New York Times Declares Wokesim Dead As ‘Polarizing’ Identity Politics Falter in 2024 Election
Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via AP
The New York Times essentially wrote a eulogy for wokeism on Saturday, noting the “polarizing” identity politics of the far-left have faltered in 2024 while Vice President Kamala Harris has publicly bragged about gun ownership.
Times reporter Jeremy Peters noted that moods and behaviors that were prevalent just four years ago – when Harris ran an unsuccessful campaign for president – have shifted dramatically.
Peters’ piece reads like a postmortem on cancel culture, accusations of cultural appropriation, pushes for inclusivity in entertainment, the politicization of academia, and terms such as “Latinx.”
He wrote:
If some Americans thought the left’s code of conduct went too far, most were not willing to say so. Polls taken in 2020 showed that large majorities of people — including self-described Democrats and liberals — said that they did not always speak freely about their beliefs for fear of retaliation.
Today, in this presidential election between Vice President Harris and former President Donald J. Trump, politics still burns hot, and voters are just as deeply divided. But the country is also in a starkly different place from four years ago. Case in point: Ms. Harris is boasting about protecting her home with a Glock, proclaiming her patriotism and campaigning with Republicans like Liz Cheney.
Peters added that since the 2020 Democratic primary, candidates in that race have “fared poorly in many high-profile races” in areas that lean heavily Democratic – including Seattle, where a Republican won the city attorney race following the protests and riots from the summer before.
In congressional races, discontent with progressive candidates was evident even before the defeats this summer of Representatives Jamaal Bowman of New York and Cori Bush of Missouri — two members of “the squad,” whose victories in 2020 seemed to signal the ascendence of progressive politics.
In Oregon, the left’s favorite to win in the Fifth District, Jamie McLeod-Skinner, was handily defeated this spring by the party establishment’s candidate; in the Third District, an endorsement from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was not enough for Susheela Jayapal, the sister of Pramila Jayapal, a squad member and chair of the Progressive Caucus.
Former Barack Obama administration adviser and Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel told the Times, “The whole party is being shadowed by what happened in 2020, and now it’s trying to outrun that shadow.”
Meanwhile, veteran Democratic strategist Mark Mellman told Peters he expects the progressive left will play a slow game to bring back a culture of extreme sensitivity and awareness of cultural issues.
“It’s clear now that they have failed to take over the Democratic Party,” Mellman said. “They thought this was going to be a much quicker process… But I think they’re in it for the long term. The battle is going to continue.”
