DeSantis boldly shows how to fight wokeness. By Rod Dreher.

For a very long time, conservatives have watched wokeness march through state-owned, state-funded colleges and universities, while Republican lawmakers have sat back and done nothing. That has changed with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who just put Florida’s premier New College on notice …

“The shakeup of the 11-member board is certain to create major tensions at New College, an institution that started as a progressive private school before becoming the state’s liberal arts honors college. The small school’s student body and faculty have a reputation for leaning left politically.”

Remember when DeSantis flew 50 illegals to Martha’s Vineyard?

The lesson:

Old-school conservatives might balk at this bald-faced attempt by the governor to, you know, govern this state institution which has lost its way.

That’s because these conservatives do not understand how power works in the postliberal environment. The woke who have marched through the institutions and conquered them feel no compunction to be fair to those who, in good faith, disagree with them. They see these people and their teaching as evil. They hate classical liberalism, because it gives respect and liberty to ideas and people they regard as wicked.

If the world was as it ought to be, then the governor of Florida would not have to intervene in this way. But by doing so, DeSantis recognizes his duty to the people of Florida to protect the institutions they pay for from ideological corruption.

Here in Hungary, where I live, the Left screams bloody murder when Prime Minister Viktor Orban does things like this. But Orban understood a long time ago that the Left exercises dictatorial power through private and semi-private networks, like NGOs and academic institutions, and that the fundamental task of fighting for the common good against an ideological power clique demands making bold moves like DeSantis has done here.

Pay attention, “conservative” politicians.

hat-tip Stephen Neil