Jamelle Bouie criticizes American pundits for focusing on "wokeness" instead of democratic harms. He observes a trend where commentators remain fixated on perceived left-wing excesses from 2020-2021. This obsession distracts from the current administration's systematic dismantling of rights and democratic norms. Pundits ignore significant actions like purges within the military and the appointment of election deniers to key positions. Instead, they focus on trivial matters like past statements about Thanksgiving. Free speech absolutists are also notably silent.Bouie's critique is a reaction to pieces by David Brooks and Ross Douthat, who admit difficulty distinguishing between opposing sides. Michael Hobbes similarly notes that centrists wrongly equated minor leftist provocations with the threat of events like the Jan 6th insurrection. He argues that the excesses of the right have been far more damaging. While "woke" excesses involved mostly harmless public statements, the backlash is leading to imprisonment and the erosion of democracy. The current reckoning should focus on how elites lost sight of these disproportionate threats.