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THE MORNING RANT: Incentivizing Woke Activists to Self-Deport from Conservative States and Institutions

An important way to fight back locally against woke leftists is to create an environment they find so intolerable that they voluntary self-deport from that institution or locality. And by “intolerable” I simply mean that they are not provided a venue to advance their agenda, and that their tantrums do not get rewarded.

There is actually some good news on this front, including at public universities in the red states of Florida and Texas.

New College of Florida is a fascinating test case of conservatives trying to re-capture a university and mold it back into a classically liberal academy where traditional post-secondary education occurs without propaganda or indoctrination. The intolerant left cannot tolerate this development, therefore much of the faculty is departing.

At New College of Florida, a ‘Ridiculously High’ Number of Faculty Are Gone [Tampa Bay Times – 7/18/2023]

Some of those were retirements or sabbaticals that were planned long before the school made national headlines in January, when Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed six trustees with a mission to transform the small liberal arts school. But many are teachers and researchers who — frustrated and dismayed by the school’s new leadership — saw no other option but to resign or take leave to look for opportunities elsewhere.

One of those six trustees appointed by Ron DeSantis is Christopher Rufo, whose efforts are paying off.

Much praise to Governor DeSantis for not just talking about the culture war, but for actually fighting it and scoring major victories.

Meanwhile, at Texas A&M, conservative pushback against one woke hire ended up flushing away several high-ranking left-wing administrators, including the university’s President!

Some quick background, Texas A&M decided to revive its Journalism department, so it recruited a far-left activist from the University of Texas, Kathleen McElroy. A conservative publication, Texas Scorecard, spread the word about McElroy’s background, and then conservative donors and politicians started pushing back.

Aggies Hire NY Times ‘Diversity’ Advocate to Head Journalism Program [Texas Scorecard – 6/15/2023]

During her time there [at UT-Austin], she was part of the Council for Racial and Ethnic Equity and Diversity (CREED). According to their website, CREED advocates for equity-based hiring practices and distributes anti-racism “resources.”

The problem with her hiring wasn’t just that that she is radically left-wing. An even bigger problem was that she is opposed to journalism itself. She believes the role of a “journalist” is not to cover stories objectively. The following quote is from an interview she had with NPR.

“We can’t just give people a set of facts anymore. I think we know that and we have to tell our students that. This is not about getting two sides of a story or three sides of a story, if one side is illegitimate.”

This is how the left-wing media reported the story in Texas, and it’s still a satisfying read:

Texas A&M Recruited a UT Professor to Revive Its Journalism Program, Then Backtracked After “DEI Hysteria” [Texas Tribune – 7/11/2023]

In the days after the signing ceremony, she said, A&M employees told her an increasingly vocal network of constituents within the system were expressing issues with her experience at the Times and with her work on race and diversity in newsrooms, McElroy said.

“…a vocal network of constituents within the system…” Heh. Might those constituents be taxpayers, alumni, and Regents, as well as the politicians who are accountable to Texas voters?

But leftists never stop pushing, so the administrators tried to find a way to bring McElroy on board without the consent of the Regents.

Behind the scenes, A&M spent weeks altering the terms of her job. After hearing about the concerns, McElroy agreed to a five-year contract position without tenure, which would have avoided a review by regents.

The “constituents” did not like that evasive action.

On Sunday, she received a third offer, this time with a one-year contract and emphasizing that the appointment was at will and that she could be terminated at any time. She has rejected the offer…

The story gets better, though, because the actions of those trying to hire her ultimately cost them their jobs too.

Texas A&M Interim Dean Resigns After University Backtracks on Hiring Professor to Revive Journalism Program [Texas Tribune – 7/17/2023]

José Luis Bermúdez, who led the school’s College of Arts and Sciences, will leave his position after a deal to hire respected [sic] journalist Kathleen O. McElroy fell apart amid conservative pushback.

And even better still…

Texas A&M President Resigns After Public Outcry Over DEI [Texas Scorecard – 7/21/2023]

Texas A&M President Katherine Banks has announced her immediate resignation following public outcry against A&M’s attempted hiring of a DEI proponent as the university’s new journalism director.

Congratulations to all the conservative activists who spread the word, and not only prevented Texas A&M from making a toxic hire, but for also getting a couple of far-left administrators to self-deport from College Station.

*****

Speaking of self-deporting…

Like many red states, Florida has banned the gender industrial complex from sterilizing and mutilating children. CNN is now reporting how this is creating desperate gender refugees trying to escape the state.

This is one of many typical quotes from the CNN story:

”We are seeing many families that are leaving. I really think if you were to ask a member of a trans family, they would tell you they go to bed at night dreaming of how to get out of this state.”

The obvious benefit of laws such as Florida’s is that it protects children in that state from the medical predators seeking to profit from “gender-affirming” sexual lobotomies. But there is nothing to stop parents from taking their child to California or another blue state. If they’re going to do so, it’s preferable that they relocate entirely, leaving red states just a little redder.

There is also the important point that passing laws that upset the far-left will incentivize them to self-deport to blue states. We lost Colorado and Arizona to blue state colonizers. States that are still red need to pass laws that render those states uninhabitable to the left.

Pass laws they hate. And when they complain, pass even more laws they hate. Never let up.

It’s what blue states did to their political enemies. It’s about damn time red states returned the favor. https://t.co/PBbXFG3R1i

— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) July 27, 2023

I still stand by my idea that red states should ban organic groceries, or slap a punishing luxury tax on organic food, to deter left wing refugees.

I’m only half-joking that the cost of organic food is like a poll tax, in that it serves to keep minorities out of grocery stores favored by affluent whites. But since organic food is not going to be banned, how about going to the other extreme – place a stiff “luxury tax” on organic food. Maybe fewer New Yorkers would move to Nashville if they found themselves having to pay an extra $10 per package of organic arugula. Also, for all the criticism of sales taxes being regressive, my proposed organic foods tax would be nice and progressive.

Or how about red states slapping a $20,000 per unit Road Tax on every electric vehicle sold. Leftists proclaim to love taxes on the affluent, and they also love EVs. They can either pony up the money to pay for the EV tax, or they can relocate to a blue state.

*****

As for people fleeing blue areas, there is a remarkable trend over just the past few years in which Asian families with young children are fleeing large blue urban areas.

These are some staggering figures from the Economic Innovation Group using data obtained from the US Census Bureau.

There is a mass exodus. Los Angeles County lost 16,000 Asian children aged 0 to 4 from 2020 to 2022, or 22% of Asian children in that age bracket. King’s County New York (Brooklyn) saw a similar percentage loss of Asian children aged 0 to 4. All those Asian children left because their parents felt the desire, or need, to get out.

There are many important patterns and migrations going on across this country that do not receive much attention, including this one. The abandonment of urban areas by Asian Americans is an indictment of how those blue areas have embraced a collapse of public education and civil order.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]