A War on Wokeness: The GOP’s Sinking Agenda

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders addresses America. Photo by Wikimedia Commons.

It is no stretch to say that the modern GOP is an ideological trainwreck. With three devastatingly lackluster electoral results in 2018, 2020, and 2022, the Grand Old Party is failing to sell voters on their legislative agenda and priorities. 

Even after securing a miniscule majority in the House of Representatives this year, the party is indecisive and inconsistent with its values. Most recently, the ultra-conservative faction of House Republicans tanked House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s bid to become speaker 14 times, the least productive Speaker vote for 164 years. The GOP has failed, and continues to fail, to unify behind a convincing agenda that will mobilize its electoral base within the American population. Any attempt to determine a modern Republican agenda finds only empty promises and aimless talking points. Behind ineffective and vastly unpopular policies—whether it be tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans, calls to sunset social security and medicare, and increases in the price of pharmaceuticals—sits the weak, failing heart of Republican politics: a war on wokeness. 

What “wokeness” actually means, however, is loosely defined and quickly attached to any Democratic action, especially ones focused on inclusion, education, and bias reduction. The term was originally coined by African American activists and meant an awareness of social injustice in the United States; today, the GOP uses “wokeness” instead as an insulting placeholder term for social justice related programs or ideology. In particular, the word is often used to discredit organizations such as Black Lives Matter or applications of Critical Race Theory in education. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ general counsel, when asked to define the word in court, said that, “[Wokeness is] the belief that there are systemic injustices in American society and [there is a] need to address them.” In practice, however, the word transforms into a shield used to hide the GOP’s general lack of popular legislative plans more broadly. 

With the 2024 Republican presidential primary looking more and more to be an open field, jockeying potential candidates have amped up attacks on “Democratic wokeness.” Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders prohibited the word “Latinx” from official documents in Arkansas. Governor DeSantis banned AP African American Studies courses in Florida. South Carolina Senator Tim Scott criticized Columbia University’s Multicultural Graduation Ceremonies as “segregated.” Even Republicans like Nikki Haley, the only candidate to have yet announced a challenge to former President Trump’s 2024 reelection bid and an advocate for a “new generation” of leadership within the party, pushes anti-woke talking points as political priorities. 

A Republican fixation on “wokeness” blatantly attempts to obscure the bigger issue: the GOP does not have popular solutions to the real, kitchen-table issues that deserve federal attention. Recent polls show that the most popular Republican policy is border security reform. The effectiveness and popularity of the GOP’s announced plan, however, is controversial. By failing to provide effective solutions to real-world issues more important than the GOP’s rejection of multiculturalism, the GOP fails both its voting base and the larger American democracy. Without a serious reevaluation of party goals, leadership, and agenda, the party will continue to sink, election after election, into the icy waters of public dissatisfaction. 

Remarkably, the Republican Party’s continued obsession with wokeism has an enduring tie to ineffective, unelectable Republicans. In the 2022 midterm elections, Republican candidates campaigning on anti-woke agendas consistently lost competitive elections that were necessary for the large-scale, “red wave” election expected by many Republicans. GOP candidates who pushed anti-woke rhetoric—such as Kari Lake in Arizona, Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania, and Herschel Walker in Georgia—underperformed, losing valuable seats in areas that did not turn out for Republicans. 

On the other hand, competent Democrats with fleshed-out legislative priorities and agendas eked out crucial wins in a year that did not favor them electorally and historically. Republicans, on the other hand, pushed baseless claims of election fraud before considering that most of the American electorate does not care for desperate attacks on woke culture. Through nationwide election results, voters showed in 2022 that real, kitchen-table issues are more important than the use of words like “Latinx” in official documents. 

Even following a humiliating performance in 2022 that resulted in many Republican candidates losing tight races across the country, the GOP refuses to regroup, determine a new agenda, and promote a new generation of party leaders to bring in new voters. Instead, recent moves by the party show a commitment to double down on its anti-woke campaign. Perhaps the most overt example is the GOP’s official response to President Biden’s 2023 State of the Union Address, delivered  by Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders. In the 10-minute monologue, Governor Sanders proved that the modern GOP has nothing new for the American people, proclaiming that “we are under an attack in a left-wing culture war we did not start and never wanted to fight” and condemning the “woke mob” Democrats. As the selected Republican voice to unify a response to President Biden’s address, Governor Sanders made the GOP’s intentions clear: there will be no effort to redefine the party’s agenda. 

Not only is a Republican “wokeness war” unproductive, but it spells disaster for both the GOP itself and the possibility for productive bipartisan work at the national level. By failing the needs of its electorate and clinging to an ineffective strategy, the Republican party refuses a democracy’s natural incentive to grow with a changing electorate in order to provide effective public service. The modern GOP’s obsession with “wokeness” is a failure. The only path forward for the party, and for American democracy, is for Republican leaders to adjust their strategy under a new agenda and a new generation of leadership. Until then, the American public will have to continue to suffer as their needs are not met by a major party obsessed with wokeness.

Jackson Weinberger (CC’24) is a Staff Writer for the Columbia Political Review studying Political Science and Art History. He has a great deal of experience in New York campaigning and electoral politics.