DeSANTIS VS. DISNEY IN WAR OVER WOKE

Ron’s winning fight on Disney brainwash

IN his victory speech after winning a second gubernatorial term in November, Republican Ron DeSantis proclaimed his state of Florida is where “woke goes to die.” He’s been at war with the ideology since his first term, taking on some of the most powerful organizations, businesses and politicians in the country promoting it and trying to spread the woke virus to our children. He’s most famously been at odds with Disney, which has increasingly injected woke messaging into its content marketed for America’s kids.

The liberal media scoffed. No one’s pushing woke. He’s fighting a made-up enemy. It’s baloney — and Disney just proved it.

In a sinister cartoon airing on Disney+ called “The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder,” the characters proclaim, “Slaves built this country, and we the descendants of slaves in America have earned reparations for their suffering and continue to earn reparations every moment we spend submerged in a systemic prejudice, racism and white supremacy that America was founded with and still has not atoned for.”

The show is a reboot of a popular show from 20 years ago, right around when the parents of Disney+’s audience were children themselves. Trying to tap into their parents’ nostalgia, Disney is using the trust established by the original brand and squandering it; using animated characters to promote its version of history through a woke and criticalrace-theory prism.

Slavery and racial politics

The characters go on to denigrate President Abraham Lincoln and compare slavery to modern-day racial controversies. “We had Tubman, Turner, Frederick D. Then they say Lincoln freed the slaves, but slaves were men and women and only we can free ourselves. Emancipation is not freedom,” they sang. “Jim Crow, segregation, redlining, public schools feeding private prisons where we become slaves again.”

This isn’t education. It’s indoctrination.

Almost everyone can agree that, of course, we should be teaching the next generation about the evils of slavery and how its existence was part of American history since before the Founding.

The problem is the woke only want their version of history taught: through the lens of critical race theory, where whiteness is evil and must be atoned for.

DeSantis recently went to war with another powerful American entity, the College Board, over its inclusion of critical race theory in an Advanced Placement course on African-American history. DeSantis’ threats to withdraw the course from Florida’s curriculum offerings were successful, and NPR reported last week the company buckled and shifted gears: “In the official [revised] framework made public, topics such as Black Lives Matter, slavery reparations and queer theory are no longer subjects to be taught.”

Overwhelming success

This is how opponents of wokeness win: by going into battle, guns blazing. DeSantis knows the winning formula, and his successes are part of why he was so overwhelmingly re-elected.

DeSantis is using the same playbook in his war against Disney. As the news broke about this Disney+ show, the governor’s office is simultaneously taking aim at the entertainment giant’s bottom line. His office announced, “Florida is dissolving the Corporate Kingdom by permanently eliminating Disney’s selfgoverning status, appointing a statecontrolled board accountable to Floridians that can impose taxes on Disney for infrastructure projects, and ensuring Disney pays its own debts!”

The woke war against our kids is unrelenting and takes no prisoners. Conservatives can only win the fight by making its proponents go on defense, instead of constantly allowing them an offensive advantage. Gov. DeSantis recognizes this, and his fellow Republicans should be taking notes.