Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, has waged a crusade against DEI — diversity, equity and inclusion — practices in higher education and state government, including withholding raises from Universities of Wisconsin employees until the system agreed to freeze DEI positions. Records obtained from Vos’ office show one of the groups that has informed his thinking on this topic is the right-wing Claremont Institute.
The New York Times Magazine has described the think tank as “a nerve center of the American Right” which considers the nation embroiled in a “cultural civil war.”
Among records Wisconsin Watch obtained from Vos’ DEI files is a report published by the Claremont Institute’s Center for the American Way of Life, which the Times characterizes as dedicated to fighting “wokeism” in American institutions, particularly higher education. The report details activities at two Alabama universities and concludes that “administrators are transforming universities into institutions dedicated to political activism.”
One of Claremont’s founders, Larry Arnn, chaired former President Donald Trump’s 1776 Commission, a counterpoint to the New York Times’ 1619 Project, which documented the centrality of slavery to the nation’s founding.
The institute’s affiliates and former fellows include activist Christopher Rufo, who has fought against attempts to acknowledge systemic racism. Wisconsin Watch has previously documented how Rufo’s ideas fueled hyper-partisan division in the small town of Kiel, where bomb threats disrupted civic life in spring 2022. Other fellows have included U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, right-wing pundit Ben Shapiro and Jack Posobiec, who promotes white supremacy and disinformation.
John Eastman, the ex-Trump lawyer facing disbarment and criminal charges for his role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election, has been with the institute for 30 years, founding and directing its Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence.
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