In recent months, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of Republican elected officials vocally criticizing programs and policies that advance “wokeness,” or left-wing racialist ideology, at the federal or state level. This is a positive development and a sign that more Republican policymakers have recognized the significant threat posed by the prevalence of ideologies such as critical race theory in our society’s key institutions.

But if Republicans are serious about this fight, they need to recognize an important and uncomfortable reality: woke ideology is now embedded within the very DNA of the federal bureaucracy. It increasingly guides day-to-day decisions on everything from health care to transportation, weaponizing government to divide America’s into “oppressor” and “oppressed” and to punish them according to their identity.

How should policymakers approach this problem?

[Enthusiastically. Wokery is the assumption that “identity” is the highest priority in public policy and that government action should be tailored to a ranking of identities, which is antithetical to the rule of law and actual equality. It is the most corrosive intellectual force in the US at the moment. — Ed]