A New Day Dawns! Absurd & Atrocious, Week 2
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities – Voltaire
When I was growing up and trying to make up my mind about the world and the people that ruled politics in it, I looked up to my parents and grandparents a lot. Often, I would listen as they would debate issues at the weekend dinner table. Eventually, I became aware of political parties and asked which party I should vote for—this, back in the 1960s—and almost uniformly, I was told that when it came my time to vote, I should do my homework and vote for the best person I could make up my mind about. It never came down to a political party.
This week, as in recent years, has seen some of the most divisive rhetoric in American politics in decades, and some of the most mean-spirited. I won’t rehash my last post about Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, but you can read that at your leisure.
There was a story that got my attention that I normally wouldn’t bother anyone with, much less write about, except that it could have repercussions nationally in years to come. I’ll explain my reasoning.
The Governor of Florida, many of you know, is a man named Ron DeSantis. Recently reelected in a landslide victory over former governor Charlie Crist, he is widely considered to be a front-runner over everyone for the Republican nomination as the next President. He is doing everything he can to try to look presidential—whatever that means in this day and age—without outright declaring that he’s running for anything. The prohibitive exception to these plans, if any, is Donald Trump, who lost his re-election bid in 2020.
Gov. DeSantis is a Culture Warrior from the right wing of the Republican Party that sends Democrats and extremists running for cover. He’s smart, organized, and has aligned himself with other people that accomplish culture war stuff on the right, even where a crisis doesn’t exist. Picture a Tonkin Gulf incident where one is neither wanted nor desired, unless one desires a specific agenda item to be met.
In this case, the target item is a small well-functioning, academically awarded liberal arts school in Sarasota, Florida called the New College. Founded in 1964, New College has over 50 degree programs that prepare young people for productive careers like any of the other 11 larger universities and colleges in the state university system. But with 700 students, the collegial and friendly atmosphere on the water offers a warm and inviting area for many to come to and get a legitimate education. It is known as a community of free-thinkers. In the past, most universities were known for this.
In his non-candidacy to be the 47th President, DeSantis made New College a broadside target for conservative cultural reform. Much like the battle he picked with Walt Disney World in 2022 and into this year, New College, he decided was a “College in Crisis”.
On his trek, he invited a couple of friends, and some of their friends. After immediately firing the President of New College, Patricia Okker, Richard Corcoran, Tallahassee insider and former Speaker of the Florida House was made her replacement. He has no credentials as a college administrator. His brother is Mike Corcoran, well-connected lawyer and lobbyist in Washington, DC, as is his wife.
Corcoran, left his former job in the DeSantis administration under a cloud last year. He was Commissioner of Education until a bid-rigging issue popped up, and he suddenly stepped down. What a wonderful opportunity! As Commish, he was paid $275,000. The outgoing president was paid slightly over $300,000. Corcoran will get (sit down) $699,000 base pay for this little school, and all he has to do really is get along with the man who put him there. “One hand washes the other,” as the saying goes.
Funny thing about the salary, the chair of the New College Board of Trustees Debra Jenks, most of whom were replaced by DeSantis, too, says his pay is equivalent with other colleges this size. This is false. Most presidents of colleges the size of New College make less than $500,000 and she probably knows that. A New College undergrad herself, Jenks is listed as one of the top lawyers in Florida. A retired general who runs the Virginia Military Institute with about 1,600 cadets makes less than Corcoran will, if his contract is approved.
Christopher Rufo is a 38 year old conservative activist who has been placed on the board at New College. He is to colleges what QAnon and the Proud Boys are to peaceful protests on the capital steps. He is there to get a rise out of people and to make waves. As you might imagine, he is no fan of Critical Race Theory or much of what he sees in public schools on the evening news shows. He is a Georgetown graduate and, while claiming a masters from Harvard, has walked that back since he only received a certificate from a program there.
He has made statements equating diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at my alma mater, the University of South Florida (where I have a real Masters, summa cum laude) to “practices of cult initiations” in the journal of the Manhattan Institute of which he is a member. A few weeks ago, he said that the New College had a focus on social justice that was hurting enrollment, and an “echo chamber” culture. Nothing like a nuclear detonation of freedom to clear that out. Let’s see how enrollment does then.
Finally, the plan at New College is to replace it with something like Hillsdale College, a Christian college in Michigan. Their president is a highly educated man named Larry Arnn. He attended the London School of Economics and Oxford. He is not known for wise-speaking, however and has been called out for this. In 2013, he was widely criticized for statements he made about diversity at the college. He said, “we didn’t have enough dark ones”. He later clarified be saying, “dark faces.” Good job, Larry.
Another quote of his, made in Tennessee last year went like this: “The teachers are trained in the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges in the country. You will see how education destroys generations of people. It’s devastating. It’s like the plague. We are going to try to demonstrate that you don’t have to be an expert to educate a child because basically anybody can do it.”
This is only the beginning of the counteroffensive that DeSantis sees as Woke Indoctrination at every level of the American educational system. Imagine what he would do if he dragged along this rogues gallery of “educators” to Washington, D.C. with him in 2024.
Like I’ve said before, I’m a conservative guy. But decisions have consequences.
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