Republicans disagree about the war in Ukraine, the results of the 2020 election, and the merits of free trade, but they are united in their opposition to wokeness. This is especially clear in the debate over issues like Drag Queen Story Hour, rapid onset gender dysphoria, and sex changes for children. As new ideas about gender upset conventional ideas of what it means to be a man or a woman, the right has entered a new culture war.

Critics of wokeness have treated it as a matter of bad ideas (“the woke mind virus”). But this is to ignore one of the most important factors behind its rise, the economic background of an ethical revolution. And it means that the most popular solutions to wokeness—concentrated in the intellectual, educational, and cultural spheres—will prove insufficient.