Ron DeSantis’ 'right-wing power grab' with a Florida college shows his 'illiberal' tendencies: libertarian

17 January 2023

The New College of Florida has a reputation for being a bastion of liberal and progressive politics, but far-right Gov. Ron DeSantis is determined to give the state college a MAGA makeover by putting his allies in positions of leadership. Much of the criticism of DeSantis’ efforts have been coming from the left; in an article published by The Bulwark on January 16, however, DeSantis’ “anti-woke” campaign with the New College draws criticism from libertarian/conservative journalist Cathy Young.

Known for her work for Reason Magazine, Young hasn’t been shy about criticizing the “illiberal left” and what she views as political correctness “run amok” on college campuses. But in her Bulwark piece, Young argues that DeSantis’ campaign to move the New College to the far right aren’t “anti-woke” so much as “illiberal.”

“The latest battle in Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ongoing crusade against ‘wokeness’ — or, if you prefer, the latest maneuver in his march toward the 2024 Republican presidential nomination — is getting a lot of attention,” Young explains. “After earlier attempts to clamp down on progressive left ideologies in schools, colleges, and other institutions via legislation, DeSantis is moving to reshape a state college in a more conservative image by overhauling its leadership. On January 6, he announced the appointment of six people to vacant seats on the 13-member board of trustees of the New College of Florida, a small but highly rated and politically progressive liberal arts school in Sarasota, Florida.”

The journalist continues, “The most prominent among the new trustees is also the youngest: Manhattan Institute fellow and anti-woke culture warrior Christopher Rufo, who told New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg that he plans to conduct a ‘a top-down restructuring’ of the college — and that he sees it as the first step in a broader plan for conservatives to ‘reconquer public institutions all over the United States.’ Most of the other DeSantis appointees are in the same ideological mold.”

Young notes that some of the criticism of “DeSantis’ power grab” is coming from people who have been highly critical of “political correctness” and “woke silliness” on college campuses, including New York Magazine’s Jonathan Chait.

“DeSantis’ move has been met with alarm by progressive media and by many New College students who see the school as a haven for social justice-friendly values,” Young observes. “But harsh rebukes have also come from some people who are themselves strongly critical of the progressive academy and its illiberal bent — such as New York Magazine columnist Jonathan Chait, who has been writing about ‘social justice’ zealotry and its baneful effects on public discourse for the past eight years, and has taken his share of lumps for it.”

DeSantis, Chait wrote, “is not seeking to protect or restore free speech, but to impose controls of his own liking.” And Young agrees with Chait.

“The DeSantis brand of ‘anti-wokeism’ is classic right-wing illiberalism,” Young warns. “Chait rightly compares it to the conservative institutional takeover in Hungary under the stewardship of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who proudly embraces the ‘illiberal’ label — and who was cited as a model by a DeSantis spokesperson at the National Conservatism Conference in Miami last September. But that brand is also bad news for those of us who oppose left-wing illiberalism from a liberal, libertarian, or classical conservative perspective favoring the values of free expression, individual rights, and intellectual openness.”

Young wraps up her article by stressing that neither the “illiberal right” nor the “illiberal left” is beneficial for the New College of Florida and other campuses.

“Are they interested in effectively rolling back the excesses of ‘social justice’ zealotry?” Young writes. “If they are, they’re going about it in the worst possible way. To associate such a pushback with a right-wing brand is to lose centrists and liberals who also dislike those excesses; in many cases, it will make those centrist critics more reluctant to criticize the illiberal left because they know that to do so is to play into the hands of the illiberal right. Stoking the culture wars, rallying the Trumpist base, and using the power of the state to defeat bad ideas is not the road back to sanity.”

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