Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) was harshly criticized by the Left for declaring “America is not a racist country” in his Republican rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s congressional address in 2021. To conservatives and others, this might have seemed like a normal or even banal statement.

When Scott announced his intention to run for president on Monday, he stressed Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream that we “are not defined by the color of our skin. We are defined by the content of our character.”

“And if anyone tells you anything different, they’re lying!” he added.

This seems like basic, unifying language that any political candidate of any party might utter. But in 2023, and for Scott, it’s different. As a black conservative Republican, Scott does at least two unique things, one within his party and the other in the larger culture war.

One, Scott has been open about his negative experiences with law enforcement, saying on the House floor in 2016 that he had been pulled over by police "not four, not five, not six, but seven times … as an elected official" for “nothing more than driving a new car in the wrong neighborhood or some other reason just as trivial." Scott added, “I do not know many African American men who do not have a very similar story to tell."

As a South Carolina native, I can tell you that Scott is very popular with Republicans in my state, who are overwhelmingly white. Scott has consistently shared his experience as a black American with precisely the audience who needs to understand it most if reform is the goal.

In his second unique attribute, Scott also understands what “woke” truly is at its core in ways that even his presidential rival, former President Donald Trump, and potential rival Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) never really describe.

Wokeness is not merely liberalism gone wild; it’s a rejection of liberalism. Wokeness is not the next step in MLK’s dream; it is a rejection of his dream.

In his 2021 rebuttal, Scott took sharp aim at critical race theory being taught in schools, saying, “Today, kids are being taught that the color of their skin defines them again, and if they look a certain way, they’re an oppressor.”

That’s certainly a reversal of King’s desire to see one’s character instead of race. The old-fashioned liberal view on U.S. race relations as promoted by King is that America was a great country that had not lived up to its promises for all, particularly racial minorities. The goal was to change that for the better.

Key to critical race theory, a major part of the woke agenda, is that America was never great. That it has always been racist. Irredeemably so. There is no making it better.

Where does anyone go from there? There’s no dream to be had.

While wokeness is gleaned through a variety of issues including transgenderism, sexual identity, race, and more, the basic notion that there is only one way to think about these issues, that there should be no debate or discussion, and some simply haven’t “woke” up to the Left’s unassailable truisms is something Scott seems to understand.

And understanding this intrinsic illiberalism as a defining part of wokeness is a needed tool in taking it on. Scott is a solid messenger in saying MLK got it right the first time and the woke crowd is wrong to reject King’s philosophy and dream.

He’s polling in single digits at the moment and might not get the chance to wage such a war, but a potential Vice President Tim Scott could. Regardless, it needs to be done, and Scott has been one of the best in understanding what woke truly is and how to combat it.

Jack Hunter ( @jackhunter74 ) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog. He is the former political editor of Rare.us and co-authored the 2011 book The Tea Party Goes to Washington with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).