Journalists Reveal Why They Think Dems Aren't Opposing Trump's Anti-DEI Executive Order

The Left is freaking out over the shuddering of federal DEI programs and officers, per the latest executive order issued by President Donald J. Trump. A significant group that’s mum on the subject are congressional Democrats. All DEI staffers in the federal government were placed on paid leave this week. The media melted down. The activist wing of the liberal base is besides themselves, but Democrats on the Hill writ large aren’t flipping out. Sure, they’re preoccupied trying to deliver a body blow to the Trump White House by derailing the nomination of Pete Hegseth to be our next secretary of defense, but journalists Michael Shellenberger and Alex Gutentag have another theory: they’re keeping their mouths shut because they know DEI initiatives are trash. 

Of all the actions Trump has made, this one is notably muted. It’s almost like a shoulder shrug. Part of that could be fatigue, as the Left has raged against the president for years and with little success. It took an unprecedented pandemic, which liberals weaponized for political gain, to ‘win’ the 2020 election. Gutentag and Shellenberger noted that it’s also notable since DEI stuff permeated the cultural scene, with the federal government, Hollywood, and other cultural bastions injecting it into their veins. It’s now being gutted at the federal level, and no one is taking to the streets. Again, they know it’s wrong, just like how liberals know Elon Musk didn’t hurl a Nazi salute at the inaugural rally on Monday (via Public): 

Progressives, Democrats, and the media reacted with outrage at Donald Trump’s words and actions. Thousands took to the streets to protest his policies as racist. “Trump is a racist,” said a New York Times columnist. Rep. Nancy Pelosi called Trump’s statements “racist” and Chuck Schumer said they “drip with racism.” Even some conservatives called Trump’s remarks “clearly racist.” 

Were they responding to President Trump’s sweeping repeal yesterday of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs, known as DEI? No, they were responding to various tweets and statements by Trump in 2017, 2018, and 2019. 

[…] 

… the response to Trump’s anti-DEI order is nothing like the response we saw to Trump’s actions over the last eight years. Starting in 2015, progressives called much of what Trump had said or done on immigration, DEI, Covid, and other issues as racist and white supremacist. Save for perhaps the word “fascist,” progressives and Democrats have used no word more than “racist” to describe Trump and his policies. While the media has criticized Trump’s order, nothing is happening remotely like the hyperbole on race we saw over the last eight years. 

And the response to Trump’s anti-DEI actions is nothing like the response to the killing of George Floyd in 2020. Beyond the protests, there was a massive push for DEI. Back then, Jeff Bezos of Amazon reaffirmed his company’s support for Black Lives Matter and pledged $10 million to social justice organizations. Twitter’s then-CEO Jack Dorsey donated $10 million to Ibram X. Kendi’s center. Google’s Sundar Pichai displayed a message supporting racial equality on Google’s homepage and committed $12 million to groups working to address systemic racism. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook announced a $10 million donation to groups focused on racial justice and said that Facebook needed to do more to support the safety and equality of the black community. 

Corporate America took unprecedented steps to implement Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Companies including Google, JPMorgan Chase, and Walmart pledged a total of $50 billion to support DEI. 

[…] 

And, yet, there have been no noteworthy protests, much less riots, in response to Trump's repeal of DEI. The statements from Democratic politicians have been muted. DEI is a massive, multi-billion industry employing tens of thousands of people. Creating it took decades of work. Why, then, has there been so little resistance to dismantling it? 

Most Americans agree that there are good reasons to support reasonable measures that prevent discrimination in government and other societal institutions. They believe that racism and racial inequality remain issues of concern, and some understandably fear that eliminating DEI programs could result in more racial disparities in the government and among government contractors. 

But part of the problem is that DEI programs grew out of control. Much of the public has lost confidence that civilization-critical institutions will choose the most qualified candidates. As we saw with the LA fires, DEI severely hindered fire departments’ preparedness, putting the public and firefighters in danger. The preventable destruction of the fires highlighted the absurd priorities of progressives, who devoted money, energy, and mental space to DEI over human survival. 

Americans are among the least racist people in the world, and genuine racist speech and racial violence have declined dramatically over the last 100 years. And yet, rather than acknowledge this reality, most DEI programs denied it. Not only that, they sought to expand the hunt for racism in intrusive and even totalitarian ways, such as in the search for so-called racist “microaggressions.” DEI programs often led to strict speech codes in the workplace, inappropriate intrusions on employees’ social behavior, and cult-like indoctrination into so-called “anti-racism.” This had a chilling effect, creating an atmosphere of self-censorship and cancel culture in schools, universities, corporations, and government agencies. 

And that has led to a suppression of free speech and overall strangeness in the workplace that’s impeded workplace efficiency and production. As Gutentag and Shellenberger noted, it’s why a host of companies have covertly shuddered their DEI operations. 

We are likely to see more resistance to Trump’s repeal of DEI in the weeks and months ahead. After all, it’s how the ACLU, Human Rights Campaign, and tens of thousands of people in the DEI industry make their money. 

But we are unlikely to see Democrats unite to make DEI a high priority on their agenda for the simple reason that doing so runs counter to the American values of freedom, equality of opportunity, and meritocracy. 

And even CNN broke down how voters are down on DEI: 

The era of anti-common sense and illiberal exercises are over. We won, liberals. You lost, and this is partially why. 

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