The ‘Morning Joe’ crew reads Maureen Dowd’s column ripping off identity politics: “Democrats are realizing that wokeness is broken!”

Morning Joe co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough carefully read New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd’s entire op-ed on how “identity politics” killed the 2024 Democratic bid.

Dowd’s piece, “Democrats and the case for mistaken identity politics,” ran in Saturday’s edition but was read in full on Monday’s “Morning Joe” in a segment that lasted nearly 10 minutes.

In her column, Dowd criticized the Democratic Party’s laser focus on wokism, which is shorthand for “identity politics,” arguing that it alienated key voter groups and contributed to recent election losses, including the landslide victory of former -President Donald Trump to Vice President Kamala Harris.

“The party embraced a worldview of hyper-political correctness, condescension and cancellation, and supported diversity statements for job applicants and faculty hall terminology like ‘Latinx’ and ‘BIPOC’ (Black, Indigenous, People of Color),” he wrote. Dowd. .

“It alienated half the country, or more. And the chaos and anti-Semitism on many college campuses certainly didn’t help,” she added.

While Trump attracted a diverse coalition, Dowd explained that the Democrats’ perceived elitism, political correctness and identity-focused language alienated many.

The columnist argued that working-class and moderate voters felt neglected by the party’s progressive agenda and campus-style activism, adding that Trump “played to the frustration of many Americans disgusted by being seen as insensitive for speaking as they had always. “

Dowd said the left needs to rethink its approach, citing outspoken Democratic strategist James Carville. She wrote that he said the party was “in love with ‘identitarianism’ – a word he uses because it doesn’t mean ‘woke’ – radiating the disgusting idea that ‘identity is more important than humanity'”.

The writer noted that the party must focus on reconnecting with rural and working-class Americans to regain their traditional base.

Brzezinski, who began reading the piece, said:

“I think a lot of people have already talked about it. We have many calls for this part. It’s an interesting message for Democrats… It really crystallized how some Democrats are waking up and realizing that the awakening is broken.”

As Brzezinski began reading, clips flashed on the screen, illustrating Dowd’s words, such as a campaign video of Trump lamenting that he couldn’t call women “beautiful” and another video of a CNN contributor which criticized the “garbage” of campuses. in political protests.

Dowd’s piece also addressed the issue of abortion, as well as the hot topic of transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, and how it divided voters.

“Democrats learned the hard way in this election that mothers care as much about abortion rights as they do about having their daughters compete fairly and safely on the playing field,” the columnist wrote.

The MSNBC morning show flashed a quote chart, hammering home Dowd’s point.

Scarborough took it upon himself to read the second half of Dowd’s column, which cited a chart from the Financial Times that found white progressives “have views far to the left of the minorities they champion.”

When he finished reading the piece, Scarborough said, “We could talk about this for four hours. I’m watching that and it’s stuff that we’ve talked about on this show.”