Say you’re a politician angling for the White House while trying to pursue what would be a deeply unpopular campaign against teachers and unions. How do you do it without losing the ability to posture as pro-worker? Or without alienating the disaffected independents and even liberal-leaning voters who you’ll eventually want to peel off?

For a possible answer, look at Ron DeSantis’s tenure as governor of Florida. DeSantis has mopped up national attention for his increasingly aggressive war on the vague concept of “woke ideology,” a vagueness that’s provided a divisive but effective cover for his actual agenda of attacking and weakening teachers and their unions. DeSantis’s “anti-woke” legislation has often ended up not so much curtailing wokeness (which even his office can’t seem to define), as much as it has undermined the basic workplace and constitutional rights of teachers — say, by denying their most basic right of self-expression under threat of firing, or muzzling their teaching, which one Florida judge already flatly ruled violated the First Amendment.

Sure, this often bigoted agenda isn’t particularly popular either. But it’s not quite as politically toxic as picking a fight with a group of workers who polling shows most Americans like and believe deserve better pay, including in Florida.