The New York Times admitted in a news analysis over the weekend that “woke” ideology that peaked in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd in 2020 has largely dissipated this election cycle as Democrats shun calls to defund the police and decriminalize border crossings.
Jeremy Peters, a national reporter for the newspaper, wrote a story titled “In Shift from 2020, Identity Politics Loses Its Grip on the Country.”
Peters noted in the analysis that Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, “is boasting about protecting her home with a Glock, proclaiming her patriotism and campaigning with Republicans like Liz Cheney.”
During this election, Harris has also been “reminding voters of the drug dealers she put in prison” when she was a prosecutor in California.
Harris has also displayed a “change in tone” on gender identity issues.
Unlike in 2019, when she introduced herself during a CNN town hall by noting that her pronouns were “she, her and hers,” today she “changes the topic when asked” if she would have taxpayers foot the bill for sex change operations for detained migrants and prisoners, according to Peters.
The Times reporter noted that large companies were rolling back their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies amid a harsh backlash online from conservatives.
The article also recounted how top universities have stopped requiring job applicants to sign “diversity statements” — personal documents attesting to their commitment to diversity.
Even terms like “Latinx” are no longer required as references to Latinos. Peters cited polling from 2020 and this year which showed that less than 5% of Latinos had used the gender-neutral term.
That’s a far cry from the situation four years ago, when polls showed that large majorities of Americans — including those who described themselves as Democrats and liberals — said they did not always speak freely about their beliefs for fear of being shouted down by progressives, according to the Times.
“What seems to have shifted…is that people are now acknowledging that certain identity-focused progressive solutions to injustice were never broadly popular,” Peters wrote, citing academic scholars and political strategists.
Peters noted that Democratic Party candidates running for the nomination in 2020 were arguing about defunding the police, decriminalizing border crossings by undocumented migrants and doing away with private health insurance.
Since then, progressive candidates who have been outspoken advocates of those positions have not fared well in races, such as Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), both of whom lost their primaries to more centrist candidates.
“The question for those in the progressive wing of the party is whether they continue to pursue some of their more polarizing ideas about identity,” Peters wrote.
