WOKE IS GOOD — The Weekly Opine

In 2008, Barack Obama was unhesitant and transparent explaining his relationship with his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, while condemning Wright’s words. (Photos credit National Constitution Center, New York Times)

Obama manned up. Will Trump?

On March 18, 2008, presidential candidate Barack Obama delivered the speech that saved his candidacy. In his speech, Obama clarified his relationship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright while emphatically denouncing the reverend’s words. This occurred as a result of video emerging of Rev. Wright giving a sermon where he exclaimed, “God damn America!” while critiquing the unfulfilled promise of this country. (Given what is happening today in America, Wright seems more prophet than pariah.)

Obama was under intense pressure – from liberals, moderates and conservatives – to respond to his former pastor’s inflammatory statements. Essentially forced by public opinion to say something, Obama produced a cool-as-a-cucumber speech that set the modern-day bar for handling a potentially career-ending controversy.

Now, Trump is facing scrutiny like Obama faced. While no one is demanding a speech, even his most entrenched hardline MAGA supporters are shouting for Trump and his beleaguered attorney general to release the Jeffrey Epstein files. During the 2024 campaign, Trump did tell his lunatic, QAnon conspiracy-soaked followers he would release the files. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in February the Epstein files, including Epstein’s client list, were sitting on her desk and would soon be released.

Trump now backpedals, living up to his Trump Always Chickens Out (TACO) nickname. He tells us to look elsewhere. He sees no, hears no, speaks no evil. Except there is video. And photos. Lots of photos. For example, there’s a chummy photo of Trump, Melania, Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell appearing as good friends. Maxwell, convicted for her role in sexually exploiting and abusing minor girls, is now serving a 20-year prison sentence. And based on his behavior the past week, Trump sure acts like someone with something to hide.

If you are woke, you can see the photo on the left shows citizens peacefully touring the U.S. Capitol, and the photo on the right shows MAGA insurrectionists violently attacking U.S. Capitol Police. (Photos credit DCist, L.A. Times)

Back in the day, President Richard Nixon, facing the 5-alarm Watergate scandal, famously said, “People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook!” (Turned out Nixon was a crook.)

Can you imagine the president of the United States saying, “People have got to know whether or not their president is a pedophile. Well, I’m not a pedophile!” (There’s a real possibility, considering the plethora of quotes, photos and video, that Trump is a pedophile. For example, Trump once said Epstein is a “fun, terrific guy [who] likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.” Trump also surprisingly entered a dressing room full of naked and half-dressed girls at a Teen USA beauty pageant.)

Sleepwalker’s brains emerge from hibernation

Occasionally, people I know who are MAGAs toss out the word woke, as if to insult me. These are educated people, for example, former work colleagues or people I’ve known since college. They say “woke” this or “woke” that, usually dripping with derision, as if they’ve just lobbed the b-word at a woman or the n-word at a Black person or the f-word at someone who is gay. MAGAs huff and puff, steam rising from their ears and nostrils, as they bemoan how “wokeness” is ruining their beloved Confederacy. Oops, I meant beloved USA.

My response to these attacks against wokeness is to share how happy I am being woke, i.e., awake, as opposed to asleep. The accusation of being woke is a compliment.

Conspiracy-peddling MAGAs are waking up to what’s been staring at them since 2015. Their man Trump is a fraud. (Photos credit Yahoo, Bluesky, USA Today)

For example, I am woke/awake enough to recognize January 6 for what it was; a violent insurrection that attempted to overthrow our democracy. People, including cops, died. The only confusing thing about that day was Trump sitting in the White House idling while the event unfolded. I am awake enough to know that Americans pay Trump’s tariffs. I am woke enough not to be fooled by Trump’s endless bluster, a.k.a. pathological lying.

It is a glorious feeling to be “woke,” able to think for myself, with curiosity about the world and its inhabitants, including those who do not look like me and/or are from another country. Life is fuller when one experiences and appreciates diverse cultures and fine arts. What’s there to be afraid of? It’s mind-blowing seeing MAGAs live life virtually asleep, trapped like mice, completely reliant on someone telling them what to believe and what to do. It’s plain weird, considering MAGAs are worshipping a 34x felon, adjudicated rapist, who just might be a pedophile. (Epstein is on record saying he was Trump’s “closest friend” for 10 years.)

Now, sleepy headed MAGAs, many with stupidity that has no bottom, are waking up to reality: Trump raped E. Jean Carroll. He paid off a porn star. Twenty-six (26!) women accuse him of sexual assault. Daddy Trump just might be a sexual predator. Trump admitted on Access Hollywood to “[grabbing women] by the p____.” Insane, oops, I meant incensed MAGAs are burning their beloved Trump hats as they demand to see the Epstein files.

Trump and his “closest friend” Jeffrey Epstein (L). Trump, Melania, Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell (R). Melania hasn’t exactly come out in defense of her man regarding the sordid Epstein mess. (Photos credit Yahoo News, Business Insider)

‘Splaining to do

Trump is under intense heat from hardcore, conspiracy-believing MAGA foot soldiers, like those who stormed the U.S. Capitol. These loose cannons are egged on by instigators such as Steve Bannon and Megan Kelly stoking conspiracies. They demand that AG Bondi spill the beans regarding Epstein’s client list. (Given their names appear on Epstein’s airplane flight logs multiple times, there is understandable speculation that Big Tunas like Trump and Bill Clinton will turn up on Epstein’s client list.)

Democrats strategically forced House Republicans to vote on releasing the Epstein files (with 211 MAGA GOPers voting no). However, on Tuesday, fake Christian House Speaker Mike Johnson woke up and called for the release of the Epstein files. Maybe not tantamount to the handful of Republican senators who marched to the White House, in the summer of 1974, telling Nixon to step down or be impeached and convicted. Still, Johnson, along with the suddenly wide awake MAGA prototype, trashy Marjorie Taylor Greene, saying release the Epstein files could turn out to be a fissure with considerable depth.

With, or without, the release of the Epstein files, Trump should be pressured to do what Obama did. Trump needs to give a speech explaining his relationship with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Remember, Epstein in 2008 plead guilty in Florida to procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting prostitution. Coincidentally, Pam Bondi was Florida’s attorney general in 2008.

Good day (and stay awake).