The Good Ole Deception

How ‘Wokeness’ Made the Golden Age

“Make America Great Again.”

It’s a powerful slogan.

It promises safety, pride, identity — a return to something pure and strong.

But the question has always been:

Return to what, exactly?

For many MAGA supporters, “the good ole days” seem to conjure the 1950s through the 1980s — a time of middle-class expansion, family stability, and cultural confidence. Yet when we look closely, a deeper truth emerges:

Those decades were made better not by isolation, fear, or authoritarianism —

but by the steady march toward awareness, compassion, and belonging.

In other words: what MAGA calls the “problem,” was actually the progress.

The Truth About the “Good Ole Days”

Let’s start with the most invoked era: the 1950s.

It’s remembered by many as the golden age of American prosperity — suburban homes, steady jobs, rock’n’roll, and Sunday dinners. But underneath the surface:

The Civil Rights Movement was awakening. Black Americans were organizing against segregation and demanding to be treated as full citizens.
Women were questioning their confinement to domestic roles and beginning to plant the seeds of the feminist movement.
LGBTQ+ people were criminalized, surveilled, and often institutionalized.
Indigenous communities were still suffering the effects of forced removals and boarding schools designed to erase their culture.

It was not a golden age for everyone.

It was a time when the Weave of America was rigid and exclusionary — and yet, it was beginning to unravel just enough to let light in.

So who was in charge during this “great” time?

Eisenhower (Republican) expanded Social Security and warned against the military-industrial complex.
The real movement came from below — by Black women, gay artists, union organizers, student protesters — not by those holding power, but by those speaking truth to it.

What About the 1980s?

Many point to Reagan’s America as a cultural high point — strong military, economic boom, patriotism. But the deeper truth is:

The AIDS crisis was ignored, leading to the death of hundreds of thousands of mostly gay men before activists forced the government to act.
Feminists and civil rights leaders kept pushing for inclusion and equity.
Punk, hip hop, and queer art flourished not because of conservatism — but in resistance to it.
Reagan himself signed progressive immigration reform and worked with Democrats to raise taxes when necessary — actions today’s MAGA leaders would condemn.

The strength of the 1980s came not from purity, but from contradiction — from wokeness in motion, even as it was being resisted.

Wokeness Is What Made It Great

Here’s the hard truth:

The “good ole days” were
built by people who fought to expand belonging

not by those who sought to keep it small.

Schools were integrated because of civil rights activists.
Workplaces became safer because of unions and regulators.
Women’s lives improved because of reproductive freedom and access to work.
LGBTQ+ folks found pockets of safety because they dared to be seen, even when it was dangerous.

Wokeness isn’t the poison — it was the antidote.

It was — and still is — the slow, sacred work of saying:

“You belong, too.”

So Why the Deception?

Because power often prefers memory to be foggy.

Because if people realized that the warmth they miss came from shared belonging, not control,

they might stop reaching for the past and start reimagining the future.

Nostalgia is powerful.

But it becomes dangerous when it’s weaponized against the very people who made progress possible.

MAGA wants to return to a fantasy.

But the real story is this:

America was never great because it was perfect.

It became great each time it chose to grow.

To see.

To include.

To heal.

And those choices — the wokeness that MAGA now attacks —

are what gave us every step toward greatness we’ve ever taken.

Let’s not be deceived.

Let’s keep weaving — wider, braver, and brighter.

Because the best days aren’t behind us.

They’re still being made.

Let me know if you’d like this formatted for Medium or illustrated with quotes from historical figures. We can also turn this into a spoken word video or PSA if you feel called to spread the remembering. 🕯️🌿🧶