If You Are an 'Anti-Woke' Liberal, You Should Vote for Joe Biden
I recently encountered a few folks online indicating that they were opposed to or on the fence about voting for Joe Biden due to concerns about wokeness (for lack of a better phrase). Here’s one example:
I'm so, so torn. I don't trust Trump to be effective at anything, and fear him in international conflicts.
Otoh, I think the letf's [sic] progressive stack approach to politics is insidious in the extreme and and I don't how to break it without demonstrative widespread rejection
Another indicated that they planned to sit out the 2026 election:
That’s why I’ve decided I won’t be voting. I don’t want to keep contributing to the democrats idea that their support for progressive craziness is a great strategy.
Other commenters expressed desire for a ‘boring moderate’ or third party candidate to support so they wouldn’t have to choose between Biden and Trump.
From the context of these comments, it’s my understanding that these would-be (or perhaps wouldn’t-be) Biden voters are considering sitting out the 2024 election because they feel so turned off by the way in which “woke” ideology and ideas have found purchase in liberal institutions, including the Democratic Party.
Some handwave these concerns away: progressive ideologues are a small group and we’ll organically course correct away from their most radical or disruptive ideas. Sure, “defund the police” was a bad idea, but we didn’t really end up doing it and it’s kind of faded into the background, right? We have sufficient guardrails against bad ideas from the left and don’t need to pay them much heed. Cancel culture? Louis C.K. is already back performing. It’s a non-issue.
I don’t share this view. I am bothered by what feels like a stifling speech climate in which expressing tepid views widely held by many Americans can earn accusations of bigotry or malice. I find it stifling. I don’t want subscription to a set of dogmas I don’t believe to be the price of entry to the political coalition that I’m a part of. It feels Orwellian. I do think there’s a there there.
So I empathize, to an extent, with the frustration these voters express. I sharply disagree, however, about who anti-woke liberals should vote for next year. The answer is Joe Biden, and here’s why:
A second Trump presidency will activate and empower, not thwart, the progressive left.
One of Trump’s signature issues was immigration. Remember his campaign announcement and “Mexico isn’t sending their best”? Build the wall? Now consider that when Trump became President, support for immigration shot up. The number of Americans who believed we should admit more immigrants increased by more than 60% from June 2016 to May 2020. Support for immigration reached an all time high during — and as of a result of — Trump’s presidency, and immediately decreased thereafter. Trump’s apparent moral bankruptcy drives voters to the opposite position of the one he takes, in particular on abstract issues with a prominent moral dimension.
Moreover, beyond the sentiments of the general electorate, another Trump presidency will energize progressive activists, institutions, and donors. I think this is so clearly true that I won’t bother saying more.
Biden is not particularly woke.
Here’s a quote from Joe Biden earlier this year: “I’m a practicing Catholic. I’m not big on abortion.” During the 2020 Democratic primary, Biden was, I believe, the only candidate to support the Hyde Amendment, a provision of federal law barring the use of government funds on abortion administration except in extenuating circumstances. Is that the position of a woke ideologue? Not at all.
Now, it should be noted that Biden later caved to pressure and renounced his prior support for the Hyde Amendment. This makes sense. Biden is a centrist, staking out relatively middle-ground positions, and as his coalition moves left, so too will he. But he does not, in general, have an ideological commitment to championing leading edge progressive opinions.
Take another example. In 2019, a crowd member at a rally shouted out to Biden, “How many genders are there?” Without missing a beat, he replied “There are at least three.” When pressed as to what they were, he said, in classic Uncle Joe, fashion, “Don’t play games with me kid.” He’s not taking a conservative position on the issue, but he also has no particular interest in the progressive position. No expounding on the validity of gender identity, the infinitude of the gender spectrum. He’s a career politician, and old man, and a centrist with a general sense of where to land on the issues of the day. He’s not woke.
Biden has had many significant accomplishments and they don’t relate to wokeness.
What has the Biden administration done substantively? Passed a massive infrastructure bill investing in America’s roads, bridges, water quality, clean energy, and more. Passed the largest ever clean energy bill while also lowering prescription drug prices through Medicare. Passed the CHIPS and Science Act, bolstering domestic advanced manufacturing capacity. Each of these bills have provisions requiring the substantial use of American supplied materials. With respect to foreign policy, Biden brought the two decade long war in Afghanistan to an end. He helped lead an international coalition in Ukraine without entangling American troops in another quagmire.
You don’t have to agree with all of Biden’s hallmark accomplishments. I don’t. But they have very little to do with wokeness, instead focusing on supporting American workers and seniors, strengthening the economy, combatting climate change, and maintaining America’s standing in the world. If you don’t support these sorts of accomplishments and are repulsed by wokeism, you aren’t a wayward liberal — you’re a conservative.
Trump was a bad president last time and would be again.
Trump’s hallmark accomplishments were worse than Biden’s. He nominated conservative justices that later overturned Roe v. Wade. He created the Space Force, passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and passed the First Step Act. He did not engage the United States in new foreign entanglements.
His failures, though, are where he truly sets himself apart. His administration was a chaotic mess which led them to be impotent and ineffective. People around his reliably considered him to be a self-obsessed idiot. His response to the generational challenge of COVID was incoherent and aimless. He dabbled in foolish conspiracy theories. His frail ego and disregard for American democracy impelled him to make a clumsy attempt to overturn the results of a free and fair election.
Trump’s supporters and detractors alike would agree that he’s not like other presidents. He is not motivated by the same norms and principles that other chief executives in the modern era have been. While some see this as a boon, I think it’s clear that the possible downsides of another Trump presidency outweigh the possible benefits. Best case, America gets more conservative justices, more tax cuts, reduced illegal immigration. Worst case, America gets genuine civil instability or a dangerous international crisis. Few folks who cast their lot in with Trump come out better off for it, and it’s not a gamble America should take.
Abstaining from voting for Biden won’t be understood as a vote against wokeness and therefore will not move the Democratic coalition away from it.
Political parties are very interested in knowing why people vote how they do. Having complete knowledge of the reasons behind voting patterns would allow parties to take positions and message in ways that would significantly increase their chances to win. Unsurprisingly, parties spend lots of time and money conducting surveys and focus groups trying to understand voting behavior.
That doesn’t mean they get it right, though. After Romney lost in 2012, the Republican Party famously conjured up an “autopsy” report detailing what they got wrong and how they could reposition themselves for more success down the road. One of its chief findings was that Republicans should take less of a hardline stance on immigration. Then Trump came along, swept away the rest of the primary field, and won the presidency. In hindsight, the report doesn’t seem to have done a good job capturing voter sentiments.
Will withholding your vote from Biden be understood as a vote against wokeness? I don’t believe so, namely because Biden isn’t particularly woke and his substantive accomplishments have had little to do with wokeness. I think it’s much more likely to be interpreted as a function of his age, or a rebuke to a platform that focuses on bipartisan legislative accomplishments that invest in America.
These are the reasons I believe anti-woke liberals should vote for Joe Biden in 2024. But do they actually address the underlying concern of run-away wokeness? Not really. So what I would propose is to couple your vote for Biden with letters to Democratic elected officials whose jurisdictions you are in, or your local Democratic Party, or to the DNC, the DCCC, and so on, explaining that, although you consider yourself to be a liberal and oppose Trump, you won’t be voting for Biden on grounds of wokeness in the Democratic coalition. Under this strategy, you get the best of both worlds, chilling out take it slow then you rock out the show supporting a non-woke candidate who is highly likely to be a better president than Trump while simultaneously delivering a clear message of your priorities and concerns.