I’ve been falling so long, it’s like gravity’s gone And I’m just floating

Cornel West’s endorsement of Jill Stein — and hence, for all intents and purposes, Donald Trump — before the election that (inter many alia) brought us the end of Roe v. Wade and January 6, was a long overdue hint that at least in his political punditry mode he was no longer a figure of the left in any meaningful sense. And yet I wouldn’t have expected him to go the full Greenwald/Taibbi like this:

Conclude West and Tate:

That’s one of the virtues of the classics: They are a means of considering what is true without invoking the blind partisanship that encourages thoughtless action. There is nothing we need more today than the cultivation of reason and understanding.

That’s why Mr. DeSantis’s support of classic education has universal merit that transcends partisanship. Education based on values, logic and discipline isn’t Republican—it’s timeless.

Hnm, is Ron DeSantis promoting accepting the “Classic Learning Test” because he want to promote the nonpartisan study of classic works to advance “reason” and “understanding”? Or is he perhaps trying to funnel students into a very ideologically particular form of higher education? I wonder…

Schools that accept the CLT tend to be small, religious, private universities like Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia or Saint Martin’s University in Lacey, Washington. If you’re considering going to one of these small private colleges, then you might consider taking the CLT.

What an amazing coincidence!

So, how does West address the fact that DeSantis is currently destroying a liberal arts college to turn it into a Republican diploma mill with no pretense of maintaining any academic freedom, a rather obvious window into what his motives are here? He does not mention it at all. And after all, why would you say anything that might offend an important new customer:

Mr. West holds a chair at Union Theological Seminary and serves on the board of academic advisers of the Classic Learning Test. Mr. Tate is founder and CEO of the Classic Learning Test.

If you’re going to abandon any remaining shred of credibility, might as well turn a profit on it.