Steve Corbin is Professor Emeritus of Marketing, University of Northern Iowa
Charlie Chaplin once said, “A day without laughter is a day wasted.” Life around my Dad (Lester Corbin, 1909-2000) was filled with jokes, teasing and what became known as “Lester’isms.” Raised around the humor of Red Skelton, Redd Foxx, Jonathan Winters, Rodney Dangerfield, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Laurel and Hardy, plus a subscription to MAD Magazine, I was programmed to seek out laughter.
If these comedians were living today, their take on the GOP’s recent “cancel woke culture” would even make card-carrying Republicans laugh. There are over 400 companies, products and individuals GOP party leaders are calling for to be “canceled” (i.e., boycotted) because they either questioned Donald Trump’s leadership or took a stance on racism, sexuality, gender, race, diversity, equity, inclusion, social injustices, wellness and life balance that counters Republican values. Here are some examples:
- United, American and Delta Airlines? Canceled!
- Avis, Budget, Enterprise and Hertz car rental? Canceled!
- McDonalds, Starbucks, Chick-Fil-A, Cracker Barrel, Golden Corral, Taco Bell, IHOP and Red Lobster? Canceled!
- Sports lovers: NFL, NBA and MLB? Canceled!
- HBO and Netflix? Canceled!
- French fries? Yes, French fries. Canceled!
- Harley-Davidson? Couldn’t be canceled!
- Hershey, Procter & Gamble, Kelloggs, Nabisco, Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola? Canceled!
You just have to do an internet search on “list of things conservatives have canceled” as well as “Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom.” Guaranteed, you will laugh.
It’s ironic the Republican Party purport to believe in free enterprise yet are opposed to corporations’ pro-environmental, pro-social and pro-governance (ESG) woke factors of running a successful business. Plus, GOP candidates must be oblivious to the fact that the majority of registered Republicans support corporations’ ESG endeavors (Center for American Progress Action Fund).
Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “woke” as being “aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues—especially issues of racial and social justice.” Being woke is about being alert to racial prejudice and discrimination, being vigilant toward social issues and challenging oppression.
Martin Luther King once said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Racial and social justice issues matter. For this reason alone, there is a “compelling case to be woke and choose growth.”
The younger strata of America (Millennials; ages 27-42 and Generation Z; ages 11-26) are America’s most pro-woke culturally aware group who are fighting for social justice, equal rights and equal opportunity. Next, they are the most active social media users who readily broadcast their fight against injustice, intolerance and discrimination. Finally, Millennials are the largest electorate population and the Gen. Z voter turnout in 2022 was higher than that of Gen. X’ers (43-58 age range) and Millennials.
Logic reasons that with the Republican Party touting their cancel woke culture belief, more young voters (ages 42 and under) will purposely avoid GOP candidates in the 2024 election. Voters older than 42 will soon – if not already – also rebel against the GOP’s cancel woke culture folly.
Which Republican presidential candidates support the cancel woke culture and aren’t grasping issues like gender pay gap, gender discrimination, racial inequality, racial injustice, LGBTQIA rights, sexual harassment, sexual assault, environmental and climate change, First Amendment rights, Nazi-like book banning, fair voter registration and unencumbered voting opportunity? They include former president Donald Trump, former vice-president Mike Pence, Gov. Ron DeSantis, Gov. Doug Burgum, former Gov. Nikki Haley, Sen. Tim Scott and Vivek Ramaswamy. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has rejected his GOP peers’ cultural war rhetoric.
The GOP’s 2020 presidential election campaign had no platform and we saw how that worked out. The Republicans’ 2024 cancel woke culture platform, which only 24% of Republican voters support, will be quite the joke come Nov. 5, 2024.
Americans must be compassionately woke to racial and social justice issues. Otherwise, you must be asleep. Are you woke or asleep?
References:
- Jordan Wolman, GOP’s `anti-woke’ campaigns have voters hitting snooze, Politico, Aug. 23, 2023
- Naia Toke, Wokeism: What does it mean, why is it important and why we need to support it, Diversity for Social Impact, July 13, 2023
- Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom, https://www.netaxpayers.org/archives/4956, 2001-2023
- Shantini Rajasingam, Woke culture: The good, the bad and the ugly, The Karyawan, Oct. 15, 2021
- William S. Becker, Actually, it’s good to be woke, The Hill, Nov. 19, 2022
- Cathleen A. Cerny-Suelzer and Susan Hatters Friedman, Be woke, choose growth, Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, March, 2022
- Rex Huppke, The Republican Party has become the very cancel culture it presents to rail against, USA Today, May 7, 2023
- List of things Conservatives have “canceled,” https://www.thealmightyguru.com/Wiki/index.php?title=List_of_things_Conservatives_have_%22canceled%22
- Jonathan Weisman, Are G.O.P. voters tiring of the war on `wokeness’?, The New York Times, Aug. 6, 2023
- Kara Voght, Young Republicans are begging party elders to stop saying `woke’, Rolling Stone, March 5, 2023
- Fabiola Cineas, Where the war on woke goes from here, Vox, Sept. 1, 2023
- Philip Elliott, Some in GOP see `woke’ rhetoric as lazy. Then there’s Ron DeSantis, Time, June 7, 2023
- Patrick Coffee, Marketers maintain diversity focus despite outside pressures, lawsuits, The Wall Street Journal, Sept. 26, 2023
- Pew Research Center Staff, Americans, Politics and Social Media, Pew Research Center, Oct. 15, 2022
Disclosure: Steve is a non-paid freelance opinion editor and guest columnist contributor (circa 2013) to 172 newspapers in 32 states who receives no remuneration, funding or endorsement from any for-profit business, not-for-profit organization, political action committee or political party.
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.