If you watch polling reports, you can’t help being startled with a finding reported in the New York Times that seems to defy belief. Can it possibly be true 48% of eligible voters indicate no awareness former President Donald J. Trump is being prosecuted in multiple courts for dozens of alleged felonies? Pollsters periodically throw in a fake name to test respondents desire to sound better informed than they are. “Do you recognize Senator Erasmus Blowhard,” for example. A little more than a quarter of respondents answer positively in hopes of hiding their ignorance. So, it’s safe to assume more than half of prospective 2024 voters will learn of the multiple charges against Trump between now and November.

For those of us who obsess about political developments, either as a vocation or an avocation, it is incomprehensible low-information voters may, more accurately, be no-information voters. Trust in journalism strains to break into double digits these days. How will clueless voters react to Trump’s legal trials once they tune in – ignore the accusations, dismiss them as partisan propaganda, turn to TikTok for guidance or, least likely, attempt to educate themselves on their contents? I raise this query in the attempt to understand current Republican assaults on acronyms: DEI, CRT, ESG and, although not strictly an acronym, WOKE. Their message is the same in each case, “Stand back and stand by because America is under threat from those who hate your country.”

I find myself curious whether anyone outside of a hardcore, easily affrighted conservative base knows what Republicans are talking about much of the time. When interviewed, even they have difficulty explaining what the dangers are. They also seem to be swimming upstream against majority opinion. Despite the triumphalism of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s braggadocio claims Florida is where “woke” came to die, pollsters find the word itself is regarded positively by more than half of Americans – likewise for affirmative action, the forerunner of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). “Woke” emerged from African-American vernacular yet everyone likes to think of themselves as “woke” to the social injustices loose in the land. And, though affirmative action may have generated occasional instances of reverse discrimination, very few Americans would argue these outweigh centuries of systemic mistreatment and discrimination in minority communities.

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While I served in the U. S. Navy during the Vietnam conflict my employer, AT&T, signed a consent agreement with the newly created Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) committing to hiring and advancing women and minority workers. So, when I returned to the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone in late 1970, the ethnicity of the workforce had changed dramatically. Installation and Repair crews that had been entirely white before I departed in 1968 were now 75% African-American. Since the Bell System relied almost exclusively on promotion from within its ranks, I was directed to identify black craftsmen (women would start taking these jobs a few years later) with the requisite skills to advance into management assignments.

In 1972, I accepted a position with Mountain Bell in Denver where AT&T was seeking installation and repair managers with urban, inner-city experience. The company had permitted explosive growth to outrun central switching capacity and 33,000 new homeowners were waiting for access to dial tone. Five years later, I was offered a two-year transfer to AT&T headquarters in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. This was regarded as a “plum” opportunity that would virtually guarantee rapid promotions but no assurance of a return to Colorado. We had just purchased a  home in the Highlands and choosing to leave was a difficult choice. Shortly after agreeing to this move, I was informed the offer was being withdrawn because AT&T had determined Mountain Bell was failing to nominate women and minority managers for headquarter assignments.

I probably was never destined for AT&T’s C-suite in any case. In truth, I was relieved I would remain in Denver. Alternatively, I took another path and decided to run for the legislature in 1978, joining Republican Anne Gorsuch, also a Mountain Bell employee, in the Colorado House. I did not feel a victim of discrimination. Most Fortune 500 companies today have adopted DEI programs, not simply to comply with federal demands, but because evidence shows companies with diverse workforces make better decisions and generate better profits. They aren’t likely to abandon these practices merely because a few Republicans oppose diversity training that emphasizes respect for co-workers and identify this as a form of left-wing brainwashing.

Legislators can and are closing DEI programs at red state colleges and universities, as well as government agencies and public schools, but in a free country such prohibitions can’t be extended beyond this. The private sector, where 70% of Americans are employed, remains free to pursue their own interests as they see fit. The same goes for restrictions against Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing. When the door plug blew off the side of an Alaska Airlines MAX jet recently, one right-wing critic blamed it on DEI hiring at Boeing. I’m sorry, that’s just pure racism. While we are entertaining theories, how about this one: Boeing used to be run by its engineers, who insisted on quality first. Today it’s led by accountants, who insist on profits. Let’s put these competing theories to a vote. Was the door lost to DEI or greed?

Former President Dwight Eisenhower wrote a prayer for the thousands who attended his inauguration in 1953 closing with, “Especially we pray that our concern shall be for all the people regardless of station, race or calling. May cooperation be permitted and be the mutual aim of those who, under the concepts of our Constitution, hold to differing political faiths; so that all may work for the good of our beloved country.” No acronyms were pilloried. It sounds more like a plea for tolerance from a man who had defeated fascism at tremendous cost as World War II’s Supreme Allied Commander.

Miller Hudson is a public affairs consultant and a former Colorado legislator.