Lecture met with appreciation, student protest
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis gave the 2024 Jeanie Poole O’Shaughnessey Memorial Lecture on Friday, November 8. Hosted by the Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government (CCCG), the annual lecture series highlights leading figures in government, previously featuring former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.S. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina.
DeSantis’ visit included a breakfast with CCCG Tocqueville Fellows and a dinner conversation following the lecture. The speech, delivered in DeBartolo 101, was attended by roughly 500 people.
A protest against DeSantis’ speech took place outside DeBartolo Hall during his lecture, coordinated by Notre Dame College Democrats, Student Votes for Palestine, Student Coalition for Immigration Advocacy, and SolidarityND.
DeSantis began his remarks talking about the meaning of modern conservatism. “Is it basically just whatever generates clips on the internet, whatever gets you engagement on social media? … None of those are how I conceive of what it means to lead as a conservative elected official.” He continued, “It means that you have a fidelity to the founding principles of our country.”
Describing his response to COVID-19 in Florida, DeSantis highlighted contradictions between the Biden administration’s mandates on social distancing and simultaneous tolerance for the Black Lives Matter riots in the summer of 2020. “That was a fraud, and we protected Floridians from that, we were not going to let our state descend into some type of Faucian dystopia where people’s lives were destroyed.”
Media credibility was a recurring theme from DeSantis, who alleged dishonesty from left-wing media: “The left and their associated media apparatus lie about many important issues day after day after day.” Citing “untrue” messaging on issues like COVID-19, the Southern border, and transgender ideology, DeSantis added, “It’s all about furthering a narrative regardless of the facts. … Legacy outlets try to protect power from the truth.”
DeSantis then moved to talk about the influence of teacher’s unions in Florida, saying, “School unions have become nakedly partisan, and they try to use our kids to advance their ideological agenda.” He discussed his efforts in defending parental rights over sexual messaging in schools, an issue often pushed by left-leaning teacher’s unions: “The goal of our schools is to educate our kids, to empower parents,” adding, “It is inappropriate to be teaching a kindergartener that they are in the wrong body or that their gender is a choice.”
Describing combatting hostile ideologies at universities, DeSantis said, “Many of our nation’s universities … focus more on indoctrinating students in a certain ideology than they do teaching them to think for themselves and preparing them to be citizens.”
DeSantis added, “[Taxpayers] have a right to ensure that the universities are serving a mission that is in the best interest of the state of Florida.” “It is not acceptable to say you fund the universities and the faculty can do whatever the hell they want. That’s not the way it works. We’ve ensured accountability.”
DeSantis termed DEI, an abbreviation for diversity, equity, and inclusion, as “Discrimination, Exclusion, and Indoctrination.”
“I am not interested in underwriting indoctrination camps, and indeed in the State of Florida we do not do that,” DeSantis said.
Addressing crime in Florida, DeSantis described actions he took against “highly politically-motivated” District Attorneys in his state: “We’ve also protected our citizens from very dangerous ideologies related to crime, particularly those supported by people like George Soros.” Soros, a major donor to Democrat politicians, has spent more than 50 million dollars supporting candidates for legal office across the nation. DeSantis continued, “We had two prosecutors that he’s helped elect in Florida, and I removed both of them from their post for failing to protect the people they were elected to serve.”
DeSantis also spoke about facing controversy over decisions made during his governorship, saying, “Your job as a leader is not to try to protect your political hide, you’ve got to be willing to do the right thing when it’s all on the line. The best decisions that I made—that saved lives, businesses, jobs, and education—those decisions at the time were the most unpopular decisions that I’ve made.”
Students and audience members submitted questions for Governor DeSantis after the lecture.
When asked about the results of the presidential election, DeSantis explained that he was not surprised: “What the election showed was people rejected the Biden-Harris agenda because they didn’t produce good results.”
“It would be really, really problematic if you could have an incumbent administration reelected with a record like they have,” DeSantis said.
Commenting on DeSantis’ talk, Quinn Reilly, a freshman in Keough Hall, said, “It offered Notre Dame students a great opportunity to hear from one of the most prominent political leaders in the U.S. today. … Such learning experiences are invaluable, no matter of political alignment, values, or beliefs.”
Senior Shannon Lipscomb, a participant in the protest, said, “I would definitely say [DeSantis’ lecture] is offensive to Notre Dame’s values. … Notre Dame stands for values that don’t include what he promotes.”
Representatives from ND Media Relations and the Student Activities Office both declined to offer comment on the protest.
A sophomore global affairs student who supported the protesters told the Rover, “I support the right and duty of ND students to make our campus community aware of DeSantis’ disastrous policies that have endangered marginalized communities in Florida.”
One protest organizer told the Rover via email, “DeSantis has taken a series of repressive actions that threaten our democratic norms, target marginalized communities, and fuel division. From supporting restrictive voting laws and anti-LGBTQ+ legislation to his hardline stance on immigration and dismissive approach to Palestinian rights, we cannot stand idly by while our values are undermined.
When asked about the protest against his visit, DeSantis remarked, “Honestly what I would tell them is ‘Get some new material.’ … These [complaints] are just left-wing clichés.”
The Governor compared violence on Ivy League campuses during pro-Palestinian protests to Florida universities: “People ask me why did that not happen in Florida … because if any of our universities turned into Columbia, the university president would lose their job the next day …we would not ever tolerate the inmates running the asylum,” he concluded.
Sam Marchand is a sophomore studying political science and finance from Beaumont, Texas. He squanders much of his spare time by reading the Current Events section of Wikipedia preparing arguments for ND Speech & Debate, of which he serves as president. He can be reached at smarcha3@nd.edu.
Photo Credits: Irish Rover
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