Shortly after Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders was sworn in as the first female executive of Arkansas, she unleashed her opening salvo in the culture war with seven executive orders, including a ban on the word “Latinx” and an official position on Critical Race Theory.
Following in the footsteps of her father, former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR), Sanders was inaugurated Tuesday and set to work building a reputation like that of America’s Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) Leaving some to wonder what exactly her predecessor and potential 2024 Republican presidential contender, former Gov. Asa Hutchinson was doing, she confronted the woke agenda with aplomb.
Regarding the term “Latinx,” the governor’s order began, “Ethnically insensitive and pejorative language has no place in official government documents or government employee titles,” and continued, “The government has a responsibility to respect its citizens and use ethnically appropriate language, particularly when referring to ethnic minorities.”
With that in mind, she cited a Pew Research study that found only about three percent of Hispanics in the United States actually use the term before combatting the butchering of language with the position of the governing body of the Spanish language, the Real Academia Española that “officially rejected the use of ‘x’ as an alternative to ‘o’ and ‘a’ in Spanish.”
“One can no more easily remove gender from Spanish and other romance languages than one can remove vowels and verbs from English. It is the policy of the Governor’s administration to prohibit the use of culturally insensitive words for official state government business,” the order stated.
By that reasoning, Sanders prohibited the use, barring a granted exemption, of any iteration of the term “Latinx” on official state documents and demanded compliance from all offices within 60 days.
As part of her inauguration, the governor laid down the gauntlet and said, “We will show the world that there is still a place in America where freedom reigns and liberty will never die, and that place is Arkansas. Now, let’s get to work.”
I am incredibly honored to be the 47th Governor, and the first woman governor, of the great state of Arkansas.
We will show the world that there is still a place in America where freedom reigns and liberty will never die, and that place is Arkansas.Â
Now, let's get to work. pic.twitter.com/vkSf6yw7sb
— Sarah Huckabee Sanders (@SarahHuckabee) January 10, 2023
That work continued with her executive order to “prohibit indoctrination and Critical Race Theory in schools” that began, “Schools must educate, not indoctrinate students; and their educations policies must protect children and prepare them to enter the workforce,” and, “Teachers and school administrators should teach students how to think–not what to think.”
The order demanded a review of all “rules, regulations, policies, materials, and communications of the Department of Education,” to pinpoint violations and correct them as needed while also clarifying, “nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit the discussion of ideas and history…” or “be construed to prohibit the discussion of public policy issues of the day and related ideas that individuals may find unwelcome, disagreeable or offensive.”
Speaking with Fox News Digital, she said, “I’ve made no secret that the biggest priority I have for this session is a large-scale education reform package. I am living it every day with a fifth-grader, a third-grader and a first-grader, and I feel the impact of education and what it means and what it means to each kid.”
Sanders’s other executive orders included a ban of TikTok on state-owned devices, a hiring and promotion freeze for state employees, combatting bureaucracy by requiring new rules and regulations from state departments be approved by the executive, cleaning up active unemployment rolls, and review of all existing executive orders to revoke any that are no longer warranted.
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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