Crazy About Kamala
Trump is not smarter or better looking than Kamala Harris, but they're somehow even in the polls. What gives?
For this addition of Woke Wednesday, I’ll start by explaining the irony of my use of “woke” for my Hump Day rants.
If you don’t know what '“woke” is, you might be asleep—but the truth is no one does. To folks on the right side of the political spectrum, “woke” is a bogeyman or placeholder for lunatic lefty stuff like “drag queen story hour” and gender-neutral Mr. Potato Head. For those on the left, it’s about the ways we (should) stand up or show up for social justice. For example, I mentioned a month ago that I was called “woke” for standing up for an unemployed woman who branded herself “desperate” on LinkedIn and launched a movement of digital desperados.
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I do not identify as “woke.” My goal is not to make myself look righteous by virtue-signaling my staunch opposition to racism post-George Floyd (as if that were the first time a white cop killed an innocent black man) or proclaiming to a group of white people what indigenous nation’s land I am currently occupying after I introduce myself at a meeting. (Yes, this is a thing.)
Sorry if this triggers you, but Madman Matt doesn’t have time for symbolism or personal piety masquerading as politics. Madman Matt is a believer in COLLECTIVE ACTION. Both words should be emphasized: “Collective” because one angry, passionate person can’t do diddly shit alone; “Action” because doing shit (not complaining about it) is what changes the world.
Sure, I could dress up like a drag queen and deliver a provocative history lesson to unsuspecting fourth graders on who used to occupy the land now known as Washington, D.C, and why it’s unjust that it’s been desecrated by an unaccountable, imperialist government. But unless I’m willing to take off my high heel and jam the spike into the head of a government official (for example)—talk is cheap.
Moving on to a less serious subject: Donald, Duck! is clearly trolling our “woke” sensitivities by implying that he’s smarter than Vice President Kamala Harris by calling her “stupid” and “low-IQ” and explicitly stating at one of his Nazi-lite rallies that he’s better-looking. The only people who could believe the former claim are themselves stupid/low-IQ, sexist, and/or or brainwashed, and I posit that only a legally blind individual could entertain the latter claim. Love him or loathe him—the man has never been easy on the eyes (or anything else for that matter). And there’s no such thing as acing a cognitive test.
Somewhere in that small, “low-IQ” brain of his, Trump knows how much it pisses off the “woke” crowd to insult a woman of color in such a way. It doesn’t matter that it’s not gaining him any support among women or independents—trolling the “woke” is the point. And it works for him. He wouldn’t have much of a following if he didn’t offer this type of red meat regularly to the MAGA masses.
Like Pavlov’s dogs, they salivate when he attacks immigrants or liberals or Democrats or comedians or journalists or windmills or malfunctioning toilets or black athletes or “woke” activists or Rosie O’Donnell. Fear and loathing are what sustains them because they sure as hell don’t have any self-respect.
“Woke” is so easily attacked and manipulated by the right that it’s a major problem for the left. It’s often a stand-in for what’s left of “the left” because it endlessly struggles to offer a compelling vision or a united front. The right doesn’t have to divide the left because we’re already divided. We agree on almost nothing—just ask the 25 socialist/Trotskyist/Leninist groups in one city that have about 25 members each. Ask Jill Stein. Ask Cornel West. Ask the Working Families Party or the Democratic Socialists of America. Ask Bernie Standers and Elizabeth Warren. We’re atomized and scattered. Only organized labor seems capable of collective action these days.
But we should be able to agree on this: Not only is Harris better-looking and smarter than Trump—she would make a far better president. So, let’s cut the crap, hold our nose, and cast our vote. (If you haven’t voted yet, make sure you have a plan—and not just “concepts” of one.)
I don’t support the Democrats because their policies are perfect and aims are pure and true. I support them because they are the only force organized and united enough to defeat the MAGAverse. If we have to compromise some of our “wokeness” and individual sensitivities in the process of opposing such sinister forces, we soldier up—we man/woman/NB up—and we do it. It’s that simple.
If we don’t, we’re dumb, low-IQ individuals who don’t know Kamala from Camelot.