Newsome Carries the Water for the Out of Control Woke.
I had no idea when I moved to Florida in 2016 that I would be moving to the new epicenter for the Culture Wars. I was reminded of this last week when the Governor of the Land of Fruits and Nuts showed up 2745 miles from home to call the Governor of Florida a bunch of names and assure those present that the Republicans are evil. It was something he could have simply tweeted out and not contributed to the carbon footprint.
The visit was all about the changes to the President and the Board of Directors for New College in Sarasota Florida. New College is a small liberal arts college and its wokeness score is no worse than the larger Florida universities. That is why Governor DeSantis strategically targeted New College. Imagine taking on the behemoth UF ( University of Florida in Gainesville).
Newsome practiced the 2024 campaign strategy in his remarks. A man who has played a major role in destroying his state ( but don’t look there) for its folks like Desantis who are bringing back Jim Crow and hatred for the LBGQ community and denying the right to vote ( guess he didn’t read about Maricopa County AZ voting last election). All the same old, with the exception of the claim Republicans will take away social security.
“Fifty years of progress, 50 years on voting rights, on civil rights, LGBTQ rights, abortion rights, contraceptive rights, all of that at threat, state after state, led by your state and your governor with a zest for demonization and othering people.” Newsom said. “He has one thing that is common with everything he’s doing – bullying and intimidating vulnerable communities. You’re not only on the right side of history, you have something he’ll never have – moral authority.”
https://nypost.com/2023/04/11/awkward-gavin-newsom-video-goes-viral-after-florida-visit/
Recently after reading an opted by a former graduate of New College, now an assistant dean at the super-woke Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, I challenged him to a debate. The deans opted similar to Newsome’s remarks totally ignoring the reasons stated by DeSantis and Christopher Rufo for the state’s intervention. I requested since the dean lauded his classical liberal education via New College that we argue from the opposite position. I would argue against the state’s actions, the dean the opposing view. Of course, I never heard back.
Ever try to debate with any of these culture warriors these past several years?
As a practical matter, there is what the conservative and alternative media says about the “Free State of Florida” and what the actual experience here is. A state that voted for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton is not unlike Texas with its cities being Blue strongholds and having undue influence. Just as many woke liberals moved to Florida these past post-Covid years as did common sense conservatives.
My county voted 68% for Donald Trump in 2020, but that did not stop the 32% from canceling me and keeping me from earning a living two years ago. It was that same year I canceled my membership in the Florida Anthropological Society. The society of academics and professionals went political, abandoning all scientific objectivity and citing the racist past of archeology and anthropology, specifically “black” cultural sites in Florida the officers of the Florida Anthropological Society in their Summer 2020 Newsletter endorsed the racist organization, Black Lives Matter:
Our state’s historical landscape is dotted with reminders of this oppression. In so many cities, Black cemeteries have been vandalized, disrespected, and erased from the face of the earth, to be rediscovered only through the unceasing efforts of Florida’s Black descendant communities and archaeologists armed with ground-penetrating radar.
We recognize that anthropology is a majority-white discipline, and we have a responsibility to the communities we collaborate with and study. We stand in solidarity with Black people who have long been suffering at the hands of police brutality. We will work
tirelessly to commit ourselves to antiracism in order to center the needs of Black people moving forward. “No hour is ever eternity, but it has its right to weep.” - Zora Neale Hurston BLACK LIVES MATTER.
Therefore my immediate and real experience has been no different than my living in Michigan. But I persist nonetheless and encourage others to do likewise.