The Great American Pushback has begun, and Gov. Ron DeSantis will ride this burgeoning political movement into the White House. Swashbuckling confidence in traditional American values, and stunning competence in serving people instead of ruling over them, sets DeSantis apart and will make Ron DeSantis our 47th U.S. president.
Outrage about George Floyd’s murder blew through American cities, institutions, and large businesses like a hurricane. Black Lives Matter and other radical organizations promoting their version of “diversity, equity and inclusion” (or “DEI”) rode the fury, reaping massive political, financial, and cultural gains.
DEI had been percolating for years, but in Floyd’s callous killing at the hands of Minneapolis police nearly every institution of any size latched onto DEI. Educational institutions changed curricula, businesses hired consultants, and urban Democrats changed laws.
According to LinkedIn, “diversity and inclusion manager” was the second fastest-growing job title, right behind vaccine specialist. By now, a vast number of employees in business or government have experienced the ubiquitous “implicit bias” training, the gist of which is this: If you are white, you are a racist, and so is our nation. And the only way to purge yourself and America of this sin and prove your goodness is to advocate for, and participate in, the deconstruction of every aspect of modern American life – because white supremacy permeates “the system.”
It is no surprise that young people, who have been marinating in this ideology in the form of “critical race theory” in schools, are strikingly less patriotic (who would love a racist country?), less inclined to work (what good is personal ambition in an economy rigged by institutional racism?), and less inclined to build families (why bring a child into this awful nation?).
Democrats applied DEI to criminal justice and are pursuing criminal justice reform premised on the observation that black men are disproportionately represented in prison. Their “expert” solution was “decarceration,” and Democrats are electing prosecutors who refuse to enforce criminal laws and legislators who change laws to make it harder to keep criminal suspects and convicts locked up in prison.
This movement succeeded in proving common sense is correct: Crime increases when fewer criminals are locked up (although left-wing “experts” claimed otherwise in the years leading up to the current failed experiment).
Decarceration’s failure occurred as COVID responses also undermined faith in “expert” governance. Faith in politicized experts was already fading before COVID, but when politicized “experts” obviously lied, it accelerated this distrust in “expert government.”
DEI “experts” in “oppression” also advance “intersectionality” theory to latch onto and leverage public revulsion with racism to promote the other “isms” in the left’s panoply of purported evils
Even the Green New Deal was promoted based on intersectionality, leveraging fear about climate change to facilitate radical economic changes in U.S. and global economies to achieve “equity” goals.
For nearly three years, American abhorrence of racism created a political environment in which cultural, political, and economic elites glommed onto intersectional oppression theory, and Democrats launched a top-down revolution pitting America’s institutions and experts against the American people. Everything the Biden administration did, even banning gas stoves and moving to low-carbon alternatives, became a matter of intersectional equity too.
On policy matters, “experts say” has become a tell that what precedes or follows is contrary to common sense. But the tide turns with time and experience. Enter Ron DeSantis and the Great American Pushback against this top-down, expert-driven, Democrat-led cultural and economic revolution.
When DeSantis personally developed Florida’s unique response to the COVID pandemic and flagrantly pushed back on Fauci and other left-promoted experts, he became the champion of common sense. DeSantis embraced freedom over government-promoted fear and the results were clear: DeSantis’ Florida fared better during COVID, while those in Democrat-led states like California and New York suffered needlessly.
But DeSantis didn’t just push back against pandemic top-down orthodoxy. He went on to push back against all aspects of the top-down cultural revolution.
First, Florida rejected the radical new sex ed curriculum proposed for elementary schools that blue states like Illinois were adopting. Opponents called this bill – which banned sex and gender instruction before fourth grade – “Don’t Say Gay.” But when presented with the actual language in the bill, more than 60% of Floridians generally, and even a majority of Democrats, support it.
The Walt Disney Company, despite initial (prudent!) misgivings about weighing in on the legislation, did not stand up to pressure from left-wing groups and employees, and instead came out against it. Now, Disney finds itself pitted against its own customer base in a debate over gender and a sexualized curriculum. No surprise, Disney’s reputation with its customers and investors took a hit and so did its stock price, which has significantly underperformed the S&P 500 since Disney’s CEO opposed the law in March 2022.
Refusing to let Floridians be talked down to by an elitist woke corporation, DeSantis eliminated Disney’s special-interest deals with Florida to the cheers of Americans everywhere; here, finally, a champion emerged, pushing back for traditional American values.
Second, DeSantis pushed back against DEI ideology itself, banning DEI in Florida in schools and colleges. He effectively took over Florida’s public honors college, New College, to wrench the school back toward a traditional liberal arts curriculum and away from the radical extremes that are now routine at colleges and universities elsewhere.
DeSantis also pushed back against radical prosecutors refusing to enforce the law, firing the prosecutor elected in Hillsborough County after he announced he would not enforce a law passed by the legislature with which he disagreed.
DeSantis’ pushback against the post-George Floyd, intersectional agenda referred to as “wokism” gained organic momentum when Bud Light and Target foolishly followed Disney down the cultural revolution rabbit hole. Consumers pushed back against product and marketing decisions that pit companies against customers with traditional values, and the consequences for these businesses have been swift and severe: The woke go broke.
Along the way, DeSantis showed that government could function competently. In an age when people have lost faith in the government’s ability to get anything done, and with the entire nation watching, Florida rebuilt the Pine Island bridge destroyed by Hurricane Ian in just three days, and also rebuilt the Sanibel Island causeway in record time.
DeSantis has proven to be a leader who gets it and gets things done. He offers to fight for us, for our fight – the fight for our freedoms and for traditional American values. He is not out for revenge over what’s wrong, but to refresh what’s right.
A common man with common sense, Ron DeSantis is the antidote to crazy, a competent champion of American values who, as our next president, will end this age of intersectional, expert nonsense.
Joan McCarthy is a member of the Central Committee of the Illinois Republican Party. This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.
