Wide Awakes in America
April 13, 2024 1:01 AM Subscribe
And that Northern strength, to many, looked like the Wide Awakes. The Republicans, after all, had performed best in states where the movement was largest, among exactly the kind of young, laboring moderates the Wide Awakes mobilized. In the final assessment of the New York Tribune, the most popular Republican newspaper, the election was decided by the Democratic Party’s internal divisions and by the massive Wide Awake movement. That organization “embodied” the Republican cause, the Tribune argued, becoming a concise symbol for millions who hated the Slave Power. from The Club of Cape-Wearing Activists Who Helped Elect Lincoln—and Spark the Civil War [Smithsonian]
I was just thinking that!
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:08 AM on April 13 [1 favorite]
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:08 AM on April 13 [1 favorite]
More discussion, previously. Wide Awakes banner.
posted by MonkeyToes at 6:15 AM on April 13 [1 favorite]
posted by MonkeyToes at 6:15 AM on April 13 [1 favorite]
"Wide Awake" sounds an awful lot like "Woke", right? At least enough that you can shut up a relative griping about "this 'woke' stuff" over Thanksgiving dinner by telling them about these earlier Wide Awake guys who helped get Lincoln elected?
Huh, my first thought was also about that similarity, but from there I started seeing parallels to Antifa as a response to violence, partisan news drumming up fear of Wide Awake/woke well beyond its actual reach and scope, and predictions that election of a relative moderate would lead to civil war...
posted by solotoro at 10:10 AM on April 13 [1 favorite]
Huh, my first thought was also about that similarity, but from there I started seeing parallels to Antifa as a response to violence, partisan news drumming up fear of Wide Awake/woke well beyond its actual reach and scope, and predictions that election of a relative moderate would lead to civil war...
posted by solotoro at 10:10 AM on April 13 [1 favorite]
my first thought was also about that similarity, but from there I started seeing parallels to Antifa as a response to violence, partisan news drumming up fear of Wide Awake/woke well beyond its actual reach and scope, and predictions that election of a relative moderate would lead to civil war...
Yeah when I heard that the first thing I thought was I wish antifa or someone would pick that up and say fuck yes, we're wide awake, and give the fear-mongers on the right what they're afraid of good and hard.
posted by nushustu at 11:27 AM on April 13 [2 favorites]
Yeah when I heard that the first thing I thought was I wish antifa or someone would pick that up and say fuck yes, we're wide awake, and give the fear-mongers on the right what they're afraid of good and hard.
posted by nushustu at 11:27 AM on April 13 [2 favorites]
Glad to learn more about these guys, of whom I'd previously read only hints.
Thank you for the post, chavenet.
posted by doctornemo at 12:42 PM on April 13 [1 favorite]
Thank you for the post, chavenet.
posted by doctornemo at 12:42 PM on April 13 [1 favorite]
Wide Awake guys who helped get Lincoln elected? help create the modern United States, a second republic, within the context of an enslaved peoples rebellion
posted by eustatic at 3:27 PM on April 13 [2 favorites]
posted by eustatic at 3:27 PM on April 13 [2 favorites]
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"Wide Awake" sounds an awful lot like "Woke", right? At least enough that you can shut up a relative griping about "this 'woke' stuff" over Thanksgiving dinner by telling them about these earlier Wide Awake guys who helped get Lincoln elected?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:58 AM on April 13 [11 favorites]