What happened to wokeness? This is one of the most insistent questions in political commentary today. Do Donald Trump’s reelection and the much-ballyhooed “vibe shift” mean that wokeness is gone for good? Or is it just in remission, soon to return as strong as ever?
On Sunday, New York governor Kathy Hochul endorsed Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York City. This endorsement, as well as Mamdani’s victory over Andrew Cuomo in the June primary, are striking data points. They suggest that wokeness has indeed “peaked,” but also that peaking is not the same as vanishing.
The Mamdani campaign offers a glimpse of what a new, post-peak phase of wokeness will look like.
It’s clear we are no longer in the Summer of Love. Several years ago, the mainstream media was declaring Black Lives Matter riots “mostly peaceful,” running “defenses of looting” and appeals to “defund the police,” and firing those who got on the wrong side of the cultural left. This summer, The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, and The Washington Post all expressed grave concern about Mamdani.
