73 Comments
Dec 7, 2022·edited Dec 7, 2022Liked by Richard Hanania

In my town of Guilford, CT (population 22,000, voted 66% Biden in 2020, up from 59% Obama in 2012 and 57% Kerry in 2004) the school board race last year was highly contentious. A group of conservative parents decisively defeated the incumbent Republican board members who had gone along with the covid restrictions (a hybrid 2-day-a-week in person schedule for the 2020-2021 school year) and the woke superintendent's CRT agenda (auditing the curriculum, instituting "social-emotional learning" and "diversity and inclusion" plans, buying every teacher a copy of Kendi's book, hiring diversity officers and consultants, creating teaching positions restricted to nonwhite applicants etc. etc.). There was no chance of the conservatives actually taking over the majority of the school board and being able to make decisions. We would have merely replaced 3 go-with-the-flow Republicans with 3 anti-woke (but not outspokenly Trump-y) Republicans on the 9 person board. Nonetheless the response was hysterical and utterly ruthless by the liberal majority in town. Since Democrats were prevented from taking all the open seats based on both a state law and the town charter that provide for minority party representation on all town boards (hooray for pluralism), they and their allies just created an "independent party" and then the Democrats ran a joint campaign for their own and the "independent" candidates. In the end the anti-woke Republicans all lost approximately 67-33 (slightly larger margin than Trump lost by year before) in an incredibly high off-year-turnout (61%) election and so got no representation at all on the school board (it's now 5 woke Democrats and 4 woke "independents"). I really wish I knew what was working so well in Florida's blueish counties to let conservative candidates improve so much on prior Republican performance. In my town it seems the tribalism now runs so deep that no progress has been possible. I think the town demographics (90% white, with 58% having at least a bachelors and 31% having an advanced degree) work against us in the context of your assertion of the Democrats as the "high status" party, since lots of people here just could never even consider voting for the deplorable party even if they have reservations about individual policies.

Expand full comment
Dec 7, 2022·edited Dec 7, 2022

"[F]or conservatives to get their way on social issues, they need ... the state government, the local school boards, and the courts. Or at least two out of three."

Indeed. RH is correct. Controlling most political offices is really the only way to offset the enormous "soft" power of academia, the "helping" professions, civil service, and most jobs requiring a graduate degree – roles where right-leaning people scarcely exist. As you point out in your "Why Is Everything Liberal" article, the proles make up a majority of conservative voters and they will never flood the institutions due to an inward contentedness that arises from some combination of culture and psychological traits (and perhaps, I suspect, genetics). So, the difficult task of needing to control nearly all electoral/judicial slots will not go away. The proles can't be fixed.

If some of mainstream metropolitan culture became intelligently right-wing in terms of merit, genetics, treatment of criminality, and thoughtful public policy ... there may be hope. The guys at CSPI are a good example of the smart, metropolitan Right that I would like to see.

Expand full comment

Conservatives should let themselves relax a little about indoctrination in schools. I’m a first year English teacher who has bathed in soft-headed progressive nonsense during teacher training and went through job interviews where HR professionals consistently asked how seriously I consider race and sexuality in lesson planning. Coupled with constant conservative news about woke educators, I thought the professional pressure to pass on CRT would be huge. Half a year in, at a highly diverse school, I find it doesn’t exist.

Woke thought does not stand a chance against black 13 year olds. When I halfheartedly pass along some weak tea about the danger of stereotypes, I’m likely to here a summary of an Andrew Tate video in response. Up against the reality of teaching adolescents, SEL lessons become a limp formality. Perhaps contrary to the wishes of Ed schools and some administrators, indoctrination goes unachieved.

The status quo is stubborn. This makes more sense when you realize that teaching is the most blue collar - white collar profession there is. Aside from some young female strivers (more of them in elementary Ed, admittedly), it’s just not the type of workforce capable of carrying out a woke program of brain wash. Conservatives are right to notice the effort to make it so, but I highly doubt many classrooms conform to their fears. Remember, your son’s social studies teacher is also probably the wrestling coach.

Also damn you, my job is only sorta like babysitting.

Expand full comment
Dec 7, 2022Liked by Richard Hanania

One bright spot for Broward. One of the newly elected school board members is Brenda Fam, who won on a strongly anti-woke and pro-parenting platform despite being heavily outspent and out publicized by her Democratic opponent (who stood for nothing). Frankly, I don’t know how she did it as she won the runoff despite coming in second in the multiple candidate race. But it was a great win for my home county.

Expand full comment

Desantis, being high IQ, has figured out how to provoke the left in the same way Trump did in 2016 (forcing them to defend unpopular ideas, which creates a backlash) and channel that backlash into something productive in way that Trump could not. He's also good at keeping the loons at arms length without offending them. He and maybe Youngkin are the only shot conservatives have at turning anything around.

Unfortunately he will never be president. I think he has a great chance to win the nom in 2024. Then Trump will run 3rd party, take 30%, and we'll have 8 years of President Buttigieg. Establishment GOP will decide we need to talk more about tax breaks, and less about immigration, and embrace wokeness to "win".

Pretty sad to know the Trump suicide cult is going to do this, unless God decides to intervene and take Trump to his heavenly home. But I think God wants us to suffer, kinda like the engineers in Prometheus decided to send the black goo to destroy Earth. Trump is our black goo.

Expand full comment
Dec 7, 2022Liked by Richard Hanania

It's so strange to find someone who is impartially critical. Hanania is a unicorn, and much appreciated. Too bad we can't all think so critically of all things.

Expand full comment

I would appreciate a DeSantis run because it creates something of a win-win situation, or at least a situation where opportunities may arise even if he loses. If he actually became president (I doubt that this can happen, but who knows, we live in interesting times), well, presumably that's a Good Thing.

But if DeSantis were to run and lose, people would really start having to ask themselves some hard questions about what exactly is going on. These hard questions have been deflected so far because Donald Trump exists, who everyone is happy to blame for Republican electoral failures, both left and right. A DeSantis loss would force these people to confront a world in which there is more in play than simply the antics of the Orange Man.

And, I actually think DeSantis has by far the best shot at the nomination as it stands. If nothing crazy happens between now and 24, I don't see how it could be anyone else. Trump has beclowned himself too much, and seems to be in the process of losing even many of the hardcore conservatives who would've defended him to the death back when he was in office.

Expand full comment

Mr. Hanania, the school board revolutions are happening across the country. I live in Hanover, NH. It is Dartmouth college town, hence democrats win with 80% of the vote. There were 2 vocal school board members who wanted to make anti-racist training compulsory for elementary school by including books like Anti-racist baby ( Of Mr. Kendi) and the same members also instituted a policy that allowed schools to provide gender change counselling and changing of official school records for gender identity without informing parents. Normally school board issues are not covered in local press, but due to these policies there was heavy coverage in local newspaper. We even got flyers from republican school board candidates which never happened before and these two very liberal members were defeated soundly in school board elections in a 80-20 democrat leaning town.

Expand full comment
Dec 7, 2022·edited Dec 8, 2022

A lot of right-leaning people have moved to Florida over the past two years in order to flee the COVID insanity of states like New York, Michigan, and California. That's what helped entrench the Sunshine State into solid-Republican territory (and, by the same token, what has made the aforementioned states even bluer). That, and DeSantis just being a very competent governor.

Expand full comment

If conservatives can't win in metropolitan areas it means they can't win against non-taxpayers and against tribal groups who vote >90% Democrat, who are concentrated in large numbers in urban counties. I don't know how to fix this. There aren't enough taxpayers to wrest control of government from the people who rely on government for their sustenance.

In the United States, your right-ish parties can at least reduce taxes and slow the climate-emergency hysteria because you can use minoritarian rule. In Canada, we have too few taxpayers, and their power is diluted too much, for tax cuts to be politically possible.

Expand full comment

Do you see any middle ground in education, like to teaching crazy things, but teaching non-crazy things that many people don't know, like the Tulsa massacre, and filibustering anti lynching laws, that not so long ago interracial marriage and same sex marriage were actually Illegal?. How are children supposed to be intelligently proud of their country if they do not know how far we have come?

Also sorry you had such a bad experience with public education. In my high school I learned a lot of useful stuff about how atoms get attached to form molecules, some of Canterbury Tales in Middle English, and memorized Nelson Mandela's favorite poem "Invictus." I'm glad our district hired people who did not think of themselves as doing adolescent day-care. Even if many schools fall short of that (my daughters' high school was not as good), isn't that what we should strive for?

Expand full comment

Do conservatives really think that attempts at brainwashing in schools only happen in areas where liberals control schools? As someone who grew up in the Bible Belt (Tyler, Texas), I can assure you that conservatives actively and unapologetically force feed students conservative pablum.

Expand full comment

How important do you think is the fact that over the last few years, almost a million people (presumably mostly conservative) have moved to Florida? If this is the real explanation for DeSantis's political success, then it means that DeSantis isn't really winning over people so much as governing at a particularly lucky time when conservatives are fleeing blue states and migrating to places like Florida. In that case, all these votes for DeSantis in Florida come at the expense of popular votes outside of Florida for presidential candidate DeSantis in 2024.

Expand full comment

Public schools in Florida did not teach CRT( I'm a retired teacher). Nor did they assist in grooming kids to be LBGT. Many of the counties with mask mandates had opt out policies for parents. Majority of parents did not exercise the option. Moms for Liberty is a fringe group that does is not trained in education and is driven by religious ideology promoted by Hillsdale College. Very scary. You are naive to believe the DeSantis kool aid.

Expand full comment

I live in Brevard and while I think DeSantis has had some effect it can easily be overstated in some of these counties like Brevard, Lee, and Polk. Mostly just framing the issue and making people defend their beliefs is the biggest thing. These places have a lot of old people and were already to the right of a lot of places even within Florida and there is an Albion's Seed founder effect that hasn't been overwhelmed by urbanization. There is also a ton of decentralization to the county level within Florida because of the lack of a strong centralized state and no state income taxes as well as a cap on property tax growth at the state level. During covid DeSantis ordered the beaches closed and the 100 percent Republican county commission in Brevard basically said we are going to take that as an advisement and not an order. Whether DeSantis was around or not Moms for Liberty and the county Sheriff are going to be the big factors locally. We have had BLM incidents on par with elsewhere and they just get no traction locally and the Sheriff was re-elected with 2/3 of the vote. Brevard also differs from Lee and Polk because 20 percent of the county is current or former Military. Even if Lee and Polk can't replace their old people and tip in another direction Brevard will still differ. The pandemic and woke stuff has really put how much local conditions matter into perspective for me. This is clearly where most people should be focusing their energy. Focus on the local D.A. and competent local government and not getting caught up in mood affiliation and identity bullshit to the detriment of your up close personal life and community.

Expand full comment
Dec 7, 2022·edited Dec 7, 2022

Regarding DeSantis successfully outlawing mask mandates, unfortunately this did not prevent them from persisting in private schools (such as the one where my daughter goes) long after they had been eliminated in public ones. As a consequence, pre-school children including those with known speech problems during critical developmental periods were required to wear masks even outside (in the Florida heat, no less) during much of the pandemic.

More generally, as a result of DeSantis' success, Florida becomes a bit weird where choosing to send your child outside the public school system results in less freedom.

Expand full comment