Can Ron DeSantis stop winning? I hope not.
Sure, DeSantis is running a distant second to Donald Trump in polling for the forthcoming Republican presidential primaries. But he’s racking up the big wins that are making the big differences, as Florida governor. From pulling the pin early on Covid lockdowns, which saw Florida rack up record growth and budget surpluses, to the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act and the Parental Rights in Education Act, key legislative salvos against the onslaught of Wokeism, DeSantis is shaping up as a rare reminder of what Republicans are supposed to stand for.
Now, he’s delivered another counter-assault to Wokeism.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed legislation to defund diversity, equity and inclusion programs at all state universities, which he called a “distraction from the core mission.”
With an almost Reagan-ite gift for turning a phrase, DeSantis has called out DEI for what it really stands for.
“This is better viewed as standing for discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination”
“This is better viewed as standing for discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination, and that has no place in our public institutions,” DeSantis said at a news conference in Sarasota.
DeSantis is also reminding Florida’s universities what they’re supposed to be doing with taxpayers’ money.
“If you want to do things like gender ideology, go to (the University of California) Berkeley,” DeSantis added. “There’s nothing wrong with that, per se, but for us with our tax dollars, we want to focus on the classical mission of what a university is supposed to be.”
Under the law, Florida state universities are barred from spending state or federal funds to promote, support or maintain any programs that “advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion, or promote or engage in political or social activism.”
“What this does is reorient our universities back to their traditional mission and part of that traditional mission is to treat people as individuals, not to try to divvy them up based on any type of superficial characteristics,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis is also hitting back against the history wars of the Long March left.
The law also demands that general education courses “may not distort significant historical events or include a curriculum that teaches identity politics” based on “theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political, and economic inequities.”
To really drive the point home, DeSantis signed the law into being right in the heartland of regressive leftism.
DeSantis signed the legislation at the liberal arts New College of Florida, where he has been steering a conservative takeover. Earlier this year, DeSantis replaced six members of the college’s board of trustees with conservative allies.
In addition, the law gives university presidents and boards of trustees more hiring power.
“They’re more accountable to the people of Florida who they’re using our tax dollars,” DeSantis said. “It’s easier to be able to make changes if they’re failing at their mission.”
Of course the woke left were infuriarated, but, in another win, DeSantis showed them up as hollow, paper tigers.
Making light of protests at the college, DeSantis said he was “a little disappointed” in the turn out.
“I was hoping for more,” DeSantis said. “It’s all good.”
CNN
This is how conservatives win against the Long March left: not by surrendering and saying, “Us too! But in a blue tie!” — by taking the fight back to them, and not backing down.
