Commentary: Trump and the DEI Counter-Revolution

February 08, 2025 1 min read

1 Comment

Thomas F. Powers
Quillette

Excerpt: The Trump administration’s opening policy blitzkrieg (on day one alone: 48 “presidential actions,” a record 24 Executive Orders, and 78 past executive orders revoked) has touched many different policy areas, but none more powerfully than DEI.

How effective will Trump’s legal assault be? The dominant interpretations of DEI and radical progressive ideology set forth in books today focus on the causal role of bad ideas and other “cultural” factors. If these interpreters are correct then, regardless of how decisive they are, the actions of the Trump administration are superficial and doomed to fail unless accompanied by some broader intellectual and cultural movement to change Americans’ hearts and minds.

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1 Response

Gerry Cleaves
Gerry Cleaves

February 14, 2025

Maybe a Princeton Whig-Clio debate on the merits of DEI would be better than lecturing. And maybe elite institutions should take their own advice on listening to the “little” people.

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