The New Republican Crusade

“My actions will speak louder than words.” Perhaps Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is unique among politicians in that respect—he has tried to make a handful of far-right fantasies come to life, despite the Federal Judiciary consistently getting in his way. His platform has turned Florida into a petri dish for the fantasies of Fox News pundits and right-wing personalities nationwide, all focused against an invisible enemy that lives within everything they oppose: “wokeness”. It truly is the perfect enemy; it can be everything and everywhere, with no cohesive concept or definition of what it even is.

However, what is “wokeness”, as seen in the eyes of DeSantis and his allies? In his own words, wokeness is “the belief there are systemic injustices in American society and [a] need to address them.” In his election night victory speech, he made a promise to “never ever surrender to the woke agenda.” Wokeness is intentionally vague, but not a novel threat to American democracy. Rather, it is a repackaged version of the conservative outrage politics that have dominated discourse for decades.

DeSantis’ targeting of racism education in classrooms is not far off from the Obama era’s political correctness debates. Both are reflections of the Red Scare fears of communism in schools—fears of attack on traditional American values. Everything from allowing teachers to speak freely about their personal lives in their classrooms to Big Tech platforms censoring conspiracy theorists provoking violence is labeled as woke.

The war on wokeness works because it is both convenient and disingenuous. Wokeness occupies dual positions: at the same time it strangles America in a chokehold, it is a self-contained Pandora’s Box that only bold conservative voices such as DeSantis can defeat. Thus, their opponent is simultaneously all-powerful yet also able to be crushed effortlessly, a rhetorical tool that allows any possible argument to be effective. Attacks against a persistent woke curriculum in Florida’s schools are successful, as are attacks against introducing wokeness to classrooms where it never previously existed.

DeSantis and his peers learned something key from Trump: nine times out of ten, discarding decorum plays in their favor. Establishing wokeness as an all-encompassing enemy has worked well for DeSantis in this regard. However, most importantly, DeSantis and Republicans no longer need to worry about fighting Democrats. Although it receives much attention of its own, it is not the Democratic Party itself that they dislike, but liberals and the culture they represent. Both the Democratic Party, its coalition of related causes, and every progressive idea is a part of wokeness. Anything that creates enough anger, enough knee-jerk reactions, is woke. Anything conservative strategists think can generate enough ire and distaste to promote their political motives is woke.

The result is a passive Democratic Party in the face of DeSantis’ barrage of threats and regressive social policies. He hopes to replicate his success nationwide, with a rightward lurch in rhetoric bringing increased engagement with minimal expense to independent voter support. Democrats generally lack the cohesive national message that DeSantis promotes as the figurehead of a new Republican crusade. Democrats are forced to tread carefully, not angering any coalition or caucus to keep the big tent together. The result is that they cannot respond effectively and must hope that the rational consensus can weather the storm raised by the outrage machine.

Will an aggressive, conservative prioritization of culture war issues struggle to compete nationally, or is it inevitable that a right-wing populist eventually cruises into the Oval Office? DeSantis won in Florida, outperforming the Republican baseline by an overwhelming margin, and data show that voters of both parties now value culture war issues more than other issues, such as the environment. In national competition, traditional politics is still important; economic issues are far more important. Supporting fair trade deals will have a greater impact than persecuting the LGBTQ+ community for political gain.

Now, pundits are posturing DeSantis to run for President, but he will have to defeat Trump in a primary first. A promise to keep things how they are is never enough; there must always be a future to win. DeSantis promises a future where everything his supporters hate has magically disappeared from the world. The realities of this promise mean he’ll have to keep the cameras rolling and the outrage machine turning, and only time will tell if he can make this happen.