On Friday, protesters in London flew a Trump baby balloon over the city.  I saw one Facebook commenter refer to the protesters as a “woke remnant.”

But are Trump haters really woke?

Nah. I don’t think so.

Most people who hate Trump hate him because they believe he will use the power of government to transform the world into something they don’t like.

The most recent freak-out was over the SCOTUS pick. One person I know said Trump is waging a “war on women” and is pushing to make abortion illegal. Another big issue revolves around Trump administration policies regarding immigrants. Many people see them as racist – or at least unjust. Trump protesters also fear he will scrap important regulations and programs imposed by the former regime.

In a nutshell, Trump haters are afraid that he will undo things their politicians managed to get done while they were in power, or that he will do things to impose his worldview on them. In many ways, I think the visceral hatred is really fear. They fear Trump holding the reins of power because of what he might do with it.

What they fail to realize is that there is a big chunk of people on the other side of the fence who are giddy today because they finally have access to power. When Obama was in office, they felt just like never-Trumpers do now. They feared Obama would use his position of power to impose his worldview on them. And of course, he did. Now that their guy is in power, the roles have reversed. Now it’s their turn wield the hammer.

When you really think about it, these groups of people make up two sides of the same coin. They have vastly different views of the world, but both embrace the same method to accomplish their goals. They want to harness the power of the state to force their vision for the world on everybody else. They want to use power to impose their moral framework on the unwilling heathen. Their ends differ, but they utilize the same means – government. And at its core, government is coercion, force and violence. Think about it. Every government edict is ultimately enforced at gunpoint.

Politics is nothing but a wrestling match for power that allows the winner to literally force the loser to bow down and bend to their will.

The problem isn’t Trump. And it wasn’t Obama. The problem is the power. The problem is the state. The problem is thinking that using coercion, force and violence is an acceptable way to order society.

The left has spent decades expanding the scope and power of government. Now those same people are horrified because a guy like Trump managed to grab hold of the levers that control that power. Well, maybe they should have thought about that when they were creating the monster. I guess they figured they would always be able to control it. But they should have seen it coming. When you admit the use of force, it’s eventually going to get turned against you. There’s always a Trump out there lurking in the shadows. The smart thing is not to let institutions accumulate that much power to start with.

So, I don’t view the Trump protesters as “woke.” They are no different than the right-wingers they loathe. Sure, they have different goals. In some cases, they have a better vision for society. But they are every bit as violent and ugly as the people they are fighting. “Woke” is looking for a better way to organize society than politics – a better way than ramming your way down everybody else’s throat at gunpoint.