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On Monday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis crossed state lines to tout his anti-woke agenda at a pro-law enforcement rally in the New York suburb of Staten Island. It was his first stop in a three-state tour of blue cities.
You know it, we know it: This whole war against "wokeness" is really a war against freedom. And you know what? Some conservatives and libertarians know it, too.
What’s been a problem for Florida is now a problem for America. It isn’t just about the cruise ship companies or Disney, or even your woke gas stove. DeSantis is determined to stamp out intellectual freedom, and it’s causing other red states to scrutinize AP Black studies. He's also threatening to withdraw state support for Advanced Placement courses altogether.
The Miami Herald reports that top Florida officials are exploring alternatives to the College Board, meeting with the founder of an exam called the Classic Learning Test.
Supporters of the exam say it focuses on the “great classical and Christian tradition” and the “centrality of the Western tradition.”
Pretty much on brand for DeSantis, who clearly wants to be president and who is on tour to signal to the nation how he would govern — and that is by replacing a multitude of ideas with the one idea he holds dear: the centrality of white Christian thought.
And DeSantis, let’s be clear, is using “woke” to mean any notion that brown, Black, LGBTQ people and women are citizens rather than subjects, who — whether they live in red states or blue — would in his American dream be forced to shut up and do, think, read and say only what Ron DeSantis tells them to.
This is an excerpt from Monday's episode of the “The ReidOut.” It has been slightly edited for length and clarity.