Republicans are weak, and the holes in President Donald Trump’s self-mythology are getting bigger, yet Democrats can’t stop engaging in tired discourse.
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Once again, Democrats are playing into Republican talking points. It almost seems like they’d rather incite fights among factions of their own party than try to keep the opposition from controlling the narrative, or remind voters of the disastrous Republican reign of the past two years.
In an ABC News interview that aired Aug. 9, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, was asked about comments former Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong had made in 2020, saying the country should “cancel Thanksgiving.”
“And I have a local city councilman that has this saying ‘Woke 1 was crazy,’ and I think that what’s important is that we have to assess what a candidate is saying now,” Ocasio-Cortez said, referencing an X post by New York City Councilmember Chi Ossé.
I don’t think Hong’s comments in 2020 were smart – I don’t necessarily think they’re why she lost the Aug. 11 primary election, but I also concede that they were the perfect fodder for Republicans to attack her with. I’m just frustrated that, of all the things happening in this country, members of the left are choosing to critique one another instead of everything happening during President Donald Trump’s second term.
What does ‘woke’ even mean? Republicans managed to redefine it.
The origin of the term “woke,” as it was used in African American Vernacular English, has been around for nearly a century. R&B singer Erykah Badu popularized the phrase “stay woke” through a 2008 song; Childish Gambino used the phrase eight years later. And his song made its way into Jordan Peele’s horror film “Get Out.”
Yet somewhere along the way, “Woke 1.0” became a way to denote any social progress that happened in the aftermath of Trump’s first election – likely because of Republicans’ rebranding of the phrase to refer to anything left of center. Suddenly, things like the #MeToo movement and putting pronouns in your Instagram bio became acts of social justice that were too much for the GOP to bear.
Therefore, it had to be destroyed, and the party has spent the years since 2020 fighting to get rid of everything from critical race theory and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives to drag story times and attacks on trans people – things, I might add, we are still seeing today. Anything that told the truth about this country’s bigoted history or made Republicans uncomfortable became woke, and therefore the enemy.
But that doesn’t mean that these progressive takes were wrong, even if they were poorly explained at times.
The 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in North Carolina were about the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, but they were also about the incessant presence of White supremacy in the state. That year, on Juneteenth, protesters ripped away the Confederate monuments that sat at the state Capitol for over a century, leading then-Gov. Roy Cooper to order the statues to be removed from the grounds.
If we had waited on the North Carolina General Assembly to do something, we would have been waiting another 100 years.
While I do not advocate for the destruction of property, I think my home state is better off without these statues.
Americans are frustrated with Trump, but Democrats would rather fight each other
As Democrats are fighting among one another and trying to correct the record on their 2020 statements, Republican extremism is actively destroying the country.
The national debt just passed $40 trillion, putting us on the precipice of a full-blown economic crisis – even though Trump and other GOP politicians ran on the premise that they would improve the U.S. economy. The war with Iran is increasing the cost of fuel and other necessities, costing Americans at least $1,200 per household, according to the Center for American Progress.
Despite the squeeze on our wallets, Trump’s spending is not slowing down:
Meanwhile, Americans are increasingly frustrated with the cost of living, and recent polling from Reuters/Ipsos shows that almost half the country believes that this is the most important issue heading into the November midterm elections.
Instead of answering questions about “woke” head-on, Democrats would be wise to pivot the conversation toward the insane costs of Trump’s presidency. The Democratic Party doesn’t need to be fighting and isolating members of its own party in the hopes of capturing imaginary “moderate” voters.
Republicans are weak, and the holes in Trump’s self-mythology are getting bigger, yet Democrats can’t stop engaging in tired discourse.
Republicans are weak. Democrats need to capitalize on it.
I am hesitant to say that “wokeness” led to incisive changes throughout the United States. In fact, I would say that the backlash to “woke” has been more effective than the actions taken by Democrats during the “1.0” era.
I don’t think that progressives should back away from social policy – after all, at least trying to understand the way race, class, gender and sexuality affect our society, and therefore our systems, should be expected of those governing diverse swaths of people.
Democrats aren’t necessarily doing a great job of standing firm in their beliefs. But they should be working to control the narrative on economic issues and brushing aside conversations that aren’t going to lead to wins in elections.
Ultimately, “woke” is just another buzzword Republicans have co-opted from Black Americans to disparage anyone who is willing to speak out against injustice. It’s played out, the same tactics used repeatedly with Mad Libs-style press releases so that fervent GOP supporters will be rage-baited enough to vote.
Their voters don’t seem to have gotten bored yet – probably because it’s a lot easier to blame marginalized communities for society’s shortcomings than to admit that you were wrong about the politicians you voted into office.
Democrats would be wise to remember all of this when trying to diminish “wokeness” as it has been defined by the right. While we argue about who was right six years ago, Republicans will keep stripping away rights for the most marginalized, while lying and saying that this targeting is fixing the economy. Democrats have to lock in and remember that we won’t be able to have these conversations if the United States heads further into chaos.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Sara Pequeño on Bluesky: @sarapequeno.bsky.social