ROGER KIMBALL: Another Progressive Fusillade Goes Awry.
Rufo’s critics face two huge hurdles.
One, CRT and allied ideologies are every bit as toxic as Rufo says.
To describe CRT is to discredit it, and Rufo describes it in patient, if not exactly loving, detail.
Two, those attacking Rufo seem to believe that by saying he represents an assault on “progressive” sentiment they have landed a damaging blow.
They don’t understand that, like Br’er Rabbit, he glories in being tossed into the Briar Patch of anti-progressive reaction.
The latest, inadvertently amusing, instance of this phenomenon, was vouchsafed us by a truly obtuse opinion piece in our former paper of record.
One of Rufo’s highest-profile interventions to date has been at New College in Sarasota, Florida.
That failing college attracted the attention of Gov. Ron DeSantis partly because it was floundering, hemorrhaging students and financial stability, partly because it was a safe haven for every toxic element of the CRT roadshow.
DeSantis brought in several new board members, including Rufo, and they instantly began shaking things up.
His statement that he wanted to help transform New College into “the Hillsdale of the South” was particularly galling to the woke mandarins in the media because Hillsdale, probably the best liberal arts college in the country, is calmly but conspicuously and determinedly non-woke.
Hillsdale is interested in education, not indoctrination.
That is its real tort: It refuses to be part of the “progressive” assault on independent thought and genuine learning.
The hilarity of the New York Times piece begins with its title: “This Is What the Right-Wing Takeover of a Progressive College Looks Like.”
We are meant to shudder at that phrase “Right-Wing.”
It’s true that most conservatives cower in the corner when accused of being “right-wing,” “racist,” “homophobic,” etc.
That cowardice is part of what’s wrong with contemporary conservatism.
But Rufo outflanked the machine by embracing the charge.
He linked to the NY Times column on Twitter and proudly assented to the charge: “Yes, this is what the right-wing takeover of a progressive college looks like,” he said. “And we’re just getting started.”
Oh no, narrative disruption!
Rufo continued: “My critics believe that the ‘progressive college’ is the only natural and legitimate form of the university.
“But we won’t play that game. Conservative voters deserve conservative institutions. In a republic, the people, through their elected representatives, get to decide.”
What a novel idea!
I (almost) felt sorry for the NY Times columnist.
Reading her column was like watching a toddler having a meltdown.
So crazy that it might just work.