Happy 'woke' 2022, Democrats. With democracy in the balance, time to reclaim your brand.

You may be a Democrat, but you probably don’t see yourself as part of a “woke mob.”

Even if you feel woke, as in aware of injustices in our society, you probably don’t agree with Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., that “woke politics” is genderless, sexless and Godless. You may not have heard about the Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act proposed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, or realize it abbreviates to the Stop WOKE Act or that it empowers citizen vigilantes to go after “woke indoctrination.” You may not consider yourself “woke” or think it has anything to do with you.

But that won’t stop the truth-denying, conspiratorial, power-at-all-costs Republican Party from pinning the label on all Democrats in their drive to sweep the midterms. They’ve already started and it is already taking its toll – in the Virginia governor’s race, in President Joe Biden’s job approval ratings and in polls and redistricting analyses showing that if the midterms were held today, Democrats could lose both the House and Senate.

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Fortunately, there is a spate of research on how Democrats should campaign this year. And even more fortunately, from the self-described socialist magazine Jacobin to the center-left Third Way think tank, the conclusions are the same: Stop with the identity politics, the politically correct language, the callouts to specific groups, the explicit targeting that suggests one race or type of person will benefit. Craft a simple, inclusive economic message that cuts across differences and appeals to all.  

Identity politics is a turnoff

Jacobin surveyed 2,000 working-class voters in five swing states and found, among other things, that they prefer candidates with working-class backgrounds who talk in broad, relatable terms about jobs, health care and the economy – and that identity-politics jargon turns them off.

Third Way, in focus groups with Virginia voters who chose Biden for president in 2020 and voted for or seriously considered Republican Glenn Youngkin for governor in 2021, found that these voters associated Democrats with “breaking down social barriers facing marginalized groups” – not helping working people, the middle class or people like them.

Furthermore, “they think that we are doing nothing but fighting, when they want action on the economy,” the pollsters wrote. They praised Youngkin’s emphasis on rising food prices and plan to end the state’s grocery tax: “Don’t underestimate the power of a positive message that speaks to people’s every day lives.”

Political scientist Ruy Teixeira reinforced those findings in a recent update on what he calls Democrats' "five deadly sins – identity politics, retro-socialism, catastrophism, growthphobia and technopessimism." They should be aiming instead, he writes, for universal appeal, fairer capitalism, practical solutions, economic growth and optimism that “technology can produce an abundant future.” 

Say Democrats could come up with shorthand analogous to the time-tested Republican campaign cry of “smaller government, lower taxes, personal freedom.” Maybe something like “fairer taxes, freedom to succeed, government that works for everyone.” That might convey what Democrats stand for.

Still, it wouldn’t stop combat on the woke battlefield, particularly on crime, race and education. Democrats will have to engage, and there are effective ways to do so.

For instance, Safer Cities research studied defund the police, re-fund the police and “fully fund public safety.” Not surprisingly, “fully fund” worked best: “It’s the most popular frame, it reflects the core values shared by most Americans around public safety, and it communicates the gist of the approach efficiently. Also, in our view, it protects the best against backlash from both those who view 're-fund' as an affront and those who view 'de-fund' as a threat.” 

There’s no simple answer to conservative attacks on critical race theory, its mostly imagined presence in K-12 classrooms and the related issues of parental control over curriculum, school masking and remote learning. But they can’t be ignored. So how should Democrats respond? 

On CRT, conservative Gary Abernathy says there's a lot for conservatives to embrace. He suggests stressing the core CRT concept that racial unfairness is embedded in U.S. policies and law. White people may be willing to recognize and admit this, he writes, "as long as they’re not blamed for a foundation that was laid long before they were born." 

Baratunde Thurston – "writer, activist, comedian" and host of a podcast on "how to citizen" – recommends thinking of America as a beloved parent: not perfect, but still the best. "I want us to stop talking about 'critical race theory' and start talking about what it means to love this country," he writes. "But we cannot heal from injuries we do not acknowledge. We cannot grow from pain we refuse to feel. Let’s know America. Let’s love America. Let’s grow America."

Most Democrats are far from 'woke'

In a practical vein, numbers and evidence show identity politics is the wrong path. In a paper last year, Micah English and Joshua Kalla said Democratic elites increasingly “are talking explicitly about race” – but it’s counterproductive and unnecessary. “Racial framing generally decreases support for progressive policies,” the authors wrote, while “a class frame that speaks to the economic impacts of these policies is generally the most effective.” They added: “Importantly, our results showed that Black Americans were just as swayed by the class frame as they were the race frame.” 

There’s no large constituency for targeted identity politics among Democrats and the working-class voters they need. According to the Pew Research Center, 51% of Democrats are “Establishment Liberals” or “Democratic Mainstays.” The “Progressive Left,” with “very liberal views" and a preference for democratic socialist candidates, is only 12% of the coalition.  

And yet it wouldn’t matter if only a few dozen Democrats were well and truly woke – perhaps the 33 New York City Council members who passed a bill allowing legal noncitizens to vote in city elections and the six San Francisco school board members who decided schools shouldn’t be named after George Washington or Abraham Lincoln. This is the line of attack MAGA conservatives have chosen, and the competition for Worst Woke Nightmare is already brutal.

Some of those San Franciscans are facing a recall next month after accusations that they spent more time on renaming schools than reopening them. And the more you know about the New York vote, which applies to tax-paying city residents with green cards, DACA permits and the like, the less radical it sounds.

Focus on baby's smile, not 'paid leave'

There is no way to silence woke Democrats, nor should there be. But even Jacobin flat out acknowledges that there are simply not enough progressive urban districts to win control of the House, "never mind the Senate." Democrats must win in other places. And their dominant message, from West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and House moderates to smart progressives to Biden, should be universal, pointed and, advises message guru Anat Shenker-Osorio, rooted in lived experience instead of dry policy.

Here's an example of what I'd like to see in a TV or web spot: Show a mother and baby and (as Shenker-Osorio suggests) the voiceover is: "You're there the first time your newborn smiles." I'd add this tagline: "Paid family leave isn't 'woke.' It's real life and it's good for the economy." Substitute broadband, health coverage, clean air, child care, universal pre-K, dental care for grandma – whatever Democrats have achieved or aspire to – and you've got yourself an ad campaign.

You know who understood a lot of this? Barack Obama. He avoided identity politics and policies. And yet, as Derek Thompson wrote in The Atlantic in September 2016, through his health care law, tax code changes, push for a higher minimum wage and support for state and local governments during the 2009 crash, Obama did more to fight income inequality than any president in 50 years.

Jill Lawrence: Oust Trump coup planners, enablers and provocateurs from public office. They betrayed us.

There's still far more to be done to correct economic inequality and other injustices. That's an excellent reason for Democrats to fight hard enough this year to prove the midterm doomsayers wrong. The other, even better reason is to make sure the Republican Party isn't rewarded for perpetrating lies and trying to subvert elections. We cannot allow this GOP to dismantle U.S. democracy and permanently seize power.

Democrats are not a woke mob. They are mainstream Americans doing their best for their country. Their crucial task is to make that clear to their fellow citizens, and they have less than a year to get it done. 

Jill Lawrence is a columnist for Paste BN and author of "The Art of the Political Deal: How Congress Beat the Odds and Broke Through Gridlock." Follow her on Twitter: @JillDLawrence