The freakout by a few hundred students over Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) becoming the next president of the University of Florida shows exactly why Sasse is an excellent pick, as does the university’s own social justice track record.
Sasse is possibly the most inoffensive Republican politician in the entire country. He’s not inflammatory, nor was he a devotee of former President Donald Trump. His idea of a congressional committee sound bite is complaining about senators seeking congressional committee sound bites. Saying that Sasse is an unacceptable choice means that there is not one person who is not a fervent liberal who is acceptable.
WATCH: UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA PROTESTERS DISRUPT Q&A WITH BEN SASSE
And yet a few hundred students decided to protest him all the same. Their complaints are as sophomoric as you would expect, complaining that the most milquetoast Republican in public life is “divisive,” “kind of an alt-right guy,” “a danger,” and “a threat” to students. But what Sasse is really a threat to is the ability of students and administrators to let social justice run rampant throughout the university.
via @FoxNews, @UF students say @BenSasse as president would be “a danger to our university”
“He poses a threat to all students who may be queer or non-men” https://t.co/EQvMVDHlT9 pic.twitter.com/Kn4OdGC7lH
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) October 11, 2022
Just last month, the University of Florida student government was considering establishing a $1.5 million fund to help pay for students to get abortions out of state. In 2017, the university asked student organizations to identify if their events would pose an “emotional risk” to other students, including “potential controversy” and the possibility of “sensitive subject matter.”
In 2019, in an effort to control further who (conservative) organizations could bring to campus to speak, the university changed funding restrictions and denied funding to the Young Americans for Freedom chapter on campus. That resulted in a lawsuit, which the university lost, which resulted in a payout of $66,000 in legal damages and a change in the policy.
It isn’t just organizational policies that are a problem at the University of Florida. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression gives the university a “D” grade on due process protections, claiming that there is no meaningful presumption of innocence for those accused of any form of misconduct, no right to cross-examine an accuser meaningfully, and low evidentiary standards.
And the decay has even extended to the man who Sasse will be replacing. University President Kent Fuchs spiked the Gator Bait chant used by Florida fans during football games. The chant was popularized by a black player in 1995. (The team went on to win the national championship the next year). Fuchs instead claimed the chant was associated with the idea of feeding black babies to alligators and ended the use of the chant, even though he knew there was “no evidence of racism” in the chant.
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If the University of Florida needs anything (other than a winning football team), it would be the steady hand of a milquetoast but principled conservative who will not tolerate the fragile liberal worldview pushed by the administration in recent years. While a few liberal students who couldn’t pick Sasse out of a lineup complain, he is a perfect pick because he won’t let those students and their enabler administrators set the agenda anymore.
