These two things are mutually exclusive.
Populism and wokeness are mortal enemies. They are irreconcilable.
“With the passage of President Biden’s coronavirus relief bill, Democrats are setting out to reclaim their populist birthright. And, they hope, reverse their losses among white working-class voters.
The new law is being called “transformational” for a reason. It represents a fundamental shift in the Democratic Party’s approach to reducing poverty in America. The fashionable liberal theories about the “culture of poverty” that took hold in the 1960s held that what poor people needed was more power and better values. As if the government could step in and try to change those things without antagonizing the poor and generating a political backlash. …
In recent years, we’ve been seeing a striking new pattern in American politics. For a century, it’s been true that the wealthier you are, the more likely you are to vote Republican. What’s new is that today, the better educated you are (especially among whites), the more likely you are to vote Democratic. Democrats have become less of a populist party and more of a liberal party. The party’s core support now comes from the educated upper middle class — the “woke,” in liberal parlance. …
There are actually two varieties of populism: liberal economic populism, which Biden wants to reclaim, and conservative cultural populism on issues like race and religion and immigration — issues that gave Donald Trump his support from white working-class voters. …”
Populist voters are social conservatives and economic moderates. It is not two different and completely distinct groups. Instead, populists have the same worldview on culture and economics.
For the last 50 years, the Democrats have been driving social conservatives out of the party and it is about to rapidly accelerate due to the growth in prominence of wokeness. We saw a preview of that last summer. The only thing stopping a full blown exodus is the awfulness of the Republican economic agenda. This keeps White populists and moderates dealigned as cross pressured Independent voters.