Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska will be going from the U.S. Senate to the University of Florida. We wish him well However, some students don’t want him, as we see in this report:
Less than a week after being revealed as the likely next president of the University of Florida (UF), the Republican senator Ben Sasse was met with protests when he appeared on campus in Gainesville on Monday.
“Hey-hey, ho-ho, Ben Sasse has got to go,” protesters chanted, seeking to draw attention to the Nebraskan’s views on LGBTQ+ rights.
According to the UF student newspaper, the Independent Florida Alligator, after Sasse left a student forum early, leaders of a crowd of around 300 called the senator “homophobic and racist in between yelling from the audience”.
One protester called out “Get the f—“, the crowd responding, “Out of our swamp!”
Lovely people, aren’t they? “Expletives deleted”!
Frankly, I’m not sure why Senator Sasse would like to leave the U.S. Senate and become a university president. I’m not sure that I’d make the same move, but I am not Senator Sasse. At the same time, we are seeing here one of the many things wrong with higher education. Why do we care or take seriously what a bunch of students have to say anyway? They can transfer to another university if they don’t like the president.
Furthermore, we are also seeing how intolerant these young people are. They want to shut down anybody who disagrees with them. Everything is “homophobic” or “racist” in their world.
Whatever happened to administrators who told students to shut up and study for your test? We miss adults like that in what they still call higher education.
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I’ve been watching this circus with great sadness and rising anger.
Ben Sasse was one of my students here at Yale.
And… by the way…. as for the question of why any U.S. Senator might want to resign and become a university president, consider these two facts. 1. Senators are beholden to all the people they represent and even more so to those who fund their campaigns. This means they’re constantly hounded day and night 24/7 by those they represent and even more so by those who have contributed money to ensure their election. Even worse, they are constantly hounded by the news media. University presidents are only beholden to alumni and students, and the news media hardly ever acknowledge their existence. 2. U.S. Senators earn only $174,000 per year. The president of the University of Florida earns $1.1 million per year.
The students in question, like many others (students and otherwise), have latched on to rabid, exhibitionistic self-righteousness as a way to feel superior or at least special, without being either. They are, of course, aided and abetted by being very fashionably “correct,” so they are also fashion victims, not to say fashion whores. It would be pitiful if it weren’t so noxious, as they are perfectly prepared to harm and even destroy their targets. In short, miseria humana.
Midge Decter said Liberal Parents/Radical Children.
If you spoil children and help them to think they are the greatest instead of it’s time for learning now and you can’t learn if you are making noise, then this is what you get.
There are other facts in Ben Sasse’s case. I speak as a political observer this time.
When I first encountered the Senator as he was introducing himself as he ran for office, he impressed me so much. He had the perfect history. He ran a successful business, he had developed an excellent reputation in education. He was a good conservative. I was thrilled when he became a Senator (with The Club’s help..)
Then, like too many in the Republican party, he used his reputation as a Senator to blaspheme Trump. Wrong move,. No matter how irritated anyone is with Trump, it is ungrateful not to understand all of the many great things Trump accomplished for our country and for all Americans.
It is one thing to be a liberal/progressive or worse and badmouth Trump. That is logical.
But when our side does it, it is infuriating and self damning.
And in Sasse’s case, his ability to be an influence in the Senate was gone once he made that choice. That is why, Professor, he chose to leave the Senate and not finish his term. He was finished already once he turned his back on Trump.
I say this not because Trump is a dictator and to go against him is ruination. No, I say it because Trump was a great president, second only to Ronald Reagan in all the good he accomplished for us, and because Trump took and still takes all of that incoming for us. Many thought it might be a good idea to boost their careers if they were “brave” Republicans and stood up to Trump. Liz Cheney, how’s that worked out for you?
Sasse ended his influence the day he went all Lincoln Project on us.
Our side is not like the left. The left sticks together and defends their own no matter how criminal or inept one of their own is. Republicans do not do that. And in the case of Trump, it backfires big time every time.
And forgive me, professor, if I see irony and humor in what Sasse is encountering at this college. The fact that it is brain dead liberal students doing this to him is the best irony of all.. He was showing his bona fides by criticizing Trump as a Republican. And it didn’t get him any bonuses from the left anyway.
He made it, and his salary is close to what you quoted:
https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/2022/11/09/ben-sasse-confirmed-u-florida-president-will-start-february-1m/
Senator Sasse is a NEVER-TRUMP(r) asshole who knew his constituents would kick him the hell out of the Senate…