Finally, someone asks this question, and it should be asked of every throwback GOPer who uses it. This WaPo article describes the right’s use of the word and how its being deployed as a pejorative, noting that it come directly from Black culture which is not a coincidence.
But what is it they are so upset about?
Many Republicans, however, define wokeism in starkly different terms and with varying levels of fluency — including when they are asked about the term.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) described wokeism as “cultural Marxism” in a brief hallway interview last week, naming-checking both “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling — who has been criticized for her anti-transgender comments — and a former Levi’s executive, Jennifer Sey, who decried “woke capitalism” as recent victims of the phenomenon.
Wokeism, Cruz said, “is the left seizing institutions of transmission of ideas and that includes education — K-12 and universities. It includes journalism. It includes entertainment — Hollywood, movies, TV, sports, music, video games. And it’s characterized by demanding one uniform view on any particular topic, engaging in brutal punishment for any who disagree, including most simply being canceled.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) said wokeness was very important to Alabama families and would be a “huge” part of the 2024 Republican presidential primary. But he was vague when pressed to actually define the concept, which he said he views as “more in the education field.”
“To me, education is about reading, writing and math, having an opportunity to grow up in an unbiased world — not biased — and to me that’s what all this woke stuff is, pushing one thing on our young people,” Tuberville said.
And Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), another frequent critic of wokeness, defined it in a military context, citing the recently rescinded coronavirus vaccine mandates for troops; adopting usage of different pronouns for gender; concerns about domestic extremism in the ranks; climate change preparedness efforts; and an alleged focus on “toxic masculinity.”
“I can just go on and on but there’s a lot of it out there,” he said.
Right. It’s obviously just another word for “liberal” or “stuff I disagree with.”
And for these people, of all people, to complain about “seizing institutions of education” when they are banning books, firing teachers, mandating what educators can and cannot say, is enough to make your head explode. As for private company policies to accommodate their customers and employees, well, I guess they don’t have that “freedom” either with Governors like DeSantis using the long arm of the government to dictate what they can do. Authoritarians complaining about cancel culture would be funny if it weren’t so dangerous.
Anyway:
Some political operatives are skeptical that anti-wokeism will ultimately prove a successful messaging strategy for Republicans. James Carville, a longtime Democratic strategist, generated buzz early in Biden’s first year when, in an interview with Vox, he criticized Democrats for their “faculty lounge” politics and declared, “Wokeness is a problem, and we all know it.”
Now, however, he said an interview that “I don’t use the W-word anymore” — because it originated with Black Americans “and then overeducated White people ruined the word.”
To him, the deployment of “woke” as a political attack represents the culture wars of previous eras — the latest version of dismissing coastal elites as chardonnay-swilling, latte-sipping liberals.
“It used to be that [Republicans] were kind of free traders and anti-Russia and pro-military and for entitlement reform,” Carville said. “Well, that’s all out the window. The only thing they have that unifies them is cultural resentment — ‘Let’s all attack the trans kid’ or ‘We shouldn’t tell seventh graders there are gay people because then they’ll never know.’”
Rich Thau, moderator of the Swing Voter Project — which conducts monthly online focus groups with adults who live in competitive states and voted for Donald Trump in 2016 but Biden in 2020 — conducted two focus groups last month in Florida, shortly after DeSantis used part of his inaugural address to first define and then criticize wokeism.
The findings, as he chronicled in an essay for The Bulwark, were striking, as the participants “struggled to explain what wokeism is, even in the most general of terms,” he said in an interview.
It may be a compelling argument with the Republican base, Thau said, but he is dubious it will prove successful in winning over the sorts of swing voters who can prove critical in a general election.
“The question I have now is: How effective is it as a strategy to attack wokeism among people who don’t particularly understand it?” he said. “I am looking for evidence that attacking wokeism is a strategy that converts people to that candidate’s side.”
Carville is correct. This is an old story. If you were alive during the 90s you will no doubt remember the uproar over “PC.” And I don’t think I need to remind anyone of what happened in the 1960s and 70s. This has been the story of my life.
That’s not to say that it doesn’t have any power. Backlash is real (just ask Richard Nixon.) But during all that time I have never seen the right as batshit insane as they are right now and I think the majority of the country is faced with a choice between dealing with the usual cultural evolution that is largely driven by idealistic youth and oppressed minorities and a full-on fascist movement trying to roll back the clock at least half a century.
I’m not saying that it’s in the bag by any means. As I’ve said — backlash gonna backlash. But this is a different time and it the Democrats and the center-left stays calm and focused they can beat this back.