Let’s Face It, Dems Have Always Been ‘Dark Woke’

 By now, you’ve probably heard the term “dark woke.” It’s supposed to represent a new, edgy, gloves-off messaging strategy among Democrats.

But what’s new about this? Democrats have always taken the low road.

A recent New York Times feature says “As liberals try to get their groove back, some party insiders say Democratic politicians have been encouraged to embrace a new form of combative rhetoric aimed at winning back voters who have responded to President Trump’s no-holds-barred version of politics.”

An article posted on Yahoo News claims that “While traditional Democrats may still be pushing the idea of reaching across the aisle and finding a way to bring a fractured country together, this online faction is taking the gloves off and going ‘Dark Woke.’”

It’s all supposedly a response to Donald Trump’s abrasive personality.

But who are they kidding? Are we actually supposed to believe that Democrats were polite and deferential before Trump? That they were the ones reaching out to the other side for compromise? That they were the champions of civil discourse?

That’s how Democrats are routinely portrayed by their patrons in the media. But it is laughably detached from reality.

This is the party that, back in the 1960s, attacked a Republican presidential candidate with an ad showing a girl picking petals off a flower only to be obliterated by a nuclear bomb. Ronald Reagan was routinely on the receiving end of vicious attacks from Democrats. In 2003, Charles Krauthammer coined the term “Bush Derangement Syndrome” to describe the unhinged hostility Democrats had for George W. Bush.

In 2009, Rep. Alan Grayson “became an overnight sensation,” according to NPR, “when he said the Republican health care plan was ‘die quickly.’”

Politico, of all places, reported on the vicious tactics Barack Obama used against Mitt Romney in 2012, saying “Obama and his aides have used an arsenal of techniques — personal ridicule, suggestions of ethical misdeeds and aspersions against Romney’s patriotism — that many voters and commentators claim to abhor.”

It was Democrats who attacked a Republican Medicare reform plan by showing a lawmaker pushing a grandmother off a cliff.

During Trump’s first term, Rep. Maxine Waters told protesters to “get more confrontational” and in another instance told supporters to “push back on” Trump Cabinet members, and “tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”

When Joe Biden was pretending to be president, he told donors in a private call that it was “time to put Trump in the bull’s-eye” and called Trump supporters semi-fascists.

It’s Democrats who are constantly calling their political opponents evil, racist, deplorable, greedy, fascists who don’t deserve to live. There’s a montage posted on Instagram in 2023 of prominent Democrats explicitly calling for violence against Republicans. It is several minutes long.

Do Republicans resort to harsh rhetoric and campaign tactics on occasion? Sure. But we’d argue that Democrats are far more likely to do so, and far more furious in their attacks, and far dirtier in their tactics because they crave political power so much more than do Republicans. In fact, the reason Trump stands out and raises so much ire — especially among establishment, Queensberry Rules Republicans — is precisely because he’s uniquely unafraid to punch back just as hard.

In any case, the idea that Democrats have until now been taking the high road is one of the biggest of Big Lies we’ve ever heard.

The only thing “new” is that some Democrats are admitting to what they are up to.

https://issuesinsights.com/2025/05/09/lets-face-it-dems-have-always-been-dark-woke/