A leading Republican House member is planning to form the “first-ever Anti-Woke Caucus,” which is being billed as a group that believes “wokeness” has become the “greatest domestic threat to America today.”
During a Friday announcement, Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) highlighted a recent op-ed piece by him published in The American Mind detailing what “Congress must do in the fight against wokeism.”
“We no longer live in a normal America. The issues that Congress used to take up, like healthcare, the economy, or our withdrawal from Afghanistan, all regrettably pale in comparison to the creeping tyranny which nearly all Americans now feel,” he began, adding:
The nation’s most powerful forces—our intelligence agencies, corporations, the press, our universities, and even our military—are all pressing further and further into uncharted territory from which it’s not clear America can return.
For the time being, saving America rests in the House of Representatives.
The most toxic part of this tyranny is its doctrine—“wokeness.” Everyone has by now heard this word but it means something very specific. It means that all the so-called oppressor groups must be punished for their past and present alleged sins. There are many steps to punishing them: inducing self-hatred through indoctrination, stripping away their rights by not enforcing the laws on their behalf, public humiliation, hatred, expropriation, and ultimately violence. That’s what the Left has done so far. It’s not exactly clear yet how far this can go.
Banks singled out the Biden administration for bringing these left-wing values to children and adults alike with the objective of stocking division and distrust in schools, businesses, and organizations.
“The new House Republican majority can and will fight institutionalized wokeness. The path forward is clear so long as we act confidently, as our voters demand,” wrote Banks, going on to list a series of legislative priorities the new GOP majority should consider.
“First, House Republicans should pass legislation to rescind Executive Order 13985, Biden’s equity Executive Order that directed every single federal agency to produce an ‘Equity Action Plan,'” wrote Banks.
“I know there are many more anti-woke legislatures [sic] in the Republican Congress, and that we will find strength in numbers. An anti-woke caucus with members on the Appropriations, Energy and Commerce, and Judiciary committees will work together to offer amendments that defund and expose wokeness at the NIH [National Institutes of Health], the Justice Department, and every other federal agency,” wrote the Indiana Republican.
“No bill that spends taxpayer dollars on leftist activities should pass out of committee without a recorded vote on an amendment to defund wokeness,” he wrote, adding that the GOP majority should also “stop funding wokeness.”
