Wisconsin Speaker Robin Vos is so hellbent on pushing his agenda of white supremacy and bigotry that he was willing to hold tens of thousands of families hostage to get the University of Wisconsin to go along with his hatred. It got to the point to where Governor Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul filed a lawsuit to get the Republicans to release the money that they had already authorized.
But that wasn't about to slow Vos down from continuing to strong arm UW authorities. He finally got UW President Jay Rothman to break down when Vos also put funds for capital projects on the chopping block. The UW Regents initially shot down the agreement, but when Vos' Republican colleagues in the state senate reminded them that some of the regents were serving pending approval frrom the state senate, they reversed their stance and sold out the students they're supposed to have been protecting.
The agreement isn't anything for either side to brag about:
Staton, a UW-Parkside student and a veteran, chastised Vos for his rhetoric surrounding DEI.
“DEI is not only intrinsic to the UW System but also to large business strategies. When businesses implement this strategy, it has been proven that they outperform their peers but I don’t see them being attacked…” Staton said. “Speaker Vos’ definition of DEI is division, exclusion and indoctrination… What rock is he living under? He has lost touch of the reality of how people are actually living because, to be honest, we aren’t walking around arguing about the DEI.”
Staton voted yes on the deal, however, because of concerns about whether certain UW campuses could weather the withholding of funds.
On Tuesday, the Republicans released the money that they were using as leverage to strong arm the university system but not without this ominous warning from the still bloodthirsty Vos:
Vos said, following the Regents’ approval last week, that the changes for the System are “just the first step in what will be our continuing efforts to eliminate these cancerous DEI practices.” He reaffirmed the sentiment after the committee voted to approve the raises.
“We are not done yet trying to look at how pervasive DEI is throughout the entire system of state government,” Vos said. “I have faith that legislative Republicans will begin a much-needed, long-term in-depth review of every part of DEI in state government, be it in the Department of Corrections or the UW system, the tech colleges or every part of state government. So stay tuned.”
Vos then pulled out a big old dog whistle and played an even more sour note:
Vos called DEI “division, exclusion and indoctrination” on Tuesday and said that nobody in the Legislature or the public should be supportive of it. He said he wants to make progress towards a “colorblind society.”
There is no word as to whether Vos was wearing his white robe and hood or his brown shirt when he said that.
If nothing else, this all makes it clearer why flipping the state supreme court last spring was all so vital. Justice needs to be restored and the sooner the better.
