Critics of Vice President Kamala Harris are piling on attacks against the presidential hopeful after an old 2017 social media post and video clip remerged where Harris asserted that “everybody needs to be woke.”
Conservatives have been keen to paint Harris as a radical candidate, and have been increasing pressure on her as she retreats from past progressive positions she held years ago and pushes a campaign to frame conservatives as “weird.”
Harris’ Comments
In the newly reemerged clip that has since gone viral, then-Senator Kamala Harris spoke about her dedication to the concept of “wokeness” at a 2017 conference.
“We have to stay woke. Like everybody needs to be woke. And you can talk about if you’re the wokest or woker, but just stay more woke than less woke,” Harris said.
Doubling Down
A day after making those comments in 2017, Harris doubled down on her commitment to the “woke” cause in a then-Twitter post.
“We have to stay active. We have to stay woke,” Harris wrote.
What is Woke?
The term woke started to reach a peak of popularity in 2017, with Oxford and Merriam-Webster adding the word to their dictionaries.
Commonly, the term is used to describe activists who support social justice policies but has since transformed into a general term used to describe individuals who advocate for left-wing ideologies regarding gender, race, sexuality, and more.
War on Woke
Recently, Republicans have been busy fighting a political war against “wokeness” and DEI, which they see as a radical ideology that is dividing Americans.
State legislatures across the country have successfully passed waves of laws banning critical race theory, books teaching “woke” topics, and teaching about the LGBT in public schools.
Consistent Attack
This crusade against wokeness has been turned into a political angle of attack against Democrats and other opponents of conservative brand politics.
However, consistent polls have found that many voters are not buying into this attack angle. A June Data for Progress poll found that only 22% of respondents chose the response among several that “Joe Biden is woke, and that is a bad thing.” Another 21% of respondents said that they didn’t even know what the term means.
Seizing the Moment
Republican politicians capitalized on the old clip of Harris receiving millions of views, putting out their own statements to paint a bleak picture of what a Harris presidency would mean.
“Reminder of what “woke” means to the Biden-Harris Administration: Wide-open borders, Race-based hiring, Drag queen story hours, Men in women’s sports. And that’s just the beginning,” wrote US House speaker Mike Johnson.
Scalise’s Comments
Republican House Majority leader Steve Scalise joined the bandwagon to criticize Harris, repeating a common talking point that pushing woke policies leaves one broke.
“Thanks to Kamala Harris being woke, MOST Americans are broke,” Scalise wrote in response to the clip.
Musk Chimes In
Tech billionaire and owner of X Elon Musk chimed in on one post of the clip that received over 6 million views, expressing disbelief that these were comments Harris actually made.
“Is this real!?” Musk wrote. “Yes. And you are like the 100th person to ask me that today,” said the original X poster.
Criticizing Laughter
Apart from criticizing her support of wokeness, Harris’ critics also latched on to her speaking mannerisms and laugh, which they feel is insincere.
“Whenever I’m speaking with someone who laughs at every little thing they themselves are saying I realize that, that laugh is a defense mechanism. That that person doesn’t feel strongly about what they’re saying so they hide their insecurity behind laughter,” wrote X user Charmane Harbert.
Fighting for Frame
While Republicans have been fighting to get voters to perceive Harris as a radical ideologue for left-leaning policies, the Harris campaign has made recent moves to distance her from past positions.
Last week, the Harris campaign pledged that a President Kamala Harris would not try to ban fracking, and a spokesperson for the campaign told The Reload that Harris would not pursue mandatory gun buybacks if elected.
Republicans are “Weird”
Another battle fought in this struggle for both parties to be seen as “normal” to voters recently came in the form of a recent move by Democrats to frame their Republican opposition as “weird” for their policy positions.
“If Republican leaders don’t enjoy being called weird, creepy, and controlling, they could try not being weird, creepy, and controlling,” said former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
