As the 2024 election madness accelerates, it seems that the primary campaign tactic by right-wing Republican candidates is to smear Democrats as hopelessly “woke.” That word is now one of the most-searched terms in the English language: ” … historic use as a past-tense to ‘wake,’ but now a general pejorative for anyone appearing left-leaning.”
Last week, far-right Newsmax reporter James Rosen used his time in a presidential press briefing to try to smear Joe Biden as “woke.” After a prolonged setup, Rosen opined, “We hear so much talk about woke capitalism, a woke military, and so on. … By way of trying to clarify this for the American people, I wonder … is President Biden ‘woke’?”
The question drew audible groans from Rosen’s fellow journalists in the Briefing Room. In response, Presidential Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre changed the narrative: “The president doesn’t concern himself about what Republicans are trying to do in creating political stunts, in making an issue out of the things that they feel benefits them politically—not what matters to the American people, but what benefits them politically. … You heard him say that at the State of the Union.”
And in that address just a week earlier, President Biden had succeeded in demonstrating that whether or not he is “woke,” he’s certainly wide awake to the threats posed by the new razor-thin GOP majority in the House of Representatives. Biden provoked a rowdy outburst by the entire Republican caucus when he accurately accused some Republicans of trying to cut Social Security and Medicare. As a chorus of “boos” and catcalls erupted, Biden called their bluff by trapping them with a call to “stand up for seniors” and join him in protecting those programs.
It was high political drama, seeing these hypocritical Republicans as they visibly abandoned one of the core tenets of their “fiscal responsibility” mantra. It reminded me of nothing so much as seeing a horde of cockroaches scurrying madly for cover when you shine a flashlight on them in the middle of the night.
This is the same group that coughed up 119 votes to deny the results of the 2020 election in the dead of night on Jan. 6, 2021—only hours after the entire Congress had been attacked by a violent mob. I’d like to think that now, two years later, they would be running for their dark corners again as they are exposed to the bright light of the Justice Department and the report of the January 6th Committee.
But they’re not: Just look at the antics of Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia), Lauren Boebert (R-Colorado), Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), George Santos (R-New York) and their acolytes who hold sway in the lower house of Congress. Far-right members of Congress are brazenly and openly attacking the very foundation of American democracy by stoking fear of the “woke”—those who are different, those who engage in critical thinking (and, yes, critical race theory), those who are trying to stop the rampant spread of high-powered firearms, and those who despise the poisonous conspiracy theories of the QAnon cult.
We don’t have to be woke, but it’s vital for all patriotic Americans to be wide awake to the threats to our democracy that daily manifests itself in the GOP caucus in Congress. Maybe we could take our cues from the Wide Awake Clubs of the late 1850s.
This network of young Republican men marched in huge torchlit evening rallies throughout Northern cities to oppose slavery and the threat of Southern secession. By 1860, they boasted as many as 500,000 members and were a key part of the coalition supporting Abraham Lincoln. With multi-racial chapters in every county in the free Northern states, the “Wide Awakes” were a model of quasi-military organization, complete with a command structure, gaudy uniforms, blaring bands, fireworks, and torches. In the weeks and months after Fort Sumter, many Wide Awakes were among the first men to march into the recruiting office when President Lincoln called for volunteers to enlist in the Union Army.
The threats we face today are just as sinister as those facing the Wide Awakes in 1860: Denying democracy and the peaceful transfer of power as set forth in our Constitution. The attack dogs of the modern Republican Party are motivated by racism and xenophobia. Their “America First” foreign policy is designed to isolate America. Their domestic policy is a mashup of “cultural issues” to counter their ludicrous version of “woke-ism,” whatever that is.
Maybe I am “woke”: I’m committed to human rights and justice for all people; I believe in the reality of multi-culturalism; I hold a deep respect for the rights of women, children, and gender non-conforming individuals. I believe that there are far too many guns in America and that too many of us are victims of gun violence—even if we’ve never been shot.
Call me “woke” if you want. I’ll accept it. But also know that I’m “wide awake” and that every day and every night, I have one eye open, watching out for our democracy. Δ
John Ashbaugh is an inveterate insomniac, and accordingly he has no trouble being “wide awake.” Respond by emailing a letter for publication to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Weddings 2023.
The President has kept up a punishing schedule all week traveling to Eastern Europe to signal support for Ukraine and maintain our vital NATO alliances in containing the threat from Moscow. With his 50 years’ experience in foreign policy, he showed no sign of slowing down.
Meanwhile, GOP Congessman Matt Goetz has introduced the “Ukraine Fatigue Act” calling for a halt to US support for that beleaguered nation. And GOP Governor Ron DeSantis has stated that Russia poses no threat to its neighbors.
Clearly the GOP is asleep to that threat and too “fatigued” to lead.
Joe Biden is wide awake and working tirelessly to hold our planet together. The U.S. now must carry the burden of leadership of the Western alliance without the GOP.
I can think of no better team for this job than Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris.
The use of ‘woke’ as a pejorative is an insidious form of gaslighting, as if compassion, understanding and a sense of justice needs defending. Anyone still watching Fox after the recent revelations definitely needs to wake up.
Biden’s experience in foreign policy was summed up well by Obama’s former defense secretary Robert Gates: “he (Biden) has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the last four decades”
And, glad to see John you’re still “committed to human rights and justice for ALL people”, and you hold “deep respect for the rights of children”. Your support for the unborn children and the end to abortion is much appreciated.
I, for one, think it’s too woke to be concerned with wokeness. I’m still very much concerned about the previous, very real and not made up problems that all my good friends at Fox News made me scared of: multiculturalism, political correctness, Sharia Law, Honduran immigrant caravans, rainbow fentanyl, and furries. Have we solved those problems yet? What happened to those? Somebody help me! I’m scared and I can’t change the channel.
Today’s republican party hates anyone who is decent and grounded in reality. The GQP wants people to be stupid, cruel and amoral. That’s why they despise anybody who is “woke.”
While I enjoy the petulant trolling of former SLO city councilman Dan Carpenter every single time his former colleague pens a well-intended column, I want to kindly point out that “wokeness” has nothing to do with whatever issues he wants to discuss or co-opt. Mr. Carpenter can write his own column, as one of countless men who think they know best about what’s right for a woman’s body.
Mr. Felten is absolutely correct about what “wokeness” actually is. It’s about compassion and respect. It’s about recognizing and respecting the people around us — people who may be different than you or I, but they deserve to be treated as people regardless. Wow! What a concept.
Progressives like to consider themselves as “woke”, but in reality, they are comatose. Their compassion and respect only extend to whatever cause they are then affecting, like a seasonally fashionable wardrobe, while they lack any empathy with those who refuse to jump aboard whatever bandwagon they are riding.
Hahaha. John you’ve written about 5 pieces in the last year decrying the “woke mob”. Turns out there is no woke mob? It’s a comatose mob? And you’re scared of them because they don’t empathize with you? What are you even talking about man?
Well, Neighborhood, “woke” is just a self-bestowed characterization of the lefty lunaticery, but the more accurate “comatose” is a bit stilted and awkward, so I use their “woke”. We all count on the bizarre antics of the left to keep the term useful in mocking them.
Mr. Donegan simply wants to call us all idiots, but he so badly strives to be cute and erudite about it. Typical of his smug, better than thou, attitude.
I wonder if you can cook a chicken or a pig on a lunaticery.
Mike, I suppose you could if you stacked them high enough and used a lot of charcoal lighter, but even a rabid conservative like myself wouldn’t support using my liberal pals as firewood.
Dictionary.com has now added some useful definitions for the word “woke”. I suggest that everyone who enjoyed this commentary – and John Donegan, who never seems to enjoy much of anything- look it up on your browser.
John Donegan – let’s start first with the actual Merriam-Webster’s dictionary definition of “woke,” which is: (1) past tense and past participle of “wake;” (2) aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice).
Now let’s continue with the actual origin of the term “woke” since it appears you have no clue as to the history of the term but I’ll give you a break on that since I realize that new-world republicans hate history. The idea of “woke” or “wokeness” originated in Black American English in the early 20th century with social activists at the time calling out “Wake up!” to global Black citizens to become more socially and politically conscious. “Woke” then began as a watchword for the Black community after a musician used the term “Stay woke!” in his 1938 song, “Scottsboro Boys,” as a protest to a group of nine Black teenagers being accused of raping two white women in Scottsboro, Alabama.. In this recording, the musician says, “So I advise everybody, be a little careful when they go along through there – best stay woke, keep their eyes open.” He used that expression in explicit association with Black Americans’ need to be aware of racially motivated threats and the potential dangers of white America.
And finally, let’s end with how the term “woke” is being used currently and by whom. Once more claiming their right to refute reality thus proving themselves nothing more than dilettantes (knowledge a mile wide but only an inch deep), these new-world republicans commit cultural appropriation of the term “woke” then twist it so that they now use “woke” or “wokeness” as a derogatory term to insult anything that doesn’t agree with their narrow, uneducated opinions. Here’s just one recent example of their complete idiocy: how does “woke” or “wokeness” have anything to do with a bank failure? If these people had any actual knowledge about anything, they would know that banks fail due to deregulation and lack of oversight. However, according to republicans, the bank failed because it was a “woke bank,” which by definition means that it failed because it was “aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice). LOL!!! I swear, during their divorce from reality, republicans lost custody of their functioning neurotransmitters. And this is coming from someone who is neither a democrat or liberal..