It’s Too Soon to Say Wokeism Is Dead
When it comes to reshaping culture, a single victory, however lopsided, is not the end of the war.
A view of a movie poster during the "Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement" screening on May 24, 2016 in New York City.
Photographer: D Dipasupil/Getty Images North AmericaIt is easy to conclude that the woke revolution met its Waterloo on Nov. 5. The Republicans ran the most unwoke man in America for the presidency and were amply rewarded for it. A post-election analysis by the polling company Blueprint discovered that the top reason why swing voters eventually supported Trump over Harris was culture (+28) followed by inflation (+23). Trump lieutenants, such as his Vice President-elect J.D. Vance and his nominee for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, regard the destruction of the “woke regime” as a top priority.
The Democratic establishment is already blaming the woke wing of the party for the loss. James Carville, Bill Clinton’s legendary campaign director, has blamed the loss squarely on the party’s failure to distance itself from “woke era” politics. MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, the former Republican congressman and now host of “Morning Joe,” has blamed “white elitists” and their obsession with symbolic politics. “What on earth is Latinx? No Latino person uses the word Latinx, but people spouted this because they felt they had to.”