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Monday, February 6, 2023

DeSantis Shows Us the Way

 


Friends, my latest article is an homage to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who took on the College Board and won, dealing a body blow to wokeness and irritating more than a few leftist talking heads in the process.  We conservatives notch so few triumphs in the culture wars that it's worth taking a victory lap now!


Current Score: DeSantis 1, Wokeness 0


Wokeness is, make no mistake, a multi-headed hydra that imperils Western Civilization in countless ways, attacks relentlessly, and is almost impossible to kill. Having said all of that, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recently notched a rare win against the raging beast: he played a commanding role in efforts to convince the College Board to revise its “African American Studies” course. In doing so, he's proven that there is hope for conservatism, for common sense, and even for constructive criticism in modern America – all revelations that come as a shock to cynics like me.

The changes that DeSantis helped to engender in the AP African American Studies course are sweeping. The course now omits mandatory indoctrination in Black Lives Matter, “Black Queer Studies”, reparations, the “prison industrial complex”, and “The Black Feminist Movement and Womanism” (whatever “women” are – I'm still puzzling that one out). In short, the whole character and tone of the course has been massively altered, and it has been wrenched free of its culturally Marxist foundations in dramatic fashion.

Not at all surprisingly, leftists are aghast. They charge that conservatives “bullied” the College Board, and that it has compromised its academic integrity by appeasing “fascists” like the wildly popular Florida Governor. Woke nags are used to getting their way, and so a public reversal on this scale stings severely.

Will the College Board thus succeed in winning Florida's acceptance of the new-and-improved African American Studies course? That remains to be seen.

Will the College Board's leadership be digitally tarred and feathered by an enraged neo-Marxist Twitter mob, such that it is (re)bullied into (re)designing the course, to once again amplify all the leftist themes that it so recently muted? This too we cannot rule out.

Another caveat: the character of AP African American Studies courses, as they are actually taught, will be determined more by their instructors than by the formal curriculum. Ergo, as long as most public schoolteachers and college professors are leftists, we can assume that the woke bias that the College Board originally intended would infuse this course will, in fact, still be present for the vast majority of students who take it. In other words, the only way to change the nature of elementary, secondary, and tertiary education in America fundamentally is to replace at least some of the people teaching it. But that's a challenge for another day.

For now, Governor DeSantis is to be applauded for having the courage and foresight to take on wokeness on a very specific front, where presumably he sensed vulnerability, and for achieving such a rare and notable triumph. Conservatives in the Republican Party's base are looking for a champion who can do more than just rile the Left. They are looking for a candidate in 2024 who can win real, tangible victories over leftism – who can beat the woke hydra so badly that it retreats back to its watery lair, never to be heard from again.

Ron DeSantis, more and more every day, looks like he's the man for the job.


Dr. Nicholas L. Waddy is an Associate Professor of History at SUNY Alfred and blogs at: www.waddyisright.com. He appears on the Newsmaker Show on WLEA 1480/106.9.

 

And here it is at World Net Daily:

 

https://www.wnd.com/2023/02/score-desantis-1-wokeness-0/ 

7 comments:

  1. RAY TO NICK AND JACK

    On the subject of DeSaintis (spelling? humor, Ha! Ha!), there is a good article about him on a site maintained by David Cloud titled "Way of Life Literature," and an excellent one at that, in my opinion.

    Cloud is an independent, fundamental, KJV Baptist, so I was surprised to see this write up, since he does not take very kindly to politicians in general, to include Trump.

    With that said, a January 13, 2023 article posted at his site under "Friday Church News Notes" praises DeSantis to the skies in "A Hurrah From Old America." Anyone promoting DeSantis for the presidency should read this.

    Again, I believe there will be a big line up of GOP candidates by 2024, but if the RNC nominates DeSantis, I will not be disappointed.

    Frankly, I would like to see Trump with De Santis as VP, although I don't think that will happen.

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  2. Dr. Waddy from Jack: DeSantis has set an example for Governors and legislators from predominantly conservative states, the core of the real America: "cultural marxists step the hell off! You and your bigoted totalitarian intentions are 'totally' unwelcome!" His argument in getting the College Board to relent was simple: We will not tolerate the substitution of indoctrination in America hatred for academic history! PERIOD! That kind of confidence in the fundamental soundness and justness of America (not the artificial and forced perfection striven for by the american left) should be freely asserted

    by all who recognize the fundamental threat to all we value posed by aggressive cultural marxist incipient dictators. DeSantis is showing us the way.


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  3. "Wokeness is, make no mistake, a multi-headed hydra that imperils Western Civilization in countless ways, attacks relentlessly, and is almost impossible to kill." Totally agree!

    Unfortunately, those that multiply the hydra's heads have also attacked the foundational underpinnings upon that which established our country.

    Because of that, It's almost like conservatism is forced to attack the many individual heads, rather than blow them up from its base. Maybe it’s due to the flood of cultural rot that has eroded the moral ground upon which the country was built?

    "Wokeness is, make no mistake, a multi-headed hydra that imperils Western Civilization in countless ways, attacks relentlessly, and is almost impossible to kill." Totally agree!

    Unfortunately, those that multiply the hydra's heads have also attacked the foundational underpinnings upon which established our country.

    Because of that, It's almost like conservatism is forced to attack the many individual heads, rather than blow them up from its base. Maybe it’s due to the flood of cultural rot that has eroded the moral ground upon which the country was built?

    This poster agrees that DeSantis is the guy. If there is one thing he has over Trump, it is a level of maturity and decorum in his response to attacks. Trump has demonstrated time and again that he does not possess that skill set. I'll say it... His acumen in that area is juvenile compared to the Florida Governor.

    Thanks again for your great work on this forum Dr. Waddy.

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    1. Woops! Sorry about the duplicate copy and paste. Where's the "edit" button! ;D

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  4. Thanks for the recommendation, Ray! It's a good article, I agree. The "Old America" sounds a lot like the "real America" that Jack always speaks of. Oh, how I wish we could get either one of them back!

    Jack, I agree with everything you said except your characterization of Florida as a "predominantly conservative state". It isn't! It's very purple, by most objective measures. That's what makes DeSantis's accomplishment so extraordinary.

    Thanks for the kind words, Richie! That's a great point that, when a hydra attacks, one never knows which "head" to lop off first! As you suggest, it really doesn't matter. because one of the other heads will swallow one whole regardless. Striking at the hydra's heart is a wonderful idea. Any thoughts on where it's located, and what weapons might pierce it?

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  5. Dr. Waddy from Jack: Good point and I stand corrected. Florida does extend below the panhandle but he's still giving them what they want!

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  6. Jack, DeSantis is increasingly (and bitterly) reviled by most progressives, but I've noticed that Florida Democrats don't hate him with nearly as much conviction. That tells you something.

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