Note: So as not to confuse people who are searching for articles on Asian cooking, I have edited my spelling, changing wokism to wokeism.

There are lots of bad reasons for voting for Trump. But recently I’ve learned of a new one that needs to be stamped out right away. I’m talking about people who claim to be old style liberals, i.e. those who support free speech, who oppose coddling people who demand to be safe from “violent” speech, and who fear the seeming dominance of wokeism. 

Old style liberals are an inclusive group of people. Some would classify themselves as distraught Republicans, some as Libertarians, and some as Democrats who fear the spread of intolerance in the progressive wing of the party. Intolerance, you say? But aren’t the Democrats the big tent party? Certainly Joe Biden seems as tolerant as one could hope for in a presidential candidate.

True, Biden is moderate in so many ways. This aggravates many of the progressives, but Bernie has done a good job of persuading his unhappy followers that their cause would be better pursued under Biden than Trump. I personally know Bernie Bros who have reluctantly voted for Biden. This is why I was surprised to see an uprising of some of Bernie’s fans who are actually seeking to persuade their Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube followers to vote for Trump. 

What happened that has led to this effort? I think the number one trigger was Trump’s announcement that he was issuing an executive order that would require all federal agencies to end any diversity, equity, and inclusion training that follows the dogma of Critical Race Theory. I cannot adequately explain CRT within a blog post, but its prominence has increased following the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. The books White Fragility and How to Be an Anti-Racist, typify this thinking. White people and western civilization are irredeemably racist; white, western values are characterized by oppression of any non-white, non-western people; black people have made no progress and cannot make progress unless white people are toppled from their pedestals. 

Lots of good people are concerned about the adoption of these fundamentals of Critical Race Theory by governments, corporations, educational institutions, and arts organizations. When Trump openly challenged this dogma, some of these people suddenly decided that the country would be better off with four more years of Trump than if we elect Joe Biden. 

I loathe Critical Race Theory, but I will never vote for Trump on this basis. Trump has done so very much damage to our country that I will happily challenge CRT under a Biden administration. Our courts, the environment, health care, women’s rights, immigration policy, tax policy – none of these issues can withstand four more years of Trump. Oh, and yeah, our response to the coronavirus. 

If you admire some of the great people who are calling out Critical Race Theorists and all the other critical theories for their goofiness, please know that most of these thinking people will be voting for Joe Biden. The few who’ve suddenly decided we need Trump to stamp out this wrong headed approach are just wrong. I will happily join them to challenge this ruinous ideology once we elect Joe Biden. Please join me in this effort.

Update: Here’s a more thorough article on this same theme by Jesse Singal (I wonder why he gets paid for writing, and I don’t.) “Even If You Are, For Some Reason, A Liberal, Single-Issue Anti-Wokeness Voter, You Still Shouldn’t Vote For Trump”