What I See with Peter Fiorenza: Why the anti-woke movement helped Donald Trump become 47th American President

Why, oh why, oh why? The US election has been run and won. The result for many of us in the outside world is not what we had hoped, but scrutiny suggests it — maybe — should not have been a surprise. On January 20 next year, Donald John Trump will be inaugurated as the 47th President of the USA. I for one am not a real fan. In fact, I worry about what Trump’s somewhat isolationist policies will mean for the rest of the world — more selfishly, Australia. But I’ve had a bit of a look after the dust has settled and I reckon I’ve gained another perspective. I suppose we wouldn’t even be talking or writing about this if the US didn’t have such an influence on us Due to the fact that it is the biggest economy in the world, it does have a big impact on our day-to-day lives. To be honest, as I have got older — and maybe wiser — I’ve become more and more cynical about America and everything American. I’m just not interested. But I acknowledge its influence on the “lie of the land”. So when you hear news stories about possible reasons why the Democrats lost, it starts to resonate a little. It would seem there was a huge groundswell of anti-woke. What is woke? According to oed.com dictionary, “woke” is considered to be progressive or left-wing attitudes or practices, especially those opposing social justice or discrimination. And I think it is not so much the idea behind woke but the fact that it has been pushed to the extreme, or even misconstrued to the point that people are feeling suffocated. Perhaps, in some respects, they have become really uncomfortable. Case in point — I saw a report about 20-something males, who were formerly Democrat but decided to vote for Trump because they felt disenfranchised. It came across in the report that the young men were sick of feeling apologetic for being who they were. This is not to say I support the alpha male, or that everyone should fit into a certain pigeonhole. It would seem, at the end of the day, Americans are saying “Hey, let’s just stop and have a bit of a breather”. There is no argument that the essence of woke is not good, just or progressive, but it would seem that the result of the US election has indicated a degree of push-back. In any election, in any democratic country, there are those who will always vote one way, and it is the swinging voters who will greatly determine the outcome. And in the case of the USA, it would seem the swingers have certainly come out swinging. Peter Fiorenza hosts Sports Shed Saturday (9am to noon) and Fiorenza on Sunday (10am to noon) on Radio MAMA