Travel Back to the Victorian Era of Early Anti-Wokism

Bright Blue Austin’s Travis County is gerrymandered

into 5 Texas congressional districts, 1 blue, 4 red by

reaching into the rural countryside as if legitimate

It’s beyond obvious that Ron DeSantis’ bland personality and obsession against Disney, the LGBTQ+ community, wokism and his late-night quiet signature of Florida’s anti-abortion bill are not resonating with the general public. His standing in the polls continues to plunge against a polarizing, aging, indicted ex-president who still pretends he actually won the last election. Trump’s GOP support now stands at 70% according to a recent NBC poll. Some blame DeSantis’ vituperative yet bland personality; others blame his anti-woke crusade as well all the other things he is against. What is he for again? Oh, lots of guns everywhere… but isn’t that another “against”? Gun control. Against anyone or any institution that does not tow his party line.

Despite both national and local polls suggesting that the majority of the general public is not finding this “against everything” philosophy appealing, particularly the offensive against abortion rights, gun control and limiting minorities from voting, red state MAGA legislators (and that infection has spread to Congress) continue to drive that agenda. They believe, for example, that by limiting college students from voting (kill that damned youth vote), they can delay until these youngsters grow older and embrace the wisdom of the GOP. But the gun violence they abhor, the ravages of climate change they fear, the state control of their bodies that angers them, the catering to the mega-rich at the expense of everyone else they cannot understand and the attempt to marginalize their friends who are people of color or LGBTQ+… well… are not going away. Hey, GOP, you just may solidify your loss of most of an entire generation.

And even as most red states seem unable to resist this catering to this minority of White Christian nationalists and their increasingly autocratic values, more anti-, anti- legislation is pouring out of their legislative sessions. But the big “number two” in anti-wokism, literally now Ron DeSantis’s “mini-me,” is Texas Governor, Greg Abbott. The “Uvalde shows we need more guns” king. Despite the fact that almost every major Texas city is blue, helmed by a Democratic mayor and senior council members, gerrymandering has turned what should be a purple state pure red. See above example.

What is unfortunate for local Texas and Florida children… even college students… is that they are slowly being deprived of a true education. They are expected to move through their local educational institutions… devoid of accurate renditions of American history, discouraged to accept that same diversity that defines our American “lettuce bowl” demographic mix and held to believe that climate change is transitory and that women cannot have the right to control their own bodies… and be prepared for life in a competitive society. Even for those students who know better, their local school and public libraries are being purged of the relevant texts and their teachers are forbidden to answer their questions with accurate responses.

Mini-me Abbott is hoping that by replacing public schools with a voucher program to encourage residents to choose private religious schools instead – the failed target of Trump era Education Secretary Betsy DeVos – believing the “woke agenda” plaguing even Texas schools can be erased. Writing for the April 23rd LA Times, Noah Bierman tells us: “Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, is hoping that fear of a ‘radical woke agenda’ [even in local rural schools] will help him secure a long-elusive goal: a voucher-style program that would award public stipends of up to $8,000 to parents who switch to home-schooling or private schools.

“‘Our schools are for education, not indoctrination,’ Abbott said at one of many recent rallies he has held around the state. ‘The solution to all of this is to empower parents to choose the school that’s right for them.’… Abbott’s effort will test whether rhetoric about ‘wokeness’ can convince Republicans to abandon even the nation’s most traditional public schools.

“So far, many rural Texas conservatives remain unconvinced by the governor’s warnings… Schools here serve as Friday night football venues, leading employers and focal points of community life. Rural superintendents have been able to use their stature to mount intensive lobbying campaigns, persuading lawmakers representing overwhelmingly Republican areas to break with the governor on a bedrock issue… Abbott is staking political capital on pulling out a victory this legislative session and may yet prevail.

“Over the last two years, other Republican governors have passed expansive voucher-style bills in states that include Arizona, Utah, Iowa, Arkansas and West Virginia. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an expansive bill in late March, and more than a dozen other states are debating similar measures.” 

Be careful what you wish for. Educational dollars are no longer focused on education, but on fighting an inane culture war that benefits absolutely no one but politicians without anything else to campaign on. Do you think that the products of these anti-woke educational systems are producing young minds fully prepared to compete in an increasingly diverse world… where having STEM skills easily trumps anti-woke-priority schools? Do these educational systems benefit from terrified teachers editing their lesson plans to comply with culture war directives?

I’m Peter Dekom, as mini-me and his ilk campaign against “woke indoctrination,” does their proposed “indoctrination” really create better students?