Leftists Lose Their Minds After DeSantis Declares War on Wokeness in Higher Ed
“How does @RonDeSantisFL think FL universities will continue to have the rankings and status he once bragged about after he does this? Instead, he traded Florida’s future for his own, doubling down on Naziism,” Colorado professor Steven Vose tweeted.
It’s an understatement to say that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has gotten results after making it a top priority in his second term to continue to do the hard work of prying the prickly tentacles of wokeness off of public school systems and state-funded universities and colleges, all of which have become breeding grounds for leftist indoctrination.
Not long after his inauguration speech, where he reiterated a point he’s made before about how Florida is “where woke goes to die,” DeSantis promptly got to work telling the state’s public universities and colleges to provide details on expenditures “related to DEI programs and Critical Race Theory.”
Right after that, he transformed the Board of Trustees for New College of Florida to include three conservatives, including prominent CRT opponent Christopher Rufo.
Just days after DeSantis requested the expenditure info, the ACLU filed a motion to block the move because DeSantis violated a federal judge’s previously-issued preliminary injunction against parts of the Stop WOKE Act, but the ACLU’s motion was denied.
Around this same time, the DeSantis administration wrote a letter to the College Board (an organization that “helps more than seven million students prepare for a successful transition to college” through the SAT and AP program), alerting them that they would not be given state approval for a “pilot version of an AP African-American Studies (APAAS) course” that, according to the Florida Department of Education, “is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.”
Two weeks later, the College Board announced it would be revising the program. And when they released their official curriculum on Wednesday, we learned that they’d dropped CRT and Black Lives Matter-related subject matter from the course.
On Tuesday, DeSantis laid out a sweeping plan for higher education reform that he vowed would, if approved by the state legislature, “[prohibit] higher education institutions from using any funding, regardless of source, to support DEI, CRT, and other discriminatory initiatives.”
New higher education proposal builds off our 2022 reforms:
– Core courses rooted in Western tradition
– Elimination of DEI/CRT bureaucracies
– Bolster civics-focused institutes at UF, FSU and FIU
– Additional accountability for tenured faculty pic.twitter.com/XV6mExlzHJ— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) January 31, 2023
Naturally, the left went nuts, claiming – ironically – that higher ed institutions should not be subjected to the supposed ideological whims of partisan public officials:
This proposal goes far beyond banning DEI and CRT. It rewrites universities' mission statements, forces them to deprioritize some majors, effectively ends tenure, and hands control of core curricula to political appointees. It's an all-out assault on the autonomy of higher ed. https://t.co/QLKWI25gb2
— Jeremy C. Young (@jeremycyoung) February 1, 2023
How does @RonDeSantisFL think FL universities will continue to have the rankings and status he once bragged about after he does this? Instead, he traded Florida’s future for his own, doubling down on Naziism. https://t.co/Ysfex7vXAY
— Steven M. Vose (he/him) (@StevenMVose) February 1, 2023
Watching DeSantis press conference on higher education. So much projection — says he’s against indoctrination but will be recommending “core classes” from the State and is banning DEI. He’s also targeting tenure, who are the only professors who have the security to be vocal rn.
— Rep. Anna V. Eskamani 🔨 (@AnnaForFlorida) January 31, 2023
All academics needs to leave Florida now. Students need to transfer credits immediately to an out of state, accredited college. Florida universities are about to become worthless, for-profit diploma mills. https://t.co/7qETq00bIp
— Autumn 🎶 (@SciRocker) February 1, 2023
What is happening in Florida is frightening, and if De Santis gets _any_ traction in the presidential race, it will become the script all across the nation. We must fight. Preemptively. Not reactively. https://t.co/CzgCPI1asw
— Christopher Nygren (@chris_nygren) February 1, 2023
"Banning books, banning DEI, and targeting trans students is all ok but having neo nazis like Nick Fuentes tabling on FSU's campus is ok. Welcome to DeSantis' Florida," said @esqueer_after the GOP governor's latest attack on higher education.
https://t.co/ataYlAiNKD— Common Dreams (@commondreams) February 1, 2023
All the dudes who are Very Concerned About Free Speech love this guy, as he basically goes through and systematically bans any speech that makes RWers uncomfortable. But sure, it's totally about Free Speech Principles or whatever. https://t.co/XtOvRUIfqp
— Centrism Fan Acct 🔹 (@Wilson__Valdez) February 1, 2023
This is an affront on freedom of thought the likes of which America used to condemn in dictatorships across the world. But in Ron DeSantis's Florida, it's just Tuesday. https://t.co/xa9b9PTSY6
— Jonathan Diaz (@JMDiazJD) February 1, 2023
Ron DeSantis is a white nationalist and he needs to start being referred to as one. Working at a university, I can not emphasize enough the importance of DEI departments. https://t.co/2rIM3FooYl
— Billy Kalikimaka @[email protected] (@MachiaBilly) January 31, 2023
Suppose he was president and the damage he would do to our country. Stop Little Hitler.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will defund DEI efforts at colleges across the state https://t.co/s8cryxt0iN
— Dr. Marvin Dunn (@MarvinDunn4) February 1, 2023
I, a RN, am appalled at DeSantis’s decision to remove DEI from public universities. We have a health disparities crisis: Black Individuals have greater maternal death rates, poorer health, etc. It is in universities that health care researchers are trying to solve this problem!
— Wyona M Freysteinson, PhD, MN, RN, FAAN (she/her) (@wyonaf) February 1, 2023
I teach at a university here in Florida, and Florida A&M is state funded. What DeSatan is doing will greatly affect the university. If you look at the list of DEI programs and money from the state that goes to FAMU, you will see what I mean. 1/2https://t.co/XvaebzEBMA
— PremEnstrualsYndrome (@EyewitnessViews) February 1, 2023
The pushback to the leftist freakout was at times hilarious and others spot-on:
When Leftist ideology/activists take over universities… No problem. In fact, wonderful! Progress!
When the Right/Center pushes back… ATTACK ON EDUCATION!
— George From NY (@GeorgeFromNY1) February 1, 2023
Cope and seethe, Desantis is launching an invasion into your chapels of progressivism https://t.co/QS1oViodOf
— Jared Rabel (@JradRabel) February 1, 2023
Excellent! Well done governor DeSantis! https://t.co/ZeluzuvVcZ pic.twitter.com/oizEhcuBXb
— ❤️GAGirl1967🖤 Happy Valentines Day ❤️ (@Tamzilla_52) February 1, 2023
If you’re using tax dollars there is no autonomy. If a school wants autonomy then they can take the institution private.
Ending tenure, deprioritizing useless majors and rewriting the mission statements of these Marxist indoctrination centers? You act like that’s a bad thing.
— EJ Hill (@EJHill_PSC) February 2, 2023
If you didn't want an "assault on the autonomy of higher education," maybe you shouldn't have spent the last few decades turning taxpayer-funded public universities into training camps for leftist activism. https://t.co/lWjjP3qpnj
— Noah Pollak (@NoahPollak) February 1, 2023
You say this like it's a bad thing, when it's what needs to happen to return public universities to their original mission: to educate. https://t.co/or0yQvN4t1
— Stephen Measure (@stephenmeasure) February 2, 2023
I fail to see the problem. These are tax payer funded institutions that have lost their way in the world of wokeness and political correctness. It’s time to reintroduce them to the real world. Other states are going to follow this lead. https://t.co/BovZYmlUFU
— Ralph Cramden’s Driver (@EighthMade) February 1, 2023
Endorsed.
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Comments
What most people are totally unaware of is the fact this indoctrination started over 100 years ago (see John Dewey) and it has taken that long for the left to get it to this point. We have been frogs in the left-wing slow-walk pot all that time.
YES!
Accomplished by bribing/fooling parents into thinking they were getting a free education for their children.
Last I looked, they still had a (President Woodrow) Wilson center at Princeton.
The College Board capitulated on the first day of Black History Month.
The College Board’s African American black studies AP course—as originally crafted—was not about black people but about pushing Marxism and other evils.
https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2023/02/01/after-desantis-pushback-college-board-drops-critical-race-theory-from-ap-course-n527842?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
The leftists seem upset that public funding will be directed by the leadership elected by the public. They seem to want the funding without oversight which is in contrast to their overhead rhetoric about democracy.
I find it rich that people who survive on public money do not want to be held accountable to those that spend it. Bryn Mawr and the like will surely offer a tenured position shielded from reality for those snowflakes.
DeSantis
Again…
And again….
We all scream for DeSantis
Not ice cream!
Geriatric Joe Biden can keep the ice cream while we observe an effective chief executive utilize the power granted by his re-election to office to keep fighting and very importantly winning v the leftist totalitarians. Other Gov should follow suit. Where they will not, the voters of those States should work to replace them with someone who will. Until the voters force their leaders to act many won’t. The example of DeSantis in FL is helping make the case for those reforms to made in other States. Not sure why you consider it a bad thing to publicise victory, but then I don’t get tired of winning no matter who is the author of the victory.
Tired or not, your winning feeling stops in Nov 2024. Even assuming your hero DeSantis is the candidate, how exactly was he planning on winning PA, AZ, NV, MI, or GA? They don’t count votes like Fl,, Democrat frauds harvest whatever they need to win.
DeSantis tightened up the voting laws in Florida. What have other R Governors done? What did Trump do at the federal level while he was in office?
And it’s not about anybody being a ‘hero’ it’s about backing a candidate who can get the job done. And then actually gets the job done.
Ok whatever. The reality of the situation is that the fraud governs. If it makes you feel better to blame President Trump then go ahead, but you may not be comfortable in the company of your fellow Trump haters in the media. But it really doesn’t matter, the Republican candidate will lose
Then you shouldn’t be all bent out of shape about who the Republican candidate is.
I’m not. I just can’t stomach the neverTrumpers add Trump haters. Makes me feel like this the comments section for the View or NRO.
1. DeSantis isn’t a 2024 candidate yet and may not be.
2. He ain’t my ‘hero’. I do give credit where it is due and he deserves praise for advancing the goal of beating back the leftist totalitarians.
3. Voter fraud, ballot security and election integrity are issues for the people of each State to solve. Outsiders can help but the heavy lifting is on the Citizens of each State. Either they put forth the effort required or they don’t.
4. It isn’t up to me to fix the US election system nor to design campaign strategies for theoretical candidates. Frankly the obstacles presented in the States you mentioned apply to any candidate.
5. Despite that here are suggestions for the folks in those States; get a copy of the voter roll and property tax roll. Compare and contrast the addresses. Usually the voter address must be a physical residence not a PO box or business. Where multiple names list same address but it’s too small to accommodate the numbers, make a note of those as well then move to purge those registrations. Keep at it until you get it done.
6. It is decidedly unrealistic to think that voter rolls in every jurisdiction can be rendered 100 percent accurate throughout the crazy mail in voting period.
7. But that doesn’t matter because the ballots received will never be preserved and made available for scrutiny and review.
8. Once the fraudulent Democrat is declared the winner, there is no realistic legal pathway to challenge.
9. End result is guaranteed Republican loss in a national election for the targeted political victims of the fraud (which may not be every sleaze Democrat on the ticket), as long as we have unverified mail-in ballots, ballot harvesting (illegal or not, Dems don’t care) and unmonitored drop boxes, and Democrats will never give them up
10. I don’t really have a 10 but it doesn’t matter, the Republican candidate has already lost 2024.
Concise,
The key is to clean up the voter rolls. That eliminates the fraudulent voters and their ballots. This is especially so for States where ballots are mailed out to everyone registered even without the voter requesting it.
We don’t have to get the voter rolls 100% perfect to be an effective strategy. To suggest that since perfection is unattainable we shouldn’t bother is a bit suspicious.
When we couple that with your declaration that no GoP candidate can win due to the fraud, the same fraud you insist we shouldn’t try to stop, then a pattern emerges.
You seem to want folks to remain frightened and perpetually defeated mentally. You offer no solutions and actively condemn those, like me, who propose workable solutions. Why is that? Could it be b/c you like losing? Maybe you come here to spread doom, gloom and despair. Whatever the reason it makes you seem a little bit like a whiny pogue who’d rather rollover and take it v fight back.
1. This requires that the local election board is interested in cleaning up the rolls, and is also not afraid to do so. Since election boards usually represent the county government, in D-infested areas they are usually controlled by Ds, who don’t want clean rolls. And in places where they have tried to clean the rolls, they’ve often been slapped with court injunctions and are now gun-shy.
2. Check your facts before making accusations. Don’t repeat the debacle we saw in Georgia two years ago, when a so-called “expert” testified about all these anomalies he’d found, and was methodically taken to pieces by Dem lawmakers who knew the facts on the ground.
E.g. this clown cited an address that had a few dozen voters registered at it, and was listed as a Mailboxes R Us location, or some similar business. Aha! he crowed! Clear and obvious fraud! The local representative ripped him to shreds, because she knew that address and it does indeed have well over 100 residents. Don’t make that mistake.
Also be aware that homeless people and others who have no fixed address register with some kind of mail facility, or a county building, or something like that. That’s not fraud, so producing evidence of it won’t achieve anything.
And then there’s voters who live abroad and are registered at their last US address. They’re entitled to vote in federal but not state and local elections. Someone else will be living at their address now, but this is not evidence of fraud. (And yes, every state manages to keep those lists separate and not send them the wrong ballots, so if a state or locality wants to allow aliens to vote in local elections that will not be a problem, because it can be handled the same way. And the same way every state manages to keep R and D voters separate at primaries.)
Not frightened Commochief, nor am I a progressive (nice touch adding the childish insult, really supports your argument). I’m realistic and tired of playing this electoral fraud game. But go ahead, hope for change (that phrase brings back bad memories) and we’ll see how that works out next Nov.
Milhouse,
If the d/prog in control of blue enclaves were interested in clearing up the rolls they would already have done so. There would be little need to push them. The Public Interest Legal Foundation, PILF, is one organization working to assist local citizens to push reluctant county officials.
Generally speaking, overseas military voters rely upon the Federal Absentee Write in Ballot. The inability of local officials to send ballots to these voters with enough time to return them is the primary driver.
Where the election laws require a physical residence for a valid voter registration and one isn’t provided that registration is invalid. Those names should be, IMO, stricken from the voter roll. Those who choose a nomadic or transient lifestyle have both + and – in their choices. Choices have consequences.
Concise,
Proposing a plan to combat voter fraud by cleaning up the voter rolls, a plan already being successfully used in many areas, is the opposite of ‘hope’.
Pointing out the problem and simply bemoaning it as insurmountable, as you seem to do isn’t getting us any closer to fixing the problem. It’s time for folks to stop talking about the problem and get busy fixing it in the local areas. Those of us fortunate enough to live in areas without these issues can offer advice and some funding to help but we can’t do it for you.
Then there’s no point in nominating anyone. If everyone is a guaranteed loss then it doesn’t matter who the Republicans nominate, so why not put forth the most conservative candidate possible and give a real contrast? If they’re going to cheat, then MAKE THEM CHEAT.
And you write “your hero” as if DeSantis doesn’t deserve the respect he’s earned. He’s fought (and won) more than any conservative governor. What do you want from him?
Your defeatism is useless.
Call it whatever you want. Republicans will not win MI, AZ, PA, NV and likely GA as things stand now. Put money on it.
What gets lost in the shuffle is that Desantis did the “unthinkable” by getting involved in School Board races. He sees the need to reshape our education system from not only with “institutions of higher learning” but also at the K-12 level. Saying that, the one area that many of us here in the Sunshine State are wanting him to do is to take on the Teacher’s Union.
I am proud to live in DeSantistan!
School board race victories can be undone. I prefer school choice – which DeSantis also supports.
Then you email the governor and tell him that “victories can be undone” and not to bother. I sure as hell hope you don’t live in Florida because you are the type of voter that is not needed or wanted here.
It is funny to see the overreactions, no matter the subject or villian. Laughable people, always threatened, that pretend to be angels.
“How does @RonDeSantisFL think FL universities will continue to have the rankings and status he once bragged about after he does this?”
Twitter’s gonna diiiiiiiiie! Look, it’s going down the tubes right now! Watch! It’s almost there! It’s dying! Any minute!
Cheap fuckers fired my girlfriend and took away my free cafeteria food!
Pro Tip:
For those LI guests who want less coverage on Governor DeSantis, ask Trump to stop talking about DeSantis.
Why? Well, because Donald started this the week leading up to the midterms, remember? Trump is actively attacking, sarcastically maligning, and deliberately lying about a beloved, popular and extremely effective Republican governor who is the antithesis of the command and control, top down leadership style seen in NY, NJ, PA, IL, MI, MN, CA, OR, WA and now in AZ.
The other red state Governors should adopt and model DeSantis. He is successfully running a state of 22+ million people while kicking woke progressive butt.
Trump has an iPhone and uses a social media app to criticize and humiliate DeSantis. Sorry, Don, it’s best you put your 2016 playbook back on the shelf.
That dog won’t hint in 2024.
*hunt*
And his cultists flunkies are all too eager to play along.
This sounds like TDS you hear from the other side.
It might, but as I wrote elsewhere there seems to be more than one form of TDS.
“It appears TDS has two distinct, and opposite, forms.
The well known form blinds the infected to any of Trump’s accomplishments, while amplifying his faults and/or failures. In truly virulent infections it causes the sufferer to see faults and/or failures that don’t really exist. Sufferers tend to view Trump in a demonic light.
It’s now become clear that TDS causes the opposite in others. It either blinds them to Trump’s faults and/or failures, or at least binds them to their significance. At the same time it amplifies Trump’s accomplishments. Sufferers tend to view Trump’s opponents in a demonic light, while viewing Trump in a messianic light.
Either form seems to inhibit the infected’s ability to view reality.”
What if I want more coverage for our hopefully future 2nd president named Ronald.
“ask Trump to stop talking about DeSantis” – uhhh … that’s not going to happen.
It must be nice to live in a state where the voters choose wisely.
This is a great move by a courageous giovernor
If the leftists are upset by “indoctrination”, they should be in favor of school choice.
Woke and morally broke.
This is why Gov DeSantis will defeat President Trump in the ’24 Republican primary – he can take action that makes a difference. As the lead-in paragraph says, he gets results.
Trump did not get results while he served? That’s how it sounds from your comment.
“he can take action” – that’s called present tense.
Looking for reasons to “correct” fellow conservatives is a waste of your time & mine.
Cheers.
See below, please. The site jumps all over the place with the other browser, so the response did not match up. Sorry.
Not looking to correct anything, just making an observation based on what you said. Anyone can take action when they have opportunity. You raised Trump, however, and implied that DeSantis can while Trump cannot.
We saw what Trump could and couldn’t do when he was president. A lot of good stuff, don’t get me wrong, but a lot of stuff he got beat at, and stuff he promised and never even tried.
We’re seeing what DeSantis can and can’t do as governor. A string of Ws sprinkled with extremely few Ls I can recall. Arguably a superior record.
If you’re determined to argue about whether he can or can’t translate that performance to a national sphere, you’ll just have to “pass it to see what’s in it.” There’s really no other way.
I am paid by the state to teach. I do not get to have a Mr. Dathurtz’s school of life and also some science, because the state pays me to teach certain things. Elected officials have either decided what I should teach or those elected officials have delegated their authority to other people who have decided what I should teach. And they pay me to teach that. So I do.
If the state pays you, then you have to follow their rules. I could take a 50% pay cut and go work at a school that doesn’t take state money. Then, I teach what they pay me to teach.
Is it crazy to have your employer make rules about the duties you are employed to complete? I just don’t see how an honest person can have a problem here.
“It’s an all-out assault on the autonomy of higher ed!”
P.S.: Please send more money, we already spent this month’s check!
“It’s an all-out assault on the autonomy of higher ed!”
There it is.
“Higher ed” thinks themselves carriers of a greater truth, leading the benighted ever upward. They aren’t beholden to the folks paying them — indeed, they’re so righteous they just tell the harvested what they must fund. (I first encountered this blatant PoV under Reagan — What do you mean subsidies won’t automatically climb to meet our tuition increases?)
This is Vanguard Theory. And like the Righteous Eco-Warriors, they are both entitled to our support without bound, and morally superior, for their dedication to cause (at our expense.)
Little wonder they’re so in “harmony” with The Pronouncements of the Davos-ites.(*) They know better — just ask them … wait, you don’t even have to ask. We should be grateful that we’re permitted to sacrifice to support their crusade.
(*) I propose we identify a sexual practice associated with the Davos people. You know there is at least one. Acquiring hookers to do with as they like — kinda like they intend to do to the rest of us, except we don’t get to opt out, and don’t get paid.
Davos-omy: I don’t care what we do, so long as you don’t like it.
“Nearly 250 Harvard affiliates signed onto a petition this month calling on the University’s Presidential Search Committee to nominate a candidate who “actively affirms the importance of free speech” on campus.”
But they live in fear, so they hid their names
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2022/11/29/free-speech-presidential-search/
On Dec 15 Harvard announced the selection of the new President — Claudine Gay, the most anti-free speech candidate imaginable, and the leader of the progressive orthodoxy enforcement Stasi on campus.
Meanwhile, the 250 “Harvard affiliates” who signed the letter consist of just 200 students (out of more than 20,000), 31 alumni (out of well more than 100,000), and 11 faculty members (out of more than 2000). Pathetic! And most of them wouldn’t even give their names. One of the few who did speak up publicly was Harvey Mansfield — and he’s 90 years old.
I’m confused. Public Universities using public tax dollars are going to be run by public servants directed by politicians who were elected by the public to do what the public wants done with their tax dollars and that is a bad thing?
Go Woke, Go Broke or get your own private funding. Maybe hit up those tech billionaires for some of the money they are pouring into elections to elect progressives and take over local election boards.
Just in: “You progs don’t like what I’m doing? Well hold my freshly squeezed Florida orange juice and assume the position, because you ain’t seen nothing yet.”
These perpetually aggrieved snowflakes should all move to California.
I think he should mandate that schools hire the MOST qualified candidate. I know this guy who hasn’t even gotten interviewed at FL schools who has published TWO DOZEN books at major commercial and university presses. He has 3 strikes — white, male, and not a flaming left Dem. Only when people like him get hired will the changes stick.