Backfire alert: GOP's anti-'wokeness' crusade could end up undermining their own candidates

The war on “woke” could be an effective strategy for winning over Republican primary voters, but it could break the GOP in a general election, a newly released poll suggests.

The USA Today/Ipsos poll indicates that no broad consensus over the term’s meaning exists, and that Americans are divided over whether they view “wokeness” as a compliment or an insult.

The poll illustrated a split between those who view “woke” to mean being aware of social injustice, which is considered the Democratic party view of the term, and others who associate the term with political correctness taken to an extreme, which is how Republicans typically characterize “wokeness.”

According to the poll, 56 percent of Americans view the term to mean “to be informed, educated on, and aware of social injustices,” and 39 percent consider it to be “overly politically correct and police others’ words.”

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Republicans, according to the poll, are not monolithic in their view of “wokeness,” with more than a third (37 percent) of respondents associating the term with being aware of social injustice, and 56 percent describing it to mean being overly politically correct.

Independents by a small majority (51 percent to 45 percent) view the term as its defined by Democrats, the poll said.

The poll suggests potential blowback for Republicans who embrace the war on “woke” in the primaries could face blowback in a general election, USA Today’s Susan Page writes in an analysis of the polling data.

“The findings raise questions about whether Republican campaign promises to ban policies at schools and workplaces they denounce as ‘woke’ could boost a contender in the party's primaries but put them at odds with broader public opinion in the general election,” Page writes.

The term “woke,” which has been adopted by progressives in the Black Lives Matter and Me Too movements originated in the early 20^th century, according to PolitiFact.

The term’s roots go back to Jamaican political activist Marcus Garvey in a 1923 call to activism writing "Wake up, Ethiopia! Wake up, Africa!" and blues singer Huddie Ledbetter using it in the 1938 song “Scottsboro Boys” urging Black people to be aware of racism.

“Most Americans understand that to be woke is to be tuned in to injustices around us,” Ipsos' Cliff Young told USA Today . "But for a key segment of Republicans who make up the Trump-DeSantis base, 'woke' is a clear trigger for the worst of the politically correct, emerging multicultural majority."