BLUF:
The battle over America’s future–or, rather, whether it has one–is being fought at all levels of government. But under our federal system, leaders of states with above-average voters like Florida and South Dakota are best positioned to carry the banner of conservatism. Which explains why Ron DeSantis and Kristi Noem are early front-runners for the 2024 presidential nomination.
The conflict in which we are now engaged is stark. The Left hates America and wants to destroy (or “fundamentally transform”) it. The Democratic Party, having drunk the Critical Race Theory kool-aid, is now openly anti-American. So those are the battle lines: on one side, those who love our country and want to preserve it. On the other, those who hate our country and want to destroy it.
Unfortunately, our public education system is almost 100% in the hands of the haters, organized and mobilized by the teachers’ unions. Our children are steadily being indoctrinated in anti-Americanism. But here and there, a few politicians stick up for our country.
Not surprisingly, Ron DeSantis is one of them. He is resisting the infiltration of Florida’s school system by Critical Race Theory, which is simply a long way of saying “racism.”
Critical Race Theory will be explicitly excluded from Florida’s new statewide civics education, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said while unveiling the program.
The Republican governor addressed the academic study while discussing his proposed $106 million initiative to support a new civics curriculum for students at a press conference Wednesday afternoon.
…
“Florida civics curriculum will incorporate foundational concepts with the best materials, and it will expressly exclude unsanctioned narratives like critical race theory and other unsubstantiated theories.”
Racism is worse than an unsubstantiated theory, it has been discredited by thousands of years of experience. Nevertheless, the Democrats are determined to bring it back. DeSantis understands this:
“Let me be clear, there is no room in our classrooms for things like Critical Race Theory,” he said to some applause from a group of supporters, “Teaching kids to hate their country and to hate each other is not worth one red cent of taxpayer money.”
Teaching children the theory, DeSantis continued, was “trying to make people view each other based on race.”
Yes. Critical Race Theory is simply another word for racism, and liberals are determined to stir up as much racial hatred as possible on the theory that racial division helps the Democratic Party. They probably are right, which does not increase my respect for them.
At the moment, Republicans in Washington are trying to hold the line against the Democrats’ radical onslaught. That is critically important work, obviously, as the Democrats are trying to rig things (e.g., via H.R. 1, which unconstitutionally purports to make election integrity illegal) so that Republicans can never govern again. But from a positive perspective, the action is mainly in the states, where governors like DeSantis and South Dakota’s Kristi Noem have carved out tremendous pro-freedom records while building constituencies across the country.
I had Governor Noem as a guest on the Dennis Prager radio show today. She was impressive as always, bringing her calm and sensible demeanor to a conflict with the Biden administration over fireworks at Mount Rushmore on the 4th of July. The Biden administration agreed to the fireworks, then changed its mind, if you assume Biden has one, evidently because it viscerally hates patriotic displays. No surprise there.
The battle over America’s future–or, rather, whether it has one–is being fought at all levels of government. But under our federal system, leaders of states with above-average voters like Florida and South Dakota are best positioned to carry the banner of conservatism. Which explains why Ron DeSantis and Kristi Noem are early front-runners for the 2024 presidential nomination.