Then they came for William Penn.
The woke culture that has already targeted George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln has more recently come after William Penn, founder of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which he established to foster religious tolerance. Before their plan was derailed by a public outcry, cancel-culture warriors (with the initial support of the Biden administration, which then backtracked—blaming it on “staff”) sought to remove Penn’s statue from Philadelphia’s “Welcome Park,” saying that doing so would result in a more “inclusive” experience.
Maybe it’s time for Republicans to ask suburban voters: Had enough?
Variations of that slogan have been part of American election campaigns since at least 1946, when the GOP used it against Democrats, who had enjoyed total governing control for 14 years. Democrats used the theme in 1974, after Watergate. And Ronald Reagan’s 1980 question – “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” – was his way of asking that question to all Americans.
For about two decades, suburban voters have been punishing the GOP at the polls. Democrats hold seats and control governing bodies in places where they didn’t even field candidates a generation ago. Whether it’s changing demographics or changing attitudes, the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision or President Trump’s persona, suburban voters have been rejecting the GOP.
In 2022, after years of Covid lockdowns and urban riots, along with recent double-digit inflation and an unsecured U.S. southern border, Republicans had convinced themselves that suburban voters had, in fact, “had enough” – enough of the Democrats, that is. However, that instinct proved wrong in the midterm elections, as Democrats avoided a widely predicted “red wave.”
Look at Chester County as a case study in these realities. Chesco is Pennsylvania’s wealthiest county, home to the most college graduates and the most advanced-degree graduates. Its residents enjoy a 20- to 40-mile buffer from Philadelphia and its many troubles, and their children attend some of the best private and public schools anywhere. Though Chesco residents told pollsters that they cared about issues like crime, inflation, and the border, their concern didn’t translate into votes for Republicans. They elected and reelected Democrats from top to bottom in 2022 – and they did it again in 2023, even expanding their gains.
Apparently, while they “cared” about inflation, crime, and the border, they didn’t truly care enough to vote Republican. Most suburban voters still don’t like the GOP brand and what they associate with it.
The reality is that because many suburban voters like those in Chester County are insulated from the societal problems that they claim to care about, they instead seem to cast their votes based on subjective values such as tone, temperament, justice, tolerance, and fairness. For the last decade, a majority of these voters have cast their ballots for Democrats.
Maybe now, however, there is an opening on this front for the GOP. Voters have recently witnessed how Penn’s president and board mishandled anti-Semitism and misunderstood the concept of free speech, how elite universities use double standards for officials and students, and how DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) initiatives waste tuition dollars and donations while often making campuses less inclusive. And now they’ve seen the cancel-culture warriors come for Pennsylvania’s founder – known for religious tolerance.
Maybe, in this climate, with national cultural issues happening in their own backyard focusing on tone, fairness, and tolerance, this environment will play to Republicans’ advantage, not Democrats. Republicans may be able to go on offense in the suburbs.
In my writing and on radio appearances, in podcasts and on social media, I’ve urged my party to reach out to the suburban voters whom they have struggled to win in recent years. In the near-term, the GOP should focus most of its efforts on reaching voters who already share their values – in both voter registration and GOTV efforts. This includes Hispanic, Chinese and Indian-American voters, many of them first- and second-generation Americans.
In addition, we must make an all-out effort to master mail-in voting, building on what had been GOP success – even dominance – in “absentee voting.”
But the events of the last few months offer the GOP a unique opportunity to go on offense with voters who had been moving away from the party – to win some back, if even for this cycle.
In Pennsylvania, where most statewide elections are decided by three points or less; where Trump won in 2016 by 0.7% and lost in 2020 by 1.7%; where two incumbent GOP statewide officials running for reelection won by 0.8% and 3% in 2020; and where Democrats hold a razor-thin one-seat majority in the statehouse, any movement away from Democrats and toward the GOP in the suburbs could make the difference.
This year will tell us whether Democrats have finally pushed their cultural agenda too far. Has the Democratic politicians’ embrace of “woke culture” gone too far? To find out, Pennsylvania Republicans need to talk to their suburban neighbors about fairness, inclusion, and tolerance – the issues that matter to them. They can start by asking: Had enough?
