PAGE A10, KEIZERTIMES, JUNE 18, 2021
Wokeness vs. authoritarianism
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Happy Father's Day
on my
mind
By LYNDON ZAITZ
Everyone has a father. We all think we
have the best dad in the world and we're all
right.
You have to admit mothers have better
publicity, but dads are every bit as import-
ant as dear mom. A mom can teach her child
how to throw a ball or use a hammer but
generally we look to dad to learn those skills.
My dad, Clarence, is father to four boys
and one girl. Regardless of old we get, your
dad will always be your dad. The Zaitz
children are lucky to have Clarence as our
father. For one, he has always been there.
Each of us has been shaped by the teachings
of Daddy Zaitz. We can all swing a hammer,
plant a garden and most importantly, have a
fine-tuned sense of curiosity.
My dad spent his career in the world of
journalism—as a reporter and as owner of
several publications, including the Keizer
Times, the forerunner to the Keizertimes.
That curiosity has done well for his children
We all ask questions. Lots of questions. We
want to know things: how, when, why and
where.
The 'where' part has given us experiences
many of our peers didn't have. Dad always
wants to know where 'that' road leads to, or
what's around the bend.
When dad learned of Oregon's gold
history, he didn't waste a minute. Soon our
family of seven was spending most summer
weekends along Quartsville Creek in Linn
County, cracking open the creek bed and
panning for gold. While we never found
the large nuggets he dreamed of, we had
the best times on the creek swimming and
camping.
Without his careeer we never would have
taken six-week road trips around the coun-
try, poking into remotes parts of America.
We all inherited his travel bug.
Dad celebrated his 91st birthday this
week and is as spry as ever, traveling as
always, seeking new places to see—which
is nigh impossible since he and mom have
traveled to every corner of the country,
many times.
We all have fathers. They are all the best
in the world. Some are bester. Like my dad,
Clarence.
(Lyndon Zaitz is publisher of the
Keizertimes.)
By MICHAEL GERSON
America is in a contest of contending
nightmares.
The dreams of conservatives are cur-
rently troubled by “wokeness” and criti-
cal race theory. As with most nightmares,
there is a grain of truth within such
terrors.
For most people, wokeness involves
being mindful of the cruel and oppres-
sive portions of American history, being
alert to persistent structural racism
and being determined to right past and
present wrongs. This is the theory that
attracted many people to street protests
last summer. By this standard, count me
as woke.
But there is an academic version of
critical race theory that goes a great deal
further. In this variety of postmodern-
ism, all power structures are rotted to the
core by white supremacy. The ideals of
democracy—pluralism, freedom, the rule
of law, even reasoned debate itself—are
myths or narratives serving the privi-
leged. In this view, politics is no longer
a contest of ideas. It is a fight for power,
a zero-sum struggle between oppressor
and oppressed. This type of wokeness
involves seeing through the preten-
sions of a free society and favoring the
oppressed in every instance.
The distinctions here are not minor.
There is a difference between using crit-
ical race theory as a tool to understand
unjust power structures and believing
that every outworking of Western dem-
ocratic theory is inherently unjust. There
is a difference between examining the
disturbing truths of American history
and denying the existence of objective
truth and the possibility of persuasion.
In contrast, the nightmares of pro-
gressives are currently dominated by the
growth of right-wing authoritarianism
and fascism. In these fears, there is more
than a grain of truth.
Large elements of the American pop-
ulist right mythologize the nation’s past
rather than face its failures. They dismiss
real news as fake and embrace obvious
propaganda. They are anti-intellectual
to the point of denying lifesaving scien-
tific truths. They fear diversity and target
racial, ethnic and religious minorities
for resentment. They cultivate a sense of
victimhood by warning of arrogant elites
and vast conspiracies. These are not
isolated ailments; they are the textbook
symptoms of a fascist political infection.
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VOICES
Some on the left want to use these
trends to discredit the entirety of mod-
ern conservatism. They contend that
authoritarianism and fascism are the log-
ical, necessary outgrowth of the political
approach that emerged with the presi-
dential nomination of Barry Goldwater.
In this view, Goldwater is Richard M.
Nixon, who is Ronald Reagan, who is
Jack Kemp, who is George W. Bush, who
is John McCain, who is Mitt Romney,
who is Donald Trump. This a raving,
slanderous absurdity. The existence of a
principled, tolerant, constructive party of
the right in American politics is not only
a possibility; it is a crying need.
In comparing the right’s fear of
extreme critical race theory and the left’s
fear of fascism, it is not really useful to
ask which horror would be worse if imple-
mented. Both ideologies are ultimately at
war with liberal democracy—the pursuit
of a common good, the practice of incre-
mental reform, the cultivation of social
trust and the acceptance of democratic
outcomes.
But it is crucial to ask which night-
mare is currently most likely to be imple-
mented. And here there is no question.
Extreme wokeness—the enforcement
of ideological sameness through intim-
idation, the illiberal silencing of com-
peting voices, the canceling of human
beings for relatively minor infractions,
the forced, ritual renunciations of pre-
vious views—is a problem on some col-
lege campuses, in some newsrooms and
within some corporate cultures. And I
don’t want to minimize such excesses.
But seriously now. Only one of these
nightmares has taken over a major polit-
ical party, which is in the process of
purging all dissent. Only one of these
delusions is the governing vision of
a former president who just might be
president again. Only one of these devel-
opments has turned the backbones of
the minority leader of the House, the
minority leader of the Senate and almost
every other Republican leader into gelat-
inous goo. Only one of these ideologies
produced a crowd that sacked the U.S.
Capitol and threatened violence against
political leaders. Only one of these move-
ments is working in state legislatures
across the country to make electoral sys-
tems more vulnerable to manipulation
and mob rule.
It is important to confront every
source of illiberalism in American life.
Social justice leaders such as Frederick
Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, the Rev.
Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis
shared a common belief. They saw solu-
tions to America’s worst sins in the more
radical application of America’s highest
ideals, not in their abandonment.
But this does not mean that all such
challenges to democracy are equal.
Right-wing authoritarianism is the force
that could undo the American system. In
a contest of nightmares, it is not even a
contest.
(Washington Post)