It’s happening. One step on the road to dictatorship

Much has been written about Donald Trump’s dictatorial proclivity. He has not been secretive about his desire to rule with an iron hand and to destroy those who disagree with him. His similarities to Hitler have been documented by many sources.

Though America has had strong leaders, we have been fortunate in avoiding the most repressive, undemocratic forms of government. Even with a former leader who insisted he had won a lost vote and recruited followers to overturn an election, there have been no successful coups, the closest being the Civil War.

Until now.

Dictatorships generally begin with hatred. Hatred breeds fear, our single most powerful emotion. Strong emotions can stir a formerly passive population to follow a dictatorial leader. In fact, hate-mongering is the usual prelude to a dictatorship.

One hate-mongering method is to control the sources of information, particularly the standard media and the schools.

Donald Trump repeatedly calls the media “Fake,” especially when they say anything that is not worshipful of him. That, too, is well documented.

He calls the government “the swamp,” which is ironic considering the low moral and legal level of the people he hired during his presidency.

But this post is about schools where our youngest people are indoctrinated.

Faculty group: Higher education under assault from GOP
Florida Sun-Sentinel, December 8, 2023
The report cites Florida laws, policy changes, and political maneuvers over the last 2 years.
By Divya Kumar Tampa Bay Times

TAMPA — The American Association of University Professors has released a blistering assessment of higher education in Florida, saying its yearlong “special investigation” revealed a system under assault from Republican leaders determined to limit academic freedom and impose their worldview on the state’s public campuses.

The report, released Wednesday, cited a string of laws, policy changes, and political maneuvers over the last two years, concluding they amounted to an “ideologically driven assault unparalleled in US history.”

The report opens with a quote from Florida A&M University professor LeRoy Pernell, a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the state’s Intellectual Freedom Act, also known as the Stop Woke Act: “What we are witnessing in Florida is an intellectual reign of terror.”

“What is unfolding in Florida is horrifying,” the report said, comparing events in the state to far-right administrations across the world. “It should serve as a cautionary tale to all in higher education, but we are mindful that this tale has yet to reach its conclusion. The time for intervention has not passed — yet.”

Jeremy Redfern, a spokesperson for Gov. Ron DeSantis, called the report “a hoax” and pointed to some of the governor’s comments Tuesday while announcing his state budget for next year.
DeSantis proposed $150 million for faculty recruitment and retention and touted a new state policy on tenure as a check on quality.

The policy calls for tenured faculty to be reviewed every five years and opens the possibility of termination.

This makes it easier to fire teachers who do not toe the Republican line.

”Everyone’s been complaining for years about college professors trying to indoctrinate and stuff,” DeSantis said. “For Florida, that’s not what we want with your tax dollars. We want academic rigor. We want the pursuit of truth.”

DeSantis’s version of “pursuit of truth” is to deny racism exists, and if it exists, it isn’t important.

Henry Reichman, a professor emeritus at California State University-East Bay and co-chairperson of the investigating committee, said he was “deeply moved” by the process of developing the report.

“One of the things that struck me was the pain,” he said. “In almost every single interview we had, there were people kind of mourning.”

Afshan Jafar, another co-chairperson and a sociology professor at Connecticut College, said “What we have seen in Florida, there’s just nothing like it.

Investigators said they encountered educators in crisis over their careers, unsure whether to quit and leave or stay and push through. Some wanted to resign, but circumstances stood in their way.

“They don’t know what to do,” Jafar said. “They have nowhere to go. They’re trying to find an outlet where someone would listen to them, hoping it would have an impact.”

In his remarks on Tuesday, DeSantis acknowledged talk of professors leaving the state but said it wasn’t a concern. ”Just understand: If you have Marxist professors leaving, that is a gain for the state of Florida,” he said. “That’s not a negative.”

First, the professors are leaving not because they teach Marxism but because they aren’t allowed to teach the facts about racism and diversity (aka “woke”).

Second, the irony is that the leader of the Republican Party, Donald Trump, is notoriously palsy-walsy with one of the world’s leading communists, Vladimir Putin. But DeSantis claims to hate Marxists. It boggles.

He also said his administration had kept costs down by eliminating universities’ diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, which he described as divisive. ”That’s a bureaucracy that can wither and go away,” DeSantis said.

The guy who wastes millions to ship immigrants all over the country is worried about the cost of teaching diversity, equity, and inclusion?? No intelligent person is fooled.

The investigation was broken into four sections: “The Takeover of New College,” “Academic Governance in Florida Higher Education,” “Academic Freedom,” “Bias and Discrimination” and “The Human Toll.”

In a detailed and heavily footnoted chronology, the committee reviewed this year’s events at New College of Florida in Sarasota — beginning with DeSantis’ appointment of six conservative trustees and continuing with their decisions to oust the president, replace her with former education commissioner Richard Corcoran, deny tenure to some faculty, disband the school’s diversity office and remove gender studies as a major.

The above, and the banning of books DeSantis doesn’t like, describe DeSantis’s “pursuit of truth.”

“What’s happening at New College is a disgrace,” former University of Florida president Bernie Machen told the committee.

The report also chronicled faculty leaving for other jobs outside the state or leaving academia. It cited a survey that found 300 of the 642 Florida professors who participated planned to seek employment elsewhere.

Andrew Gothard, president of the statewide union United Faculty of Florida, told the committee he predicted some universities would lose between 20% to 30% of faculty in the next year.

Several educators spoke about their decisions to leave or retire early. Some were based on the faculty member’s fear they could no longer teach their subject, while others were made because of their kids’ education.

Others felt inclined to move because of laws surrounding transgender health care and the climate toward LGBTQ+ people.

“It has impacted so many different aspects of people’s lives,” Jafar said. “It’s not just higher ed.”

The committee also said the governor largely controls Florida’s universities through board appointments.

And what is this “woke” that has DeSantis banning books and firing teachers? It means “alert to and concerned about social injustice and discrimination.” 

Beginning in the 2010s, it broadened to include racial injustice, sexism, and LGBT rights.

Unless your parents brought you up to be a raving bigot, you will welcome teaching about:

1. The history of the Holocaust
2. The history of slavery in America
3. The history of bigotry in America
4. The types of bigotry in America
5. The effects of bigotry in America
6. Fighting bigotry in America

Knowing these facts can prevent them from recurring. But DeSantis and other conservatives object to students learning the facts.

By denying that bigotry existed and still exists, or worse yet, by claiming that opposing bigotry is itself a form of bigotry, tyrants like Trump and DeSantis attract not just fellow bigots but all those who are afraid the oppressed will rise up against them.

No dictator can assume power without the backing of the people. They needn’t be a majority, just enough fearful people to make a noisy, passionate voting base.

Today’s Republican party is bifurcated mainly into the rich, who expect and receive favorable financial treatment from the right wing and the angry mob, who resent and fear those below them on the socio-economic scale.

By sowing fear of foreigners and immigrants, non-Christians, gays, the law, and “the establishment” or the “deep state,” Republicans can command loyalty even when operating outside conservative norms.

That is why lying, adultery, bigotry, nihilism, corruption, treason, and incompetence — typically vote killers, especially among upright conservatives — are overlooked and in some cases, even viewed as a strength by the self-proclaimed religious.

Fear is the most potent motivator humans experience. Using fear, the very powerful and those who view themselves as vulnerable form an unholy alliance to support a dictator who promises them protection. But it is a deal with the devil, and the hoped-for protection turns out to be a torture chamber.

Education is the enemy of bigotry and, thus, the enemy of dictators. To learn that scapegoats are humans with hope, fears, and feelings is to gain empathy, the last thing a dictator wants the masses to have.

Brainwashing students by depriving them of historical facts is a favorite and effective method for recruiting a “no-questions-asked” cadre of loyal followers who hate dictatorships like communism as concepts but love dictators as saviors.

Sadly, once dictators gain power, they are tough to dislodge. We can only pray that America doesn’t learn that lesson from actual experience.

The following 12 months should be pivotal in U.S. history.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

Twitter: @rodgermitchell Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

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The Sole Purpose of Government Is to Improve and Protect the Lives of the People.

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