. As we make our way back to limited government, we have a chance to reclaim our freedom and our nation. Let’s hope we take it.