(RightWing.org) – After the 2008 election of President Barack Obama, the Democratic Party began lurching leftward. While Obama changed many narratives around social issues, his administration didn’t pursue extreme agendas after Republicans shellacked House Democrats in the 2010 midterm elections. Even now, the former president occasionally warns Democrats about going too far off the moderate beaten path.
Since April 2020, far-left Democrats saw an opening and exploited the pandemic. It started with social justice, corporate blackmail, and defunding the police. Since Biden took office, Democrats quickly attacked Republicans as racist and sought to enact voting rights legislation and a sweeping multi-trillion social agenda. The first failed, the second is likely to die in the Senate. In between, Critical Race Theory (CRT) took center stage in schools across America. Now that voters in Virginia and deep blue New Jersey rejected the Left’s agenda, some Democrats are warning Progressives they are too “woke” for voters. It’s threatening an all-out civil war about the direction of the Democratic Party.
Democrats Warned by Their Own to Stop the Wokeness
According to Dictionary.com, the word “woke” is a slang term used to show “an active awareness of systemic injustices and prejudices.” It first appeared in the national conscience during the summer of 2020 as corporations began donating money to social justice causes.
On November 2, in Virginia, voters flipped the decade-long reliable blue state red. The GOP won the governorship, lieutenant governorship, and the statehouse. Immediately after the election, long-time Democratic consultant James Carville blamed “wokeness” for the losses. He argued that Democrats were going too far left and allowing Republicans to define and attack woke ideas that voters don’t widely approve of in many states.
Those who agree with Carville say the left-wing of the party is defining Classical Liberals and Moderates – with their blessing. While moderates and capitalist liberals argue with the Left, they vote with them. So, their actions speak louder than words, and Republicans should continue to seize on the votes of these Democrats who are walking a tight line between activists and the voters in their party who do not align politically.
The Left Disagrees
Soon after the November 2 races were decided, far-left democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said the reason Democrats lost was simple: they moderated their campaigns and didn’t go progressive enough.
The Left argues that Moderates and Classical Liberals need to embrace their rhetoric of inclusiveness and social justice issues for working-class people. They believe that “equity” is the civil rights movement of our time.
This is a significant miscalculation by the Left. For one, only 25% of the country identifies as liberal. The rest say they are Conservatives and Moderates. In poll after poll, Biden and Democrats are losing significant support from Independents. If the White House and congressional Democrats continue to embrace policies that Independents don’t like, they will continue to bail on them as they did in Virginia. Republicans may even pick up some moderate or conservative Democratic voters.
What the Left is really saying is that wokeness is the civil rights movement of our time. Let them make the case and see what happens. Virginia is not an outlier. Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) is warning the party of what’s to come if it doesn’t abandon the Left’s agenda. If Democrats lose the House, Senate, governorships, and state legislatures in 2022, the civil war within the party could spill over.
At this point, it would be a good thing for America if that happened.
Don Purdum, Independent Political Analyst
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