When it comes to the Republican primaries, attacks on “wokeness” may be losing their punch.
Ron DeSantis last year used the word five times in 19 seconds, substituting “woke” for Nazis as he cribbed from Winston Churchill’s famous vow to battle a threatened German invasion in 1940.
Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor, speaks of a “woke self-loathing” that has swept the nation.
Though conservative voters might be irked at modern liberalism, successive New York Times/Siena College polls of Republican voters nationally and then in Iowa found that candidates were unlikely to win votes by narrowly focusing on rooting out left-wing ideology in schools, media, culture and business.
Instead, Republican voters are showing a “hand’s off” libertarian streak in economics, and a clear preference for messages about “law and order” in the nation’s cities and at its borders.
Persons:
“, ”, Ron DeSantis, Winston Churchill’s, Nikki Haley, Tim Scott of, backpedaling, “ ‘, ’
Organizations:
Republican, Gov, South, New York Times
Locations:
South Carolina, Tim Scott of South Carolina, Siena, Iowa