Little did we know that those Hippies from the 60s would go on to dream up a new America for us when they got older.  They were the “counter-culture” at a time when America needed a new direction – away from the pointless Vietnam War and a blind obedience to the rat race.

Many of us didn’t take the full plunge into this ‘revolution’ with its pot and ponytails, but it was entertaining and a relief from being led to the slaughter in Southeast Asia by our elders (aka “the Greatest Generation”).  Okay with bell bottoms and long sideburns, but Heavy Metal music and Che Guevara tee-shirts were a bit much.

Our contemporaries who embraced the counterculture didn’t always grow out of it even though they went on to corporate jobs, pursued university positions, and even made careers in government.  They worked with minorities to develop new ways to level society – it used to be called Marxism – through diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).  Such an agenda needs to minimize merit, excellence, and achievement.  To dress up this radical transformation, its purveyors are called “progressives.”

There is a reason I don’t label these folks “progressives” or “liberals.” Depending on the issue, I’m both of those things as well as being a “conservative.”  But when you stop believing in human nature, self-improvement, or traditional values, I consider you a “utopian” and that takes you out of reality.

If you believe everyone in prison is a victim of the system; or that Western Civilization has caused misery around the globe, I’ve got a bridge to sell you…as the saying goes.  In recent years, the extent of the utopian way of thinking has been revealed by three Italian Americans – Chris Rufo, Ron DeSantis, and Elise Stefanik (maternal side).

I cannot minimize the work these three have done in exposing and counteracting the utopian agenda in corporate, academic, and governmental circles.  Seeing Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) go eyeball-to-eyeball with three elite university presidents at a Congressional hearing over their failure to rein in anti-Semitism on their campuses was a wake-up call to any concerned American.  Two of those presidents lost their jobs after that hearing.  In the case of Harvard’s Claudine Gay, Stefanik (a Harvard grad) tag-teamed with investigator Chris Rufo to expose Gay’s other sin: long-term plagiarism. Rufo’s evidence was quite damning and Harvard caved, demoting its first Black president.

Stefanik and Rufo may be the first conservatives who have bearded the lion of racial pandering in the ultimate den of American academia, Harvard University.  As Rufo wrote in a later Wall Street Journal op-ed, neither race nor gender should make anyone “untouchable.”  He concluded, “…if we are to preserve America’s core principles, conservatives must win.”

Rufo also teamed up with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to expose the utopian agenda at Disney, whose CEO knuckled under to a clique of his own utopian employees to interfere with Florida’s education standards.  They didn’t like DeSantis restricting sex-themed books by grade level, nor his liberating teachers from gender pronoun games.  Crazy issues?  Not to utopian fanatics.  So, DeSantis reexamined Disney’s sweetheart tax breaks to insure they met the state’s corporate equality guidelines.  They didn’t.  Disney subsequently changed CEOs.

There are many activists who share the conservative agenda – Democrats like Sen Joe Manchin (orig: Mancini), some Republicans, and most American parents – but Rufo warns that the Left has a “near monopoly on prestige media” (eg., NBC, CBS, ABC) that suppresses open discussion.  The Claudine Gay event only slipped through the media net because of the anti-Semitism issue, Stefanik’s televised confrontation, and Rufo’s investigative revelations – a news trifecta!

Perhaps like Hippie fashions, DEI and the utopian agenda will fade away….with a little push. -JLM