Dem
47
GOP
53
We must apologize, as we do not live our lives based on what is written on 8chan, Gab or the Fox message boards. So, with things like this, we don't know if the point is to please the base (which is increasingly displeased these days) or if it's to allow people within the administration to vent their rage. Probably a bit from Column A and a bit from Column B.
Whatever is happening, the Trump administration's War on Woke was taken to some pretty big, and yet at the same time unbelievably trivial, extremes in the past week. To start—and our thanks to all the readers who sent us this story—there has been a font change at the Department of State. A couple of years ago, then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken ordered the Department to start using a sans-serif font, Calibri, for all documents. The reason is that sans-serif fonts in general, and Calibri in particular, are easier to read for people with poor eyesight, dyslexia, etc.
Now, Marco Rubio has ordered the Department to switch back to a serif font, namely Times New Roman. In his memo announcing the change, he decreed that the switch to Calibri was "another wasteful DEI program," and that Times New Roman is more formal and more professional. This is part of a broader effort from the White House called "One Voice for America's Foreign Relations." So, it's Making America Great Again, one font at a time.
Of course, there are other Cabinet secretaries who are always looking for a chance to curry favor by worshiping at the anti-woke altar. One of those is Secretary of "Education" Linda McMahon. Her degree may be in French, but she helped run a wrestling promotion for many years, so she's obviously well qualified for her job. Because it was a necessary part of a court filing, the world is now aware of a 6-page list of words and phrases forbidden at DoEd subsidiary Head Start. Among those are "disability," "trauma," "women," "gender," "hate speech," "identity," "inclusive," "feminism," "racism" and "segregation." Wow. One hopes nobody at Head Start ever needs to address, say, the entire 1960s.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., over at the Department of "Health" and "Human Services," is another one who needs to stay in Trump's good graces. After all, he was once a Democrat, and after that was a rival for the presidency. His anti-woke tithe, this week, involves the official portrait of former HHS assistant secretary Adm. Rachel Levine. Levine is well known as the highest-ranking transgender person in the history of the U.S. government. And now, the plaque under her picture bears her deadname. No matter how much you dislike the person, and what they stand for, isn't this just unbelievably small and petty? Of course, Trump likes small and petty.
Finally, the White House itself is fighting its own particular battle, with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt taking the lead. A federal judge has ordered the administration to provide sign language interpreters for Leavitt's and Trump's public appearances, when practicable. The White House claims that it's not practicable, in most cases, and that using ASL interpreters "would severely intrude on the President's prerogative to control the image he presents to the public."
We don't really even understand what that last part means. Is he really better able to communicate with non-hearing people if they aren't able to understand what he's saying? Actually, maybe so. Even those of us who can hear don't understand what he's saying, much of the time. As to the "practicable" part, one cannot take that seriously. It would be very easy to hire a full-time ASL interpreter, and to give them additional duties when they are not busy signing. And if that doesn't work, there is a Washington D.C.-based bureau that hires out ASL interpreters by the hour. It is called Hands in Motion American Sign Language Interpreting Service and it is located 6 blocks from the White House. It's a 7-minute drive, or a 16-minute walk. So unless Trump or Leavitt have a message that MUST BE COMMUNICATED IN THE NEXT 5 MINUTES, they can easily get a signer.
Pretty much everything in this item is about basic decency, and trying to include everyone, even if they are different in one way or another. It's really depressing how many people in this administration not only disagree with that philosophy, but take active pleasure in doing things to be exclusionary. Though again, it's at least possible this is about politics, and making sure white noncollege men feel they are still #1. If so, we have no doubt that changing the plaque on a photo hanging in an office building in DC, or telling non-hearing people "tough luck," will make voters in 2026 completely forget about the price of insurance, or the cost of milk, or that their family farm is about to fail. (Z)