Last week, it emerged that the newly appointed head of America’s National Public Radio hates the U.S. Constitution. Speaking in 2021, she described the First Amendment which safeguards free speech as “a challenge.”
How could it be that the head of America’s public broadcasting service, established by an act of Congress, has such contempt for the US Constitution?
In her previous role running Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, Katherine Maher rejected a “free and open internet” as a guiding principle. Such principles are, in her words, a “white male Westernized construct,” according to reports.
Katherine Maher, reports say, supports efforts to censor opinions that do not conform with her leftist worldview. She spoke of the truth as being “a distraction.”
Sadly, Katherine Maher is not a one-off. She is typical of the sort of people now running many of America’s institutions, human resource departments, government agencies, and universities.
Ms. Maher’s social media posts might read like parody., but there is nothing funny about the way that people with Maher’s outlook and opinions are subverting America’s Founding principles, replacing them with grim leftist dogma that risks destroying America and the West.
Conservatives need to push back, but how?
Until now, many conservatives have been better at identifying the problem than at tackling it.
To defeat DEI, we need to pass laws, reform institutions, appoint the right people, and set the right incentives. Most of all, however, we need to counter bad ideas with good ideas.
If we are serious about restricting DEI dogma, we need to ensure that your tax dollars cannot be spent promoting this divisive ideology.
Florida’s Governor, Ron DeSantis, has shown that states can take the lead against DEI by signing an executive order that restricts the use of public money for DEI programs. State leaders in Oklahoma, Utah, and Texas have also done something similar. We need to see similar action here in Mississippi.
Did you know that some Mississippi public universities use your tax dollars to promote Diversity, Equity & Inclusion programs?
One of our leading public universities has an “institutional diversity, equity, and inclusion plan” governing every aspect of campus life. DEI shapes not only university admissions, administration, and faculty hiring. It also shapes what young people are taught via the development of an academic equity scorecard.
Instead of more DEI hires, the University of Florida recently eliminated all DEI employee positions. Last month, the University of Texas at Austin fired dozens of employees who used to work in diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Mississippi needs to do the same.
The best way to defeat bad ideas is with good ideas. Teaching young people the following truths about America will give them immunity against the woke mind virus.
America is built on liberty.The U.S. Constitution is the best system of government in the world.America is a force for good. On three occasions – World War I, World War II and the Cold War – the United States intervened to save the free world.Americans are inventive. From the first flight to the advent of the iPhone, there is one country that has proved extraordinarily inventive: the U.S.Judeo-Christian ideals have shaped America.
A generation ago, the conservative movement focused on tax cuts and red tape reduction. Those things remain essential, but we also need to ensure that we are promoting America’s Founding principles.
This is a fight that we can win. One day we will look back and think it absurd that someone with Katherine Maher’s outlook could be put in charge of producing public service broadcasting content. But there is a great deal that we need to do right now to get there!
Douglas Carswell is the President & CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy.
