This post is about two people I simultaneously find gravely problematic and admirable. They are Rod Dreher and Ron DeSantis.
Dreher is editor of The American Conservative and has a record of penning ringing defenses of that which is inarguably defensible. He distilled his concern about what the marginalization of Christianity was going to mean for practicing believers into an important 2017 book, The Benedict Option. He wrote the introduction to Carl Trueman's The Rise of the Modern. Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism and the Road to Sexual Revolution, an exhaustive analysis of how we got to a point at which transgendered bathrooms were considered as something to which there was a right.
But he has become enamored of this flimsy notion of a "national conservatism," to the extent of not only expressing admiration for Victor Orban, but moving to Hungary. This move really mars his standing as an articulator of he good, right and true.
Good Rod shows up today in a piece for his magazine in which he properly lauds Florida governor Ron DeSantis for serving notice that that state's educational system will not brook DEI or an African American Studies curriculum driven by the thought of Robin G. Kelly and Keeyanga Yamahtta Taylor.
Dreher effectively conveys the significance of DeSantis's stance:
I can hardly believe that a leading Republican politician actually has backbone in the fight against wokeness. But Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is the real deal. Fresh news out of the Sunshine State:
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a series of proposals for Florida’s public universities at the State College of Florida on Tuesday.
One aspect of the proposal would eliminate all Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and Critical Race Theory (CRT) “bureaucracies” at public universities.
DeSantis said his administration will propose core course requirements that are “focused on giving them the foundation so they can think for themselves” and will be grounded in “actual philosophy that has shaped western civilization.”
“We don’t want students to go through, at taxpayer expense, and graduate with a degree in zombie studies,” he said. “And so this is gonna make a difference.”
Watch the video of his announcement here.
It's happening. It's actually happening. The Bad Guys are going to scream bloody murder, but finally -- finally -- we have a political leader who is taking a hard stand against these woke commissars. DEI bureaucracies at American universities have exploded in recent years, in part because the woke cartel has intimidated state legislators and others by calling them bigots who don't care about "marginalized" students if they resist. Are these bureaucracies actually making campuses better, or are they making schools more conformist by instituting programs and policies that reinforce a sense of grievance, and intimidate dissenters into silence? Would the ton of money spent on these apparatchiks' salaries be better spent hiring more teachers, or raising the salaries of professors? Finally, DeSantis's move is going to force these militants to justify their existence.
He offers a taste of the screaming of bloody murder to which he alludes:
Expect more garbage like this New York Times op-ed slandering DeSantis's ban on the AP African American History course. The author fumes:
An unrelenting assault on truth and freedom of expression in the form of laws that censor and suppress the viewpoints, histories and experiences of historically marginalized groups, especially Black and L.G.B.T.Q. communities, is underway throughout the country, most clearly in Florida. The state’s Department of Education recently rejected a pilot Advanced Placement African American studies course from being offered in Florida’s public high schools.
Under Gov. Ron DeSantis’s “Stop WOKE” law — which would limit students and teachers from learning and talking about issues related to race and gender — Florida is at the forefront of a nationwide campaign to silence Black voices and erase the full and accurate history and contemporary experiences of Black people.
Bullsh*t. I'll tell you why in a second. One more quote from the essay:
It’s no coincidence that these attacks are targeting not just historically marginalized people but also our very experiences of intersectionality. Mr. DeSantis recently rubbished the inclusion of “queer theory” in the A.P. African American studies course that was rejected, seeming to deny the need for future generations to learn about the contributions of queer Black American icons like Pauli Murray, Bayard Rustin, Audre Lorde and James Baldwin. Florida’s H.B. 1557, more widely known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, also limits conversations about sexual orientation and gender identity in Florida classrooms and, like “Stop WOKE,” makes clear that the State of Florida seeks to suppress and target people’s identities.
Why is it BS? Because DeSantis clearly said the other day, when he announced his ban on the course, that he is not going to allow the AP course to propagandize Florida students for tendentious, highly ideological reads on black history, under the guise of teaching about black history (which he fully supports). The lie here is that if you don't give these ideological culture warriors everything they want, then you must be a BIGOT. In fact, DeSantis is doing his job: making sure that the public school students of Florida aren't forced to read neo-Marxist propaganda as history.
He ends by sharing this encouraging development:
UPDATE: Well now!:
One of Governor Ron DeSantis’ most vocal critics supports the state’s decision to reject the College Board’s AP African American Studies course for high schoolers. When asked his thoughts on the recent controversy, Leon County Commissioner Bill Proctor [who is black -- RD] blasted the course as “trash,” according to Tallahassee Reports.
“There is grave concern about the tone and the tenor of leadership’s voice from the highest spaces in our state being hostile to teaching of African American history. Well frankly I’m against the College Board’s curriculum,” Proctor said.
“I think it’s trash. It’s not African American history. It is ideology,” he continued. “I’ve taught African American history, I’ve structured syllabuses for African American history. I am African American history. And talking about ‘queer’ and ‘feminism’ and all of that for the struggle for freedom and equality and justice has not been no tension with queerness and feminist thought at all.”
We're seeing a display of Good Ron as well as Good Rod.
But there's the governor's other side as well. He intends to eke out his political future within the framework of what the Republican Party has become. This was most evident last fall when he campaigned for Doug Mastriano and Kari Lake and Blake Masters.
This kind of drag-our-brand-over-the-finish-line politicking muddies the waters to a disturbing degree. Increasingly, the general public conflates MAGA yay-hoo-ism with actual conservative principles because that's just about the only arena in which one sees those principles being defended.
Many of those who have undertaken the self-appointed task of upholding an alternative - that is to say, rooted in an embrace of heritage - vision of conservatism are apparently uninterested in this whole area of our national life. You won't find an essay like this in The Bulwark. It doesn't appear to be on the Principles First radar. Adam Kinzinger is now a private citizen, It would be nice to see him weigh in.
I'm afraid that the reason for reticence on the part of these people and outlets is that they don't want to endanger the big-tent premise on which they're inviting people to gravitate toward their project. Culture-war issues strike them as too icky to address.
And then there's the fact that DeSantis, should he jump into the presidential race, is going to be increasingly drawn into a nasty standoff with the Republican frontrunner, Donald Trump. I'm not sure I can see DeSantis having the chops to remain elevated above Trump's style of political combat.
Truth won't cease being truth, no matter what happens. But its ability to get an airing continues to diminish as we move further into the age in which nihilism reigns.
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