What does “wokeness” mean for the so-called oppressed? It means privileged status, exemption from certain laws and norms, and the public recognition that their views are unimpeachable—they cannot be contradicted by reason. They cannot be doubted, but must be believed.
Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN)
Nobody knew Joe Biden was “woke” until his first day in office, when he signed an order “preventing discrimination” based on “gender identity” that ended up advocating grade-school kids be taught the non-binary facts of life. If not then, it was after he accused Georgia Republicans of reviving Jim Crow laws; thereby providing cover to equality deniers who segregate student bodies into victims and oppressors. Forget his handling of COVID, because Woke Fever is killing our country.
Standing in his way is Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, who wooed normie voters in 2022 with “Florida is where ‘woke’ goes to die,” and got re-elected by the largest margin in state history. DeSantis is beautifully blunt: “Nobody wants this crap. Bureaucratic elites in universities and corporations are trying to shove it down the throats of the American people – not in the state of Florida.” Two new laws cemented his “anti-woke” credentials:
- The Parental Rights in Education law limits “classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity” until 4th grade
- The Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act bans teaching or training that presumes all whites are “inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive”
Again, DeSantis is blunt: “We won’t allow Florida tax dollars to be spent teaching kids to hate our country or to hate each other.” Democrat analysts James Carville and Ruy Teixeira say most voters share this view on gender and race; 55% of Democrats like the new laws (source: Public Opinion Strategies). Mr. DeSantis is clearly onto something.
USA TODAY polls found “DeSantis won Hispanics and just about every other key group” in Florida, where voters weren’t convinced sex-change and anti-racist activists have the common good at heart – understandable in light of what both groups put on social media.
Carville and Teixeira say “normie” voters opted for DeSantis because Democrats “say dumb, alienating things.” DeSantis says most voters don’t like race and gender awfulizing because most Americans live readily with diversity at home, work, and play.
His cynical critics say “divisive” electioneering is behind the governor’s policies because they fear a national repeat in 2024 of Florida 2022. DeSantis only won 13% of the Black vote, but 58% of Latinos, 65% of Whites, and 66% of “other” races. Take those numbers national, and he wins 55.9% of 239.1 million eligible voters (as many as 133,671,000 popular votes):
- 34,500,000 Latino voters x 58% = 20,010,000 DeSantis votes
- 157,500,000 white voters x 65% = 102,375,000 DeSantis votes
- 17,100,00 other-race voters x 66% = 11,286,000 DeSantis votes
Democrats so fear DeSantis, they smear him as just a “homophobe” and “racist” with a winning electoral coalition. That’s not even close to the truth.
Pew Research found 70% of Americans support same-sex marriage, probably because most of us have a gay relative, sibling, child, or parent. That’s our humanity at work since the great awakening of the 60s. In contrast, a Heritage poll found only 20% support medical sex changes, probably because there aren’t conclusive, long-term clinical safety findings. DeSantis is on the right side of sex-change science:
- The FDA links puberty-blocking drugs to headaches, vomiting, vision impairment, and brain swelling
- Johns Hopkins reports increased suicide rates (200%) for sex-change recipients
- Teens can get “gender euphoria” drugs from Planned Parenthood after a 30-minute ZOOM call (yikes!)
Hatred is not why DeSantis takes a dim view of putting kids on puberty-blocking drugs, and removing healthy tissue and organs. Former FDA drug-safety expert David Gortler agrees: “using pharmacology to fight the inborn biological programming of trillions of gender-specified nucleated cells in humans is going to have medically serious and physiologically devastating consequences” (source: Washington Examiner).
I hear almost everyone say “coming out” is a healthy self-realization, and Pew reports 92% of LGBTQ adults feel society has become more accepting. I hear almost everyone say “changing gender” is risky, and the CDC reports only 2,000 sex-change surgeries a year. Who’s being unreasonable here?
Want to stop racism? Take black actor Morgan Freeman’s advice: “Stop talking about it” – which is kinda-sorta how Ron DeSantis is going about it. Many polls found parents don’t support race-based curricula that ask black kids to affirm they’re “victims” and white kids to confess they’re “oppressors.” It’s bad parenting to willingly rob one’s kids of their innocence. It looks especially reckless when the loudest anti-racist voices spew hate.
Texas A&M professor Tommy Curry told students, “In order to be equal, some white people might have to die.” Rutger professor Brittney Cooper predicted that “whiteness is going to have an end date – we gotta take these motherf**kers out.” Yale lecturer Aruna Khilanani told students of “fantasies unloading a revolver into the head of a white person and walking away guiltless with a bounce in my step.” Who wants to align with such hatred? Not DeSantis, who is appealing to a new silent majority.
Pew Research found 82% of Americans say they have either achieved the American Dream or are on their way to attaining it, and only 30% support the descendants of slaves receiving reparations. NBC News reports a “decline in support among Americans for the Black Lives Matter movement,” and polls by Northwestern University found only 27% of Americans support teaching Critical Race Theory in schools. Again, who’s being unreasonable here?
Biden’s acolytes can mock DeSantis for “anti-woke” rhetoric, but the governor is right on behalf of all Floridians to be wary of gender and racial extremism. 6,338,000 families with kids under 18 aren’t clamoring for schools to offer “sex-change advice” without parental consent. 12,000,000 Christians, 700,000 Muslims, and 657,000 Jews aren’t all in on “drag queen story hours” in public libraries. 15,200,000 Whites, 5,500,000 Latinos, 591,000 Asians, and 56,000 Native Americans don’t think they should have to pay reparations for long-ago injustices.
DeSantis should be the GOP favorite after turning Biden’s “woke” social experiments into re-election kryptonite, and getting re-elected by historic margins in America’s fastest-growing-and-diversifying state. Americans are “tired of this ‘woke’ crap” now – and that’s not going to change before 2024.
Coming Next Week: TCG will un-pack Biden’s illegal “classified document” scandal.