As Gov. Ron DeSantis readies the announcement that he is running for President, the platform he will stand on to declaim his candidacy is best described as “anti-Woke.”
The Governor has repeatedly railed against what he perceives to be a plague of “wokeness” that is poisoning meritocratic America.
DeSantis’s woke targets include — but are not limited to — DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) policies at corporations, the alleged liberal indoctrination of students at Florida schools, and Walt Disney being OK with the word gay. (DeSantis would prefer that we all agree not to say “gay.”)
The Governor has boasted that his state, Florida, is where woke chokes. “We will never surrender to the woke mob,” DeSantis says. “Florida is where woke goes to die,”
But Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) has a warning for DeSantis’s platform — and for all those who try to decipher what it means. According to Murphy’s strong warning, the definition of “woke” — and therefore also of “anti-woke” — is now thoroughly corrupted, built on shifting sands.
Making what’s essentially a public service announcement (“your daily reminder”), Murphy expounds on how the word — originally signifying compassion and an open-eyed acknowledgment of the circumstances of others — has been co-opted to mean anything, as Murphy says, that “the right wing doesn’t like.”
your daily reminder to just ignore anyone who uses the word "woke" because all it means is anything the right wing doesn't like
— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) May 19, 2023
climate policy = woke
Obamacare = woke
gun safety = woke
civil rights = woke
Disney = woke
gay people = woke
helping poor people = woke
etc etc
Now that it means so many things, Murphy indicates, it also means nothing at all. “Ignore” anyone who uses “woke,” advises the Senator.
[Note: For those who, like DeSantis, believe that elite schools are trying to indoctrinate students into a liberal mindset, it’s worth noting that DeSantis attended Yale before going on to Harvard Law.]
