When Wokeness Becomes Weakness

Recently, James Carville, the unfrozen Clintonite of Democratic politics, stirred a predictable controversy by complaining about “wokeness” in an interview with Sean Illing of Vox. Everyone has a different definition of the term, but Carville’s was one you hear a lot from strategically minded Democrats: Wokeness is “faculty lounge” rhetoric, the language of elite hyper-educated progressivism, entering into mass politics in a way that turns a lot of normal people off.

Framed this way, intra-Democratic debates about the new progressivism often boil down to word choice and emphasis. Do you sound inclusive or out-of-touch if you say “Latinx” instead of “Hispanic”? Do you win more support for antipoverty policies if you talk about racial redress or pan-racial redistribution? Are voters actually worried about cancel culture, or are figures like Carville mistaking the Fox News bubble for reality?