How Ron DeSantis causes chaos

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

As part of his war on “woke ideology,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has mounted a hostile takeover of New College, a Sarasota liberal-arts school known for inculcating free thinking and welcoming LGBTQ culture. DeSantis plans to instill conservative values at the school, as a model for other efforts to rout the politically correct liberal policies DeSantis refers to as wokeism from the education system and other public institutions.

But all is not going as planned. The new president of New College, a DeSantis ally, earns an outsized salary that's supposed to come largely from a foundation aligned with the school that's supported by donors. But donors are yanking their money, turned off by DeSantis's intervention. New donors more aligned with DeSantis may materialize, but in the meanwhile, a once quiet school is now in a state of turmoil.

This might be a small-town spat pitting a tiny, unorthodox college against its prickly overseers, except for two things. One, DeSantis has broadly signaled he plans to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. And two, he’s already campaigning on his record in the Sunshine State and promising to “make America Florida.” That battle over New College reveals how DeSantis moves fast and breaks things in service of the conservative cause, tactics he may apply to social programs, tax policy or immigration if he ever becomes president.

With about 660 students, New College is one of the smallest schools in Florida’s public university system. US News & World Report ranks it 76th best out of 210 liberal arts schools nationwide. Part of the appeal is low tuition: roughly $7,000 per year for Florida residents. The school also has a reputation for launching high achievers, with 89 Fulbright scholars among its graduates. Alumni include William Dudley, former president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, the former Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart and his brother, the Telemundo news anchor José Díaz-Balart.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/how-ron-desantis-causes-chaos-155339278.html

And Ron DeShithead wants to stop all that.

[RKP5637]

1. Just looking at the smug bully fascist is enough to cause chaos. n/t

[live love laugh]

2. Chaos is a Republican tool. And a very effective distractor.

It’s apparent to me that they’re always going to upend and upset things so the “noise” of the currently harmed drowns out that of those previously harmed. Meanwhile they just pick another target. It’s political whackamole.

It’s desensitizing so that people are exhausted by it. Maybe in the states of exhaustion they’ll realize that unity is the solution to eradication of firehosing.

[Initech]

3. Desantis is the fucking worst.

And the culture wars are not meant to be actual wars. It's insane that the conservatives are trying to one up each other in their quest to enact the craziest laws possible. I personally blame Fox News for a lot of this, but I can imagine the real answer is far more complicated than that. But yeah... fuck Fox News.

[Baitball Blogger]

4. Um, why aren't the parents of new college

Storming the school board meetings the way that moms for liberty do it?

[Timeflyer]

5. They are, they do. But DeSantis decapitated NCF leadership and took majority control

of the Board of Trustees so quickly and ruthlessly. They are rallying, and attending Board meetings, but they have lives, jobs...

Many New College students thought they’d found a place where they could flourish academically and explore their identities fully without the adolescent societal pressures of high school. Now they can’t sleep, not because of the normal pressures of coursework, but because they’re being crushed by the weight of government authoritarianism. Parents are traveling back and forth to the school, and some parents are living in hotels near the campus, so they can support their child while trying to stop the wreckage of a school they thought would be the place their student would find acceptance and success.

The destruction of New College is taking place taking place both with blitzkrieg speed and by a death of a thousand cuts. Almost overnight handpicked political sycophants of DeSantis are appointed to the Board of Trustees, and the President is kicked out and a high-dollar replacement inserted. Meanwhile public meetings are held, to maintain a pretense of transparency, to discuss the pre-arranged dismantling of aspects of the college.

The students of New College of Florida are getting an education they never expected or wanted, in the power of authoritarianism and the influence of dark money, cronyism, and the use of religion as a disguise for the lust for power and money.