There are signs the concocted crusade against wokeism has lost its momentum. Elections are providing some evidence of it, and we’re not hearing it so much anymore in certain conversations. For a while there, it was about all we heard coming out of the mouths of politicians - to the point people were crying “enough already.”
Wokeism wasn’t even a thing until religious conservatives got all upset over a perception our lifestyles are polluting the minds of children, and leading to the downfall of America.
Many hours have been spent the last couple of years complaining about the evil (wokeism) found in books, classrooms and movies with blame frequently assigned to liberals. Concerned citizens, mostly evangelical types, set about identifying where such wokeism could be exposed and destroyed.
Many more hours were then spent thinking up ways to kill wokeism by writing rules and passing legislation to ward off its threat to young people. Across the nation, but mostly in red states under the control of conservative Republicans, laws have been passed implementing new rules for content deemed appropriate for teaching, establishing which school bathrooms particular children are allowed to use, which sports they’re allowed to participate in, and above all, which books should be confiscated from classrooms and libraries.
Legislators in state after state, including Iowa, seemed to be competing to see who could be the most extreme in setting new, and famously confusing, guidelines. Conservative parents, often manipulated by political forces far less interested in children’s welfare than in political power, began attending school board meetings pressuring board members to take a stance against wokeism and remove books they didn’t approve of from library shelves.
One of the most fervent of groups fighting school boards was Moms for Liberty, an organization well-funded by anonymous money. It quickly gained notoriety and began exerting its power. They made a lot of noise beginning with issues surrounding COVID, then moved on to LGBTQ and transgender complaints, and finally pushed to ban certain books and other classroom materials. Assuming their power was long-lasting, however, has been proven wrong by recent events. The Nov. 7 election revealed the group’s influence on school boards is fading as they suffered convincing losses.
In Ohio, candidates backed by Moms for Liberty won just two of eight elections in one county, and one in nine in another. In Pennsylvania, nearly every seat on school boards up for election was won by Democrat-backed candidates. In Iowa, Moms for Liberty endorsed 13 candidates in four counties. Only one won. Voters made it clear they don’t like the direction this group was leading them, and they’re a lot more satisfied with their schools and teachers than was thought.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis first made a name for himself pushing the evils of wokeism. He led out on the idea early and turned his state of Florida into a champion for book banning, deleting “woke” classes in schools and colleges, and generally talking about the subject to the point everyone is sick of hearing about it. Recently, actor and comedian Steve Martin discovered his book “Shopgirl” had landed on a ban list in Florida and quipped how honored he is to be put in the same category with other classics. Hundreds of time-honored books have been removed from bookshelves, including “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “The Bluest Eye,” “Catcher in the Rye” and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”
DeSantis has also led his state down the rabbit hole on the abortion issue by persuading his Florida legislature to pass a six-week fetal heartbeat ban on abortion. Now it’s become apparent the rest of the country is in a different place than he is on reproductive rights. Voters in multiple states are protesting at the ballot box. They see it as individual freedom - a right of women to be in control of their own bodies.
In recent elections in Ohio, Virginia, Kansas, Oklahoma and Michigan, voters passed constitutional amendments on abortion rights or elected pro-choice candidates. Not surprisingly, Iowa’s governor has followed DeSantis down the rabbit hole, oblivious to the reality their views on wokeism and abortion are out of favor with most Americans.
Obviously, voters’ beliefs are multifaceted. Perhaps we should just eliminate the words “woke” and “wokeism” from our vocabulary, and call it a day.