Both of the above involve supporting “right thinking,” eschewing anything that conflicts with that body of approved concepts, believing heavily in removing or banning books or lesson plans (all the way up through the university level) that do not tow the party line. Mao was vastly more violent, but the passion of his mandates can be seen equally in the Republicans who believe in fighting those culture wars.
It's no secret why the focus is on our youngest minds. School is where they gather to be instilled with their society’s expectations. Most autocrats find young minds the most fertile ground to indoctrinate with the “correct and approved” line of thought. Think the “Hitler Youth” or Mao’s use of young students to purge their teachers during the Cultural Revolution from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s. All autocracies punish failing to adhere to “right thinking.”
In red America, rightwing sycophants are tripping all over themselves to support their resonating politicians-as-autocrats… and to be the parents that ensure these cultural mandates are enforced. The White Christian nationalist movement is the essence of MAGA America. Anything that questions gun ownership or the presumed takeover of America by racial, ethnic, religious or gender minorities is considered the problem, along with a pretty standard autocratic desire to expel deep state bureaucrats who do not agree. But there is a heavy additional price to pay, aside from the negative impact on the youngest students: the system eliminates qualified faculties and produces under-educated students unable to compete in the modern world.
Nothing exemplifies that anti-deep state model like the rebellion against science, medical professionals and highly educated “elites.” Writing for the May 8th Los Angeles Times, columnist Michael Hiltzik examines the current red state culture war, beginning with a recent example: “Back in 2015, Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker thought to burnish his culture warrior cred in advance of a bid for the presidency by taking arms against the University of Wisconsin… Walker cut the state university’s budget. His handpicked board of regents gutted tenure protections for its faculty.
“He and his legislative allies disdained the university’s traditional role of producing broad-based academic scholarship to deepen its students’ understanding of the world and talked instead as though the university were a glorified vocational or trade school — ‘connecting students and workers with the skills needed in today’s workforce,’ as a university spokesperson put it at the time… Critics predicted that Walker’s policies would exacerbate a faculty flight caused by the university’s low pay compared with that of its peer state universities, while reducing its competitiveness for federal research grants… That’s exactly what happened. UW administrators said their professors were being poached by academic institutions — not only Ivy League schools and elite public institutions, but universities that could never have hoped to attract Wisconsin faculty in the past.
“Local newspapers and education journals published columns by UW teachers explaining regretfully why they were leaving the state. Retention bonuses paid to dissuade valued professors from moving soared into the millions… The university slid down the rankings of recipients of federal research and development grants — from 10th among recipients of National Science Foundation grants in 2010, to 16th in 2021. The university’s overall research and development spending, the third-highest in the country in 2010, fell to eighth in 2021.” Scott who? Exactly.
As anti-educational priorities melt down our global competitiveness, it’s no wonder that Russian and Chinese AI-driven automated messaging continues to favor US politicians who embrace this failed rhetoric. Not so coincidentally, these are the same politicians who believe the US needs to cut back on its connection to other countries and stop opposing those nations who favor forced annexation of neighboring countries. But targeting education may be popular with the MAGA crowd, but it seriously undermines American competitiveness. Hiltzik continues:
“[Scott Walker’s] model for appealing to a rabid far-right electoral base by targeting higher education institutions and their faculty has been taken up by Republican politicians in Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. You can expect the movement to expand, spreading intellectual benightment across red-state America… In its most common form, these attacks focus on efforts to foster diversity, equity and inclusion on campus. Banning ‘DEI’ has become a rallying cry for the mob, augmenting attacks on the previous shibboleth of critical race theory, or CRT.
“In Florida, House Bill 999 would bar any program espousing ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion or Critical Race Theory.’ Majors and minors involving ‘Critical Race Theory, Gender Studies, or Intersectionality, or any derivative major or minor of these belief systems,’ are outlawed. (‘Intersectionality’ is the concept that race, class and gender are all interrelated in ways that can foster discrimination and social oppression.)
“Such strictures and others are invariably paired with the evisceration of tenure protection. The reason is obvious: Restrictions couldn’t be imposed on university faculty members unless the teachers feared for their livelihoods if they flouted the rules. Tenure is what protects teachers from punishment for resisting political interference, so it has to go…
“Tenure ‘reformers’ typically describe their goals as depriving undeserving layabouts of an unwarranted privilege. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a driving force behind a bill that would permanently forbid public universities in the state to grant tenure to any new hires, explained after the Senate passed the tenure bill that “tenured university professors are the only people in our society that have the guarantee of a job .”
“Patrick added that ‘it has become abundantly clear that some tenured faculty at Texas universities feel immune to oversight from the legislature and their respective board of regents. These professors claim ‘academic freedom’ and hide behind their tenure to continue blatantly advancing their agenda of societal division.’
“Patrick, by the way, labeled the bill ‘bipartisan.’ This was what Mark Twain would describe as a ‘stretcher’: The measure passed the Senate 17 to 11, with every Republican in favor and every Democrat but one voting against it. (The lone Democratic yea voter, César Blanco of El Paso, said he voted in favor because he believes tenure has perpetuated racist discrimination in faculty hiring.)” At every level of any state attempting to impose a strict set of MAGA-values educational restrictions, teachers are quitting, professors are seeking appointments in out-of-state colleges and universities and recruiting replacements is not remotely working.
Since high-value industries are almost always built in and around prestigious colleges and universities, Hiltzik notes: “Diversity, equity and inclusion are legitimate concerns, but they aren’t addressed by pretending they don’t exist… Instead, the goal is intimidation. Most of these laws are written so vaguely that college professors don’t know where the lines are. ‘Faculty are terrified,’ [Alfred Soto of Florida International University] wrote in February, after SB 999 was introduced. Teachers and administrators are wary of speaking out, for fear they’ll be brought up on charges for crossing some invisible line.
“Universities in these states are on the glide path to uselessness, especially since the assault on higher education is unfolding in the same states that are at war with women’s reproductive health and voting rights. Already we have seen faculty candidates, college-age students and medical professionals checking these states off their lists… This trend is almost certain to get worse before it gets better as America devolves into two countries: one that nurtures brainpower, and one that watches proudly as it drains away.”
I’m Peter Dekom, and if you hate America, do not believe that education is necessary for prosperity, have I got a slate of candidates for you!
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