Squirrels

Up, the charming Pixar film about a misfit scout and the grouchy senior citizen who he befriends, recounts their journey to a mysterious island populated by “talking” dogs. A recurring scene involves how easily dogs are distracted by squirrels.  This trait ultimately saves the heroes when a well-timed “Squirrel!” shout enables an escape.

This scene came to mind as I read an op-ed by Brett Stephen on democracy in colleges.

After many columns where he bemoans the current state of the Republican Party and Trumpism in particular, I expected something along the lines of Andrew Delbanco’s College: What it Was, Is, and Should Be, a spirited defense of college’s role in supporting democracy. Instead it turned out to be a spirited attack on the favorite bogeyman of Republicans: cancel culture supporters.

In a tortured argument, based on a book by his friend and Johns Hopkins University President Ronald Daniels, Stephens manages to blame the current ills of college on its supposed embrace of mediocrity and curtailment of free speech. He quotes Dorian Abbot, a professor at the University of Chicago, who delights in charging the cancel culture battlements. Supposedly Abbott was drawn to the fray by a colleague who said “if you are just hiring the best people, you are part of the problem.”

I was struck by the paucity of the arguments and the blind eye to the actions of those intent on undermining democracy, and did what any blogger worth his salt would do: posted a comment.

I thought this was an engaging response to Stephen’s continued misdirection and support for the conservative values he so prizes, apparently even above democracy itself. I figured that Times commenters, known for their discriminating and perceptive insights, would approve of my post.

Instead, they were distracted by squirrels.

The first response, by a self-described tenure-track professor at an R1 university, was recommended at about three times the rate of my own. Instead of picking up on the democracy in flames theme of my own post, it offered a knee-jerk support for Stephen’s detested cancel culture.

I continue to be amazed at how the Republican party and their supporters, aided by Frank Lutz and his public opinion, can hijack the minds of so many Americans by discovering issues that bypass the cognitive faculties of even highly educated academics and appeal instead to our easily manipulated emotional core.

We see this at the state level when Texas, after a year of crippling winter storms that killed 210 residents and a pandemic that has killed over 68,000, ignored the body count and focused on legislation that addressed . . . banning critical race theory, curtailing voting rights, banning abortion, and blocking mask and vaccine mandates.

Florida, drowning in a sea of covid (57,711 and counting) and threatened by rising sea levels, passed laws against vaccine passports, protests, transgender athletes.

The response of voters to these body counts? Gov. Abbott of Texas enjoys a 41% approval rating; DeSantis of Florida, 48%.

The chances that the states will boot out Abbott or DeSantis? Slim to none.

Squirrels: saving conservatives from electoral accountability . . . for as long as we let them.