I turn 40 this year, which will mark 20 years of reading all the news and commentary I can get my eyes on each day. Like all news junkies, I find myself falling into frequent ruts of despair, not only because news items are predominantly negative, but also because the enormity of the world makes me aware of my smallness. The world is just so big and humanity is so untenable that it’s a wonder — no, a miracle — that we cooperate to the extent that we do. And when this occurs to me, I find myself in love with the news of the world all over again and fascinated by it all the more.
The events of the past two decades have frequently stunned and humbled me. A person who pays attention is a person with opinions, and a person with opinions is frequently wrong. I’ve been wrong about most things. I’ve been surprised by almost everything.
But nothing has surprised me more than the seemingly random alliances that emerge in American politics out of the swirling storms of external events and shifting values.
For instance, after cutting my political teeth in the anti-Iraq war movement, I could have never imagined that Democrats would one day stand and applaud the appearance of former Vice President Dick Cheney in the halls of Congress. (To be fair, only a certified futurist could have called that one).
Similarly, I could have never imagined that the same Christians who censored the entertainment of my youth would link arms with free speech activists and struggle against a suddenly censorious Left.
I could have never predicted that corporate America would become the most prominent pamphleteers of progressivism, and that progressives would align themselves with monopolists and sweatshop operators in exchange for rainbows in advertisements.
But incredibly, all of this has happened. And so I approach my 40s with extreme caution.
But if I were to take a stab at predicting the strangest coalition of the coming decade (we junkies just can’t put down the needle), I’d forecast the unlikely rise of the woke patriot. Hear me out.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine underscored the already unlikely partnership between liberal Democrats and the same neo-conservatives who devised our dalliance in Iraq (and I don’t mean their ideological progeny, I mean the very same people, such as the Bulwark’s Bill Kristol and the Washington Post’s Max Boot). This ideological fusion — solidified by a shared desire to destroy alleged Trump puppeteer Vladimir Putin — quickly became an effective political movement. Just after the invasion, an avalanche of Ukrainian flags appeared on Facebook profile picture frames and local business fronts. This sudden burst of flag-waving patriotism, albeit for a country other than our own — and one that liberals would be aghast to learn is far less tolerant of all things LGBTQ — suggests that the nationalistic impulse remains alive within this political bloc. With Democratic neocons rallying the nation, Congress was able to pass $68 billion in funding for the Ukraine war effort (so far).
But if China invades Taiwan, a proposition that appears increasingly likely, this faction will struggle to remain intact. Liberal Democrats would be faced with the disorienting choice between supporting a young and vibrant democracy in Taiwan or supporting a totalitarian Leftist regime in China that they’ve long admired for standing against the true global supervillain: the U.S. itself.
(If you don’t believe that the Left considers the U.S. the world’s greatest evil, I challenge you to drive to your local university and survey students on the matter. About 10 minutes on the quad should do the trick.)
As such, many on the Left will be tempted to support China in this event. This generation of liberals has received its moral training through “privilege walks” and other crude exercises based on the theory of intersectionality. So, if given the choice between supporting China or Taiwan, which will be seen as an American proxy state, it’s likely they will favor China as a reflex since America will necessarily be viewed as the oppressor in this standoff. The woke worldview — which is, essentially, a modified Marxism that sidelines economic class struggle in favor of identitarianism — features only good guys and bad guys, oppressors and oppressed, and nothing in between. A progressive is duty-bound to ally with the latter, particulars be damned. America is white, China is a nation “of color,” and that’s that.
And yet, it will be difficult for the Left to ignore the brutal invasion and destruction of a democratic ally. Following the events of Jan. 6, the Left’s devotion to the cause of democracy has featured prominently in Democratic messaging. It would be difficult for them to wriggle away from such clearly defined commitments.
That’s why I think the Left would undergo a period of internal division following a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. One faction would remain awkwardly on the sidelines, afraid of saying the wrong thing and eager to change the subject. Another would signal support for U.S. involvement in the conflict by adding Taiwanese flags to their social media profile pictures. A third, smaller faction in academia, which has long envied China’s economic system, would happily promulgate Chinese propaganda since China’s expansion of influence would come at America’s expense.
It is from this muddle that I believe the woke patriot will emerge.
Eventually, a critical mass on the Left will become aware of China’s record on LGBTQ issues. In addition, they will be none too pleased by China’s ongoing genocide of its Uyghur Muslim population, which is a fact they have long avoided even acknowledging. Once the Left is forced to admit the realities of CCP rule, America will seem less like the regressive hellscape they pretend it is and more like the endless Pride parade it actually is. It will finally dawn on our woke brothers and sisters (and others) that their own cultural movement is the singular dominant force in American life, that they have captured every powerful non-religious institution in the land, such as the news media, corporations, Hollywood, academia, etc. And as such, they will realize how much they stand to lose should America be supplanted by China on the world stage. The woke patriot will emerge to celebrate its domestic dominance and protect its interests abroad.
And who will their unlikely allies be? Military families. Log-cabin Republicans. Neocons (we all know they won’t miss a chance to send other people’s children into war). And even many Trumpers who view China as the pinnacle of evil might join their ranks.
Together, this new coalition will wave a flag of stars and rainbow stripes. After all, our embassies already wave the Pride flag next to Old Glory. It’s only a matter of time before these symbols finally merge.
The woke patriot is coming, and it will be bigger and weirder than you could’ve dreamed. Just remember where you heard it first.
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Peter Laffin is a writer in New England. Follow him on Twitter at @Laffin_Out_Loud.
