If someone really wanted to get the conservative perspective on the news, one of the last places they would turn would be CNN, but that didn’t stop a Thursday CNN Tonight panel from declaring that GOP efforts to stop Critical Race Theory are not conservative.
After playing a clip of Donald Trump talking about education, Critical Race Theory, gender ideology, and “pink-haired communists,” host Alisyn Camerota suggested the whole thing is crazy, “It is on some level funny but this has nothing to do with academics. What he’s talking about. He has just gone full scale CRT and kitty litter.”
S.E. Cupp answered the statement by claiming that, “as a matter of fact, this isn't conservative either. This wildly expands the role of government in your education and the way public schools operate. So, that's just an aside. But it is –”
Senior political analyst interrupted to agree, “Yeah, that train left the station a long time ago, yeah.”
Keeping the government out of public education is a contradiction in terms, but the English language was not going to stop Cupp from declaring that the education battles are just a way for possible Republican presidential candidates to one up each other, “But it is red meat for the base. I think Trump is not wrong that parental rights issues have become winners for people like Glenn Youngkin and Ron DeSantis. It's become a major signature issue for Ron DeSantis who might, you know, be facing Trump for the Republican nomination. So, I think he is trying to, like, kneecap him a bit by taking on his signature issue and saying I'll go even crazier.”
Later in the segment, Avlon lamented that they were even having this conversation, “it's just the performative nonsense that we're playing into to some extent. I mean, yeah, Trump is trying to outdo Ron DeSantis and this is all about, you know, play the base and it's not about serious policy. It's not about helping kids. It's not about, you know, uniting the nation.”
Because The 1619 Project and gender theory are about uniting the nation? Not being willing to accept that Trump, DeSantis, and others are reacting to a left-wing culture war, Avlon proclaimed that the whole thing “really pisses me off” because “We have been convinced we're deeply divided along partisan lines about things like education, how American history should be taught. And yet, you know, studies come out showing that there's a massive perception gap. There's this feedback loop between the far-right and the far-left, and we are not as divided. The right -- most conservatives are not nearly as far-right as Democrats think they are.”
Avlon has said this line before and despite being educated by colleague Scott Jennings on the truth of Florida’s education law, he is still acting like Republican states are doing something other than what he just described.
This segment as sponsored by Sandals.
Here is a transcript for the January 26 show:
CNN Tonight
1/26/2023
10:44 PM ET
ALISYN CAMEROTA: It is on some level funny but this has nothing to do with academics. What he’s talking about. He has just gone full scale CRT and kitty litter.
S.E. CUPP: He's also, I'll point out just as a matter of fact, this isn't conservative either. This –
CAMEROTA: Oh, gosh.
CUPP: -- wildly expands the role of government in your education and the way public schools operate. So, that's just an aside. But it is –
JOHN AVLON: Yeah, that train left the station a long time ago, yeah.
CUPP: But it is red meat for the base. I think Trump is not wrong that parental rights issues have become winners for people like Glenn Youngkin and Ron DeSantis. It's become a major signature issue for Ron DeSantis who might, you know, be facing Trump for the Republican nomination. So, I think he is trying to, like, kneecap him a bit by taking on his signature issue and saying I'll go even crazier.
…
AVLON: I mean, like, it's just the performative nonsense that we're playing into to some extent. I mean, yeah, Trump is trying to outdo Ron DeSantis and this is all about, you know, play the base and it's not about serious policy. It's not about helping kids. It's not about, you know, uniting the nation.
Here is what really pisses me off. We have been convinced we're deeply divided along partisan lines about things like education, how American history should be taught. And yet, you know, studies come out showing that there's a massive perception gap. There's this feedback loop between the far-right and the far-left, and we are not as divided. The right -- most conservatives are not nearly as far right as Democrats think they are.
CUPP: That is true of every issue, yeah.
AVLON: Yeah. But particularly around American history and our education. And that really matters because we are a nation that depends upon finding common ground on ideas and our national story. The good, the bad, and the ugly, we got to teach a holistic picture of this country. But our country uniquely depends on that. So, when these cultural wars inflame and artificially divide, it makes us feel more divided than we are.
