Calls for Democrats to abandon ‘woke’ identity politics alienates Black and marginalized groups, some fear
In the weeks following major defeats in the 2024 elections, the Democratic Party continues to self-reflect about where they went wrong with the American electorate and how to win back voters.
Some within the party have suggested that President-elect Donald Trump’s decisive win, particularly among non-college-educated and working-class voters, is a lesson for Democrats to do away with supporting “woke” policies and identity politics because it somehow alienates working-class voters.
The suggestion has caused clear divisions within the party, particularly among moderate Democrats who blame liberals for putting too much of their thumb on the scale when it comes to the party’s policy priorities.
“Donald Trump has no greater friend than the far left, which has managed to alienate historic numbers of Latinos, Blacks, Asians, and Jews from the Democratic Party with absurdities like “Defund the Police” or “From the River to the Sea” or “Latinx,” wrote U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres on X a day after Election Day.
He continued, “There is more to lose than there is to gain politically from pandering to a far left that is more representative of Twitter, Twitch, and TikTok than it is of the real world. The working class is not buying the ivory-towered nonsense that the far left is selling.”
In the months and days leading up to the election, Trump and Republicans portrayed Democrats as extreme for their stance on issues related to LGBTQ equality, racial equity and multiculturism. Democrats’ “woke” policies and emphasis on identity politics, Republicans argued, were harming children, discriminating against white Americans, and failing to address voters’ real concerns, like the economy and America’s broken immigration system.
Throughout the 2024 election cycle, Republicans spent millions of dollars slamming Democrats as radical for supporting gender-affirming care and trans children playing in sports, among other divisive topics. Those ads were effective, some concluded.
“I do think that Democrats need to be more thoughtful and less condescending in the way that we talk about any number of complicated issues, including trans kids in sports,” said former Congressman Mondaire Jones, who lost his 2024 general election to incumbent Republican Rep. Mike Lawler in New York’s 17th Congressional District.
Jones told theGrio, “I do believe that a premium being placed on identity has, at times, alienated the electorate, and not just white voters. I mean, look at the way that many members of the Hispanic community have talked about the term Latinx and how that’s not something that they appreciate being referred to as.”
Noting that the “most important” issues were the economy and immigration, the former congressman said, “When you take care of pocketbook issues the way that only Democrats want to take care of when it comes to working people, you win elections.” He added, “But when people don’t feel like you’re doing it, it’s easy for them to shift their focus to … wedge issues like school sports and gender reassignment and those kinds of things.”
Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., a progressive Democrat who has served in Congress for two decades, told theGrio that she is concerned when Democrats “[buy] into the definition of woke by the Republicans.”
“I don’t accept them weaponizing woke,” said Lee, who noted that the meaning has been bastardized by Republicans. “It means being vigilant in our fight for being part of this American society, for people who have not been seen and not heard and not valued.”
As for suggestions that Democrats should move away from identity politics, Congresswoman Lee queried, “Does that mean fighting for racial and gender equity and LGBT equality? Is that identity politics?”
Lee continued, “When Democrats talk about that, are they saying that we shouldn’t fight for people of color or marginalized people who deserve diversity, equity and inclusion to be part of any job initiative or economic initiative in the country?”
Despite what the election exit polls might suggest, she said adamantly, “The party has always been, and I think we always continue to fight for working-class people, and we also fight for low-income and poor people.”
Maya Wiley, former New York City mayoral candidate and civil rights attorney, told theGrio that she disagrees with the way some are referring to identity politics.
“That’s just a way of saying that paying attention to people who’ve been identified based on their race and discriminated against based on it shouldn’t get attention. That’s not what the Democrats mean, but that’s what the language communicates,” said Wiley.
She cautioned, “At the end of the day, what everybody needs to recognize — and I don’t care what party you’re in — is that there are people in this country who are not going away, who deserve to be here, who helped build it, and either you speak to us and our needs, or you will not have our support.”
Wiley warned Democrats not to “capitulate to a political regime that has used overt racism, overt sexism, overt xenophobia, and transphobia against the very people who have to figure out a way to make it in the society.”
Democratic strategist Ameshia Cross said contrary to what some may suggest, Republicans also play into identity politics. Unlike Democrats, who focus on communities of color and other marginalized groups, the GOP is squarely focused on white men.
“They went after the bros, white males, particularly younger white males, to say that the Democratic Party is against you [and] all of your anxiety and your masculinity needs to be invested in a male candidate, in someone who speaks to you and someone who is able to have the muscle and brawn to carry these things, not a female,” Cross said of Donald Trump’s campaign against Vice President Kamala Harris.
She continued, “It was white male fragility identity. It was anti-woman. It was bringing along every dog whistle when it came to the culture wars, whether you’re talking about trans people, DEI, Black people and Black progress.”
Taking umbrage at some of the statements from Congressman Torres and others pointing fingers at the left, Dr. David J. Johns, executive director and CEO of the National Black Justice Coalition, similarly told theGrio, “The MAGA party won, candidly, as they have by doing exactly what Ritchie Torres is suggesting the Democratic Party does not do.”
Johns said the question should rather be “whether or not the Republican Party is capable of rearranging their house to provide space for people who are not white men” and those “who might think that they are based on how they message whiteness and proximity to it.”
The racial justice advocate and scholar expressed frustration with those like Congressman Torres who suggest the Democratic Party should abandon identity politics, asking, “Where’s the line, who’s responsible for moving it, and now who’s included?”
Johns added, “How do you draw those lines with any sense of ethical or moral consciousness?”
Ameshia Cross, the Democratic strategist, argued that Kamala Harris and the Democrats didn’t lose the election because they leaned too much into identity politics, as some critics suggested. Instead, she argued they didn’t do enough to reach their diverse base of voters.
“The Harris campaign made a concerted effort to go after the white woman vote, which has not belonged to the Democratic Party in a very long time,” maintained Cross, who said Democrats mistakenly thought abortion rights were going to be a top issue in the election. “They took the cues from the midterm elections when, in exit polls, it was not a top issue. It wasn’t even in the top 5 of issues,” she explained.
“One of the problems that this campaign had was hundreds of thousands of base voters stayed home. It wasn’t that Trump had seismic victory in terms of moving people who are moderate or moving Democrats to the right,” Cross continued.
She added, “He did not increase his vote margin amongst people who are likely undecided or individuals who are normally Democratic voters. Those voters just did not show up.”