In search of an explanation for their election losses, Democrats are in the midst of an existential reckoning over what it actually means to be too woke — or not woke enough. Or whether it’s possible to be woke and win elections.
Reps. Seth Moulton and Tom Suozzi said Democrats should reconsider their position on transgender athletes. Former Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said Democrats lost the election due to a backlash stemming from “guns, God and gays,” rejecting Sen. Bernie Sanders’ claim that Democrats didn’t have a convincing economic argument. Rep. Jim Himes, who used to chair the moderate New Dems, told NOTUS Democrats would be wise not to veer much more into “dangerous identity politics.”
Himes’ example: President Joe Biden’s promise to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court. Himes supported the appointment of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, but said some Americans could have seen her nomination as one based on symbolism rather than purely on merit, Himes said.