More Talk, More Action, and Making Them Pay a Price

Paul’s insightful and important post yesterday, “Ron DeSantis: ‘All action and no talk’," got me to thinking about what we can do to confront and defeat Wokeism. Tracking Fonte and Klingenstein, Paul outlined five steps conservative thinkers should take: Make it clear that this is not the typical liberal v. conservative disagreement we’ve had up until a few years ago, and is instead a war for the foundations of American life; name the enemy — the “Woke Regime;” describe its strategy of building shame, particularly in our children, about who they are and what our country is; make a full, honest and spirited defense of the American way of life; and detail the costs of its proposed destruction — grotesque costs, really, to our freedom, our standard of living, and ultimately our humanity.

I endorse all this. I also endorse two suggestions made by commenters, to wit, the suggestion by my friend Richard Vigilante that this is mostly a job for intellectuals and commentators rather than Republican presidential candidates; and the suggestion by SquidbillyCPO (I don’t think that’s his real name) that the place to start is with the war the Woke Regime is waging against, and using, our children, largely in public schools.

That latter suggestion inspires my thought in this entry — that, and the idea that in addition to the five steps noted, we could use, and even in the dumbed-down environment we face just now, I think we can get, a sixth: Make the Wokesters start paying a price.

Think about it. Isn’t a price due when a teacher disciplines or shames or insults a student for wanting to use her locker room without teenage boys being in there; or for wanting to play on a sports team where the competition consists of other girls rather than physically far more advanced boys; or simply for being white (or any other disfavored race such as Asian); or for protesting that school discipline for disruptive and/or violent outbursts should be based on behavior not race; or shunned or suspended or sent home because he wears an American flag or a picture of an American soldier on his shirt?

I spent most of my career as a federal prosecutor, so perhaps I should confess up front that my make-them-pay-a-price approach might be an arm of the old aphorism, “If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.” But I do think criminal law has a role to play here. What’s being done to our children by the Woke Regime and its willing allies in the education establishment — the hurt and shame and indignity being heaped on them simply for being normal — seems to me to be a crime in more than the metaphorical sense.

I propose that states adopt the following statute:

Any person employed by a school, educational establishment or organization that caters to minors, who disciplines or by any means intentionally causes shame or embarrassment, or attempts to discipline or cause shame or embarrassment, to a person under the age of 18 because of or in relation to that person’s race, ethnicity, biological sex, achievement, or peaceful manifestation of allegiance toward or respect for the United States, shall be guilty of child abuse, and shall be imprisoned for not less than 90 days and fined not less than $10,000.

Note that this proposed statute does not require anyone — a teacher, school administrator or certainly a student — to say or believe anything. It punishes only those in authority who take action against a student who does what thousands of normal, healthy students have done for decades, but is now verbotten by the Woke dogma.

One other note: Last year, a girl in Loudoun County, Virginia was raped in a school bathroom by a “transgender girl,” i.e., a biological boy. See this story. When her father appeared at a school board meeting to protest the Wokey school policies that had helped the rapist gain access to the girl’s restroom, he was tackled by the police.

This is upside down. We can set it right side up and we need to. The Woke Regime can fool a lot of people with its lying and its CYA friends in the press, but it is unlikely to be able to pull it off when parents understand that their kids’ fundamental rights and well-being are at stake. We can make the Wokesters and their minions pay for what they’re doing; indeed, even making them take seriously the possibility that they’ll pay will be an important step forward.

Time to start.