The Woke Factor

The scale of Kamala Harris’ Election 2024 loss revealed a broad disconnect between Democrats and a majority of the electorate.

Harris alienated Democrats’ once-reliable base of working-class voters, losing many of every race and ethnicity.

Harris’ strategy of focusing on “wokeness” – progressive social/cultural issues – while ignoring the middle and working classes’ economic, public health and safety concerns cost Harris dearly.

The Urban Dictionary defines “wokeness” as, “Self-righteousness masquerading as enlightenment.” Between “self-righteousness” and “masquerading, one could add “superficially.”

“Woke” liberals use their self-assumed “enlightenment” to dismiss opposing opinions, no matter how factual, as stupid, irrational, even evil.

“Wokeism” has become a malicious manifestation of collective insecurity for which its advocates’ false senses of rectitude and moral superiority compensate. A perverted concept of “social justice,” allows them to reject constitutional freedoms, free markets, science, social norms, the rule of law and merit in favor of racial identity, gender confusion, censorship, and socialism.

In November, Middle America pushed back against the left-liberal woke nonsense being pushed by Democrats, corporate and social media, the academy, and out-of-touch celebrities.

Election 2024 was about more than Republicans vs. Democrats. It was as much about normal Americans vs. the woke mind virus infecting institutions that, in combination, have become ground zero for “wokeness” – government, media, higher education and the entertainment industry.

Fewer than one-third of Americans self-identify as “liberal,” far fewer still as “woke,” yet Democrats and their allies have been imposing that latter minority’s mindset on all of America. Because wokeism is categorically antithetical to classical liberal values and an affront to common sense, many moderate Democrats reject it, too.

Few “woke” cultural aggressions are as illogical or inexplicable as attempts to redefine “sex” and “gender,” the “trans moralism” to which left-liberal Democrats have become politically committed.

Normal people have always accepted sex and gender as scientifically-inherent, determined at birth, and unchangeable. Only recently has opposition to that reality become left-wing political dogma.

Today, certain “woke” governments, businesses and institutions dictate that everyone – no exceptions – use “non-binary” individuals’ made-up, non-gender-specific “preferred pronouns” or risk ridicule, losing jobs, being fined or even prosecuted. Furthermore, the trans movement targets children, inspiring one online commenter to lament: “The most disturbing trend in the past few years is the destruction of the innocence of childhood in an attempt to validate insecure and sick adults.”

In September, the Trump campaign released one of its most effective campaign ads: “Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you.” The ad focused on a 2019 clip of Kamala Harris endorsing the use of taxpayer money to fund sex change surgery for transgender prison inmates, including illegals, and her support for trans athletes competing in women’s sports.

The ad resonated in both red and blue states, and contributed to Kamala’s solid thrashing.

There’s more…

A significant number of insecure, otherwise-unaccomplished, primarily-privileged wokesters have been conditioned to embrace the extreme-left’s insulting, bitterly-divisive Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) racial preference and quota programs that are corrupting governments, classrooms and boardrooms, suggesting that anyone who opposes DEI is, by definition, racist.

DEI proponents only condemn racism in theory. In practice, DEI, itself, is systemic racism, only in reverse. DEI especially disadvantages men. In 2024, Kamala Harris, who was chosen as Joe Biden’s DEI running mate for her gender and skin color, suffered her largest vote loss margins among male voters.

In fact, majorities from all racial groups oppose racial preferences. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. envisioned a multiracial American society in which everyone was treated the same without regard to skin color. A large majority of Americans agree with Dr. King.

Wokesters’ sense of moral superiority and Harris’ ambivalence was finally punctured by their inability to recognize and/or unwillingness to condemn the poisonous evil of Hamas’ wholesale slaughter of 1,400 innocent civilians in Israel, including elderly people, women, and children, even infants. Woke “feminists” ignore Hamas’ systematic sexual violence against Israeli women.

Clearly, wokesters’ protestations of moral superiority are utterly fraudulent.

Hopefully, Kamala Harris’ loss spells the end of misguided, divisive, destructive “wokeism,” along with the ancillary silliness of “microagressions,” “cultural appropriation,” and “intersectionality” that still preoccupy wokesters, but only provoke laughter among normal adults.

Some people just need to grow up. Perhaps Election 2024 will serve as the catalyst.

It could. Among other corporations, Walmart just cancelled its DEI program.

https://www.pottsmerc.com/2024/12/02/jerry-shenk-election-2024-the-woke-factor/