The Death Of Woke

For a while, one thing I’ve railed about in this newsletter has been anything “woke.”

To be clear, “woke” isn’t everything liberals want to accomplish. While some things on their wishlist obviously are woke, a lot of it isn’t quite to that level. It’s not woke, just a bad idea.

However, there have been more than enough things that do qualify to cause a great deal of concern.

Yet recent developments offer a glimpse at what the future may hold for such far-left politicos, and it ain’t good for them.

The hard-left politics of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and the so-called "Squad," once a dominant theme for vast numbers of elected Democrats, is backfiring big-time on the party in power, top Democrats tell us.

Why it matters: The push to defund the police, rename schools and tear down statues has created a significant obstacle to Democrats keeping control of the House, the Senate and the party’s overall image.

"It's what we've been screaming about for a year," said Matt Bennett, c0-founder of center-left Third Way, which launched Shield PAC to defend moderate Democrats.

• "It's a huge problem."

The latest sign of the backlash was the landslide (70%+) recall this week of three San Francisco school board members, who were criticized for prioritizing issues like the renaming of 44 public schools — including ones honoring George Washington and Abraham Lincoln — over a return to in-person classes.

• Other factors like an abrupt admissions change to a prestigious high school were at play (all politics is local).

• But the most liberal city in the most liberal state decided that liberal activists had gone too far.

Now, I hate how Axios formats their stories, but the truth is that this one makes a very valid point.

I mean, this is San Francisco. This is a town Biden won by nearly 73 points in 2020. If ever there were a place where woke politics was going to work, it would be San Francisco.

Of course, some are already trying to blame white supremacy for the problem, despite the fact that this is the same place that elected Barack Obama in 2008 by 70 points.

Regardless, people are sick of the stupid.

See, the truth of the matter is that while there are liberals and conservatives with the odd libertarian sprinkled around, the truth is that the subject of political affiliation is far more nuanced than that.

Politics isn’t made up of people in little camps. Instead, they exist on a spectrum. Some people are more conservative or libertarian than others and others are more liberal than others.

Few people completely coexist on the exact same point.

In San Francisco, people are pretty liberal. They favor a lot of liberal policies that wouldn’t fly in most of the rest of the state, much less the nation as a whole. However, even for such liberal folks, there’s still a line.

The woke crowd, epitomized in The Squad, doesn’t seem to get that. They expect everyone to hold a particular line or else they might as well have voted for Trump.

Frankly, people get sick of that crap. They’re tired of seeing just how ridiculous the left can get.

They support trans rights but take umbrage at claims that if you don’t want to date a woman with a penis, you’re really a transphobic bastard who should be beaten to death.

They support equality but get kind of tired of being told just how racist they are simply because of the color of their skin.

While they’re clearly on the leftward end of the spectrum, they’re not in danger of falling off unlike some folks, and they’re sick of being denounced for it. They’re sick of seeing debate about renaming schools—even schools named after the man who freed the slaves—rather than getting kids back in classrooms.

All around us, we’re seeing stories about how Democrats know they’re going to be trounced in November. More rural Democrats are trying to distance themselves from the woke rhetoric like defunding the police and CRT. They say they’re not like that and are desperate to make voters aware of that fact.

Personally, though, I can’t help but notice how silent they were on that when it really mattered. They didn’t speak out against defunding police departments or even anti-cop rhetoric. They were silent when people started talking about renaming schools and tearing down statues.

They. Said. Nothing.

Now, they want people to know they’re not the same as The Squad. Frankly, I’m not convinced.

If they had an ounce of principle, they’d have called it out. They didn’t, so I find I lack any sympathy for their plight.

So, it seems that there’s an anti-woke backlash coming and that will create not a red wave in November, but a potential tsunami as things currently stand.

I mean, if woke won’t play in San Francisco, it’s damn sure not going to play Mesa, Arizona. Nor will it play anywhere else.

Yet we shouldn’t get too excited, either.

After all, while it doesn’t play in politics, it does play with the media elite who can and will use their power to try and manipulate the public into accepting things they wouldn’t otherwise.

In other words, woke ideology isn’t popular, but we’d best not think it dead or dying by any stretch of the imagination.