THE OUTRAGE EXPRESS, THE GOP'S SECRET WEAPON – OVERNIGHT:  No, we are not going to examine philosophically the slap at the Oscars, probably the most interesting thing that's happened at the "ceremony" in years.  The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will sort it out, and Will Smith will be paid double his usual price for his next picture.  And now people will expect a shock at each Oscar awards show.  Maybe a gunfight.  A first Oscar use of nuclear weapons.  Nothing smaller.  It's understood that each shock will feature representation by at least four marginalized communities, but not including conservative bloggers.

What we will be examining, more and more, is the runup to the midterm elections, which will be held in seven months.  If you notice the signs, you'll see that the parties are now at the serious organizing stage, naming their candidates, running primaries, and developing their platforms. We assess here that the Republicans are doing a far better job of structuring their campaigns – in part because the Democrats have given them so much ammunition.  The generosity of the Dems can't be overstated.  They have apparently Googled the word "mistake" and decided to commit as many of them as possible.  A mistake to a Democrat is "a breakthrough policy in the fight against Donald Trump's daughters."

The Republicans are brilliantly committing their party to a new version of Newt Gingrich's contract with America.  The GOP will identity the problem and say exactly what it will do to solve it. It's the kind of practical, results-oriented approach that Americans like.  It's clear that the Republican campaign will be built around the word "outrage."  We are an outraged nation, angry at the mess the Democratic left has created, and determined to reverse it.  The GOP will list the outrages, that Americans have endured, like this one, from Fox:

Top diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) employees at major public universities earn massive six-figure salaries for leading initiatives that some experts found to be ineffective and instead enforce a "political orthodoxy."

A review of salary data shows that the universities of Michigan, Maryland, Virginia and Illinois, plus Virginia Tech, boast some of the highest-paid DEI staffers at public universities, a Fox News review found. These institutions' top diversity employees earn salaries ranging from $329,000 to $430,000 – vastly eclipsing the average pay for the schools' full-time tenured professors.

Does the term "shakedown" come to mind?

Four of the colleges justified the DEI leaders' salaries, citing the executives' seniority and the importance of their responsibilities. The University of Illinois did not return a request for comment.

Experts identified these universities as having some of the most bloated DEI staff in the country and said they each rack up millions in costs each year.

Jay Greene, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation's Center for Education Policy, said that while the "ostensible objective" of DEI is to make college campuses more welcoming and inclusive, he doesn't believe that is the purpose of the initiatives.

"Instead, the effective purpose of diversity, equity and inclusion is to create a political orthodoxy and enforce that political orthodoxy, which fundamentally distorts the intellectual and political life on campus," Greene told Fox News.

The five schools shelling out top-shelf salaries to DEI personnel have between 71 and 163 individuals devoted to diversity efforts on campus, according to a study Greene co-authored.

'Lots and lots of tuition dollars'

Greene and James Paul, director of research at the Educational Freedom Institute, co-authored a comprehensive study of DEI bureaucracies in higher education. The pair examined 65 universities of the five "power" athletic conferences because the schools "tend to be large, public institutions chosen by many students simply because of geographic proximity," the study said.

"It's becoming almost an all-consuming priority where even large numbers of staff who don't have official responsibilities for DEI – don't have it in their job titles – are nonetheless working on it and see it as one of their top priorities," Greene told Fox News.

COMMENT:  Read the rest. It's an outrage, one of many outrages in education, which is emerging as a top issue for Republicans.  We have to make it clear that we're on the side of the parents and the students.  We are not on the side of the establishment.  Or the Democrats.

March 29, 2022