Amy Walker, in her article Why Are Republicans Going After ‘Wokeness’ Instead of Going After Biden? that was published by the Cook Political Report on February 23, suggests “wokeness” will again be a major focus for Republicans in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election.
“For the last couple of years, but especially so this year, Republicans have used a war on “woke” to rally their voters,” Walker wrote.
“It feels as if there’s more energy on the right for defeating the ideology of “wokeness” than in defeating President Biden. Talk to a bunch of GOP voters and many, if not most, describe the president as mentally compromised.”
“Many think the 80-year-old president is simply a puppet who is being manipulated by liberal leaders to do their bidding. This isn’t to say that Republicans don’t want to see Biden defeated. They do. But, Biden himself doesn’t garner the same sort of intense seething and gnashing of teeth from Republicans that the prospect of another Trump term brings out in Democrats.”
So, wokeness not only energizes conservatives and is more likely to increase voter turnout on that end, but it’s also a bit of an Achilles heel for Democrats as some of its more liberal objectives are unpopular with the general public.
Implementing legislation to expand transgender rights and redefine gender identity, for example, is part of the so-called Woke Movement but not still well embraced by independents and conservative Democrats. Walker cited an article recently written by Washington Post columnist David Byler that explains the public’s reluctance towards protecting the rights of transgender people, insisting 60 percent of American adults are opposed to having any other choices apart from “male” and “female” on official documents.
In addition, the same survey presumably found that 58 percent of Americans believe transgender athletes should compete with and against the gender that matches their sex at birth. Hence, a transgender female soccer player should have to play on the men’s soccer team.
Like the idea of “defunding the police,” a concept espoused by a few liberals but woefully exaggerated by Republicans in the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election, transgender rights and gender redefinition are still unsettling across a broad spectrum of the public, including some registered Democrats.
So while the economy, jobs, crime, and education will undoubtedly be top issues in 2024, don’t be surprised if Republicans overly focus on the most liberal aspects of “wokeness” in an effort to scare and seduce independents and left-leaning moderates.
