As somebody who has nothing much good to say about de Santis's economic agenda, people will underestimate him if they dismiss his "anti-wokeism" as a side show.  As someone in academics who has experience woke at its worst - I was "Title-IXed" by a vengeful student who blamed me for his inability to get into medical school - I can assure you that it is no side show.  Many of the power levers of academic life now rest in the hands of woke administrators and militant students.  Need I even say that these levers of power extend to all aspects of American intellectual life as "élite opinion" is being shaped largely by academics.  Even if administrators are not explicitly woke, they are frightened of and in thrall to those who are.  Just look at the recent Hamline U saga for a crash primer course.  I'm not sure that de Santis's anti-woke initiatives will do anything.  But to many people at least he presents a symbol of "fighting back" against this pernicious ideology.

As somebody who has nothing much good to say about de Santis's economic agenda, people will underestimate him if they dismiss his "anti-wokeism" as a side show.  As someone in academics who has experience woke at its worst - I was "Title-IXed" by a vengeful student who blamed me for his inability to get into medical school - I can assure you that it is no side show.  Many of the power levers of academic life now rest in the hands of woke administrators and militant students.  Need I even say that these levers of power extend to all aspects of American intellectual life as "élite opinion" is being shaped largely by academics.  Even if administrators are not explicitly woke, they are frightened of and in thrall to those who are.  Just look at the recent Hamline U saga for a crash primer course.  I'm not sure that de Santis's anti-woke initiatives will do anything.  But to many people at least he presents a symbol of "fighting back" against this pernicious ideology.

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