A few weeks after the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Rep. Mike Collins wrote a Fox News op-ed complaining about “wokeness” at the Department of Transportation. The Georgia Republican soon after suggested on the House floor that Norfolk Southern’s interest in a diverse workforce contributed to the disaster in Ohio.
The rhetoric served as a timely reminder: We’ve reached the point at which some Republicans will shout, “Woke!” in response to practically every adverse development, whether it makes sense or not.
This came to mind again over the weekend, as officials scrambled in response to the Silicon Valley Bank failure, and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer appeared on Fox News to declare, “They were one of the most woke banks.” (The Kentucky Republican appeared on the Fox Business Channel yesterday and doubled down on the claim.)
I initially assumed such nonsense would be limited to a handful of GOP oddballs who’ve abandoned the pretense of credibility. We’d all have a good chuckle about how fundamentally unserious the chairman of the House Oversight Committee is before focusing real attention on the situation at hand.
But it’s not just Comer. The New York Times’ Jamelle Bouie explained in his latest column:
The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, also spoke to Fox about the collapse of the bank, and he also blamed the bank’s diversity programs. “I mean, this bank, they’re so concerned with D.E.I. and politics and all kinds of stuff. I think that really diverted from them focusing on their core mission,” he said. A Saturday headline in The New York Post declared, “While Silicon Valley Bank Collapsed, Top Executive Pushed ‘Woke’ Programs.” And over at The Wall Street Journal, Andy Kessler wondered if “the company may have been distracted by diversity demands.”
Alas, the list keeps going. Not only are assorted conservative media personalities pushing this line with unnerving enthusiasm, so too…
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