No, “Wokeness” Didn’t Cost Harris The Election

In the aftermath of Harris’s defeat in the 2024 Presidential Election, it has become common to argue among some centrist and more right-wing pundits that “wokeness” is what cost the Democrats the White House. Jon Stewart already responded to such arguments on The Daily Show, as did John Oliver on Last Week Tonight, but neither have discussed what I think is the strongest argument for this not being the case — the very next controversy after the election.

The saga of Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace, who was making national headlines for her battle against transgender congresswoman Sarah McBride (the first transgender congresswoman in American history) and her ability to use the women’s restroom, actually shows an interesting example of framing which would not be required in a non-woke country. Mace is calling herself a feminist, retweeting TERF Meghan Murphy, and using identity politics to dismiss those who disagree with her. To show just how much of a development this is in politics, it was in 1992 when Pat Robertson — who back in 1988 was a serious Republican candidate for President who won four states in the primary that year — said of feminism:

The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.

Four years before that, Rush Limbaugh — a popular Republican radio commentator who was…