Anatomy of the Wide Awakes, the liberal movement linked to Cole Thomas Allen

"A lone wolf." In this pithy way, President Donald Trump defined Cole Thomas Allen, the individual who, armed with shotgun, pistol and knives, unleashed panic at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. And so it remains, unless the official investigation into the incident determines otherwise.

However, behind that "lone wolf" hide thoughts and rhetoric advocated by certain social groups, such as those held by a movement to which Allen has recently been linked: The Wide Awakes.

Who are the Wide Awakes?

From their birth to the present day, their ideological position has absolutely veered.

The Wide Awakes emerged in the mid-19th century in Connecticut, according to details the National Park Service on its website, as a social movement whose main objective was the abolition of slavery.

For this reason, its followers, who organized marches dressed in black cloaks and carrying torches, were one of the main social supporters of Abraham Lincoln, helping to mobilize young people to vote for the man who would later would become the 16th president.

Over time, its importance diminished to a minimum until it disappeared. But the cause, once championed by people linked to the Republican Party, endured.

Centuries later, in 2020, a network of artists and activists driven by organizations like Amplifier took up the name the Wide Awakes to portray what it labeled as social injustices, supporting change through artwork and illustrations and having connections to different well-known movements associated with woke culture and the more extremist current of the Democratic Party, for example, Black Lives Matter, among others.

On his social media profiles it is possible to see how the Wide Awakes is a movement that has radically changed in its thinking.

Allen's link to the Wide Awakes

In addition to having been singled out for being linked to progressive movements such as No Kings and having a totally anti-Trump position, Allen is a member of the Wide Awakes.

In statements made to the Secret Service and the Montgomery County (Maryland) Police Department, Allen's sister, whose identity has not been revealed out of respect for her privacy, said that her brother belongs to the Wide Awakes, in addition to claiming that he often makes "radical statements."

That alleged connection has been denied by Amplifier. "Until yesterday we had never heard of Cole Allen and he has never had any relationship with our organization," the promoter of the Wide Awakes said in a brief statement.

Regardless of whether such a link exists, authorities discovered after the incident, according to The New York Post, a manifesto in Allen's home in which the shooter reportedly wrote that his "targets" were "administration officials" and that "I am no longer willing to allow a pedophile, rapist and traitor to sully my hands with his crimes," a reference to the president.