The new Trump administration has a generational opportunity to expunge anti-merit identity politics that have infected and disabled so many American institutions and to bring back merit. So do governors and legislators in the states where Republicans won mandates in this election, too.

For nearly a century following the Pendleton Act of 1883, our federal government used difficult tests to help fill departments; competence was a non-partisan goal. In the 20th century, leaders agreed that we need bright talent to win wars, advance in science, and achieve feats such as the moon landing. By the 1970s, less than 10% of test takers scored high enough on government PACE exams to qualify for senior leadership.

Those tests died in the late 1970s. Because of racial disparities in the results, activist courts ruled that even if tests were predictive of job performance, they were illegal because of the “disparate impact.” Soon, the government was hiring people who would have failed these tests — less qualified people from all backgrounds. President Jimmy Carter’s 1979-80 Democratically-controlled Congress also made it harder to hold government workers accountable. Since then, the bureaucracy has become dumber and dumber.

INCOMING SENATE DEM ELISSA SLOTKIN TORCHES IDENTITY POLITICS IN 2024 AUTOPSY: ‘GO THE WAY OF THE DODO’

Over the last decade, the stupidity accelerated: a focus on identity politics meant that merit was actually an . As the Biden administration tried to preserve in amber various forms of racial handouts and discrimination, and its failing bureaucracy continued to regularly fritter away billions of dollars, Republicans slowly woke up to the rot. 

Red state legislators and governors: the electorate is on our side. The law and courts are on our side. Administrators tied to woke institutions want you to be soft, but your duty to our civilization is calling.

A fight began in the states to confront some of these policies. Legal fights escalated, and in 2023, the Supreme Court reversed its previous rulings on affirmative action, marking the beginning of the end for the notion that “well-intentioned” racial discrimination is OK in America. It isn’t. 

Yale and Princeton, admitting even fewer higher-scoring Asian-Americans this year versus last, may have illegally ignored this ruling; if so, with Trump’s victory, their time is coming.

Unfortunately, this rot still exists even in states that voted for Mr. Trump by ten (or 30) points. But a few bold leaders have begun paying attention. In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis has charged head-on at the “woke” elements of the state government, particularly in the universities. 

At the state level, I’ve seen this fight up close as chairman of the Cicero Institute. Our team prepared draft legislation to stop coerced “loyalty oaths” to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) ideology in public universities, and we won: multiple states have adopted versions of those laws. Gutting DEI loyalty oaths is a table-stakes reform for leaders who understand why America works (don’t count on it in blue states, though). But it’s a tiny start. Why not be bolder and fight for merit everywhere it’s under attack? 

The identity politics form of left-wing politics is a virus that spreads itself, funding activists and ideology from whatever city or university department it infects. If we don’t capitalize on the mandate today, we may yet lose against the virus tomorrow. 

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The good news is that in January, this fight will be at the federal level. The Justice Department will no longer defend academic racial discrimination. The Congress will no longer attempt to appropriate money on a race-conscious basis. The cabinet appointees will no longer brag about their attention to DEI — and lack of attention to results. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy & Co. will fight for merit in D.C.

But conservative leaders should remember that these bad ideas aren’t going to peaceably go away. There’s a lot of money on the line for woke NGOs, universities, and those who otherwise benefit from government grift; and even red states are still funding woke departments, ideologically-captured colleges, hospitals, and unaccountable far-left nonprofits. Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia: in these and other states we love, thousands of K-12 teachers get paid more by taking classes from radical-left “Departments of Education.” These colleges teach them how terrible our civilization is and how evil capitalism is; in each of these states, state schools have departments which unanimously support radical identity politics and pass on that view to students, paid for by tax dollars. That’s not academic freedom — it’s funding your enemies!

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This ideological virus won’t go away just because we won at the ballot box; if we continue to fund the radicals, the virus will merely hide, incubate, and spread itself anew at a future date. Instead of rewarding degrees at Woke-U, why not defund the radicals, and implement merit-based tests for teacher advancement? 

Why not tie community college funding to students’ career success — such as average salaries a few years out — to incentivize what works and reward the great schools, but defund the woke-stupid alliance? Why not clean up every institution your state funds?

Boldly confronting identity politics and other neo-Marxist claptrap is a winning issue with voters. Even in my native California, when voters who vote for Democrats 60-40 are given the opportunity to weigh in on specific issues like affirmative action, they overwhelmingly support race neutrality and common sense.

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Red state legislators and governors: the electorate is on our side. The law and courts are on our side. Administrators tied to woke institutions want you to be soft, but your duty to our civilization is calling.

Merit-based accountability leads to a prosperous, high-growth future; identity politics is the road to a dystopian, zero-sum world of grift. The only question which remains is whether leaders have gotten the memo, and who has the brains and courage to act.

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., on Monday appeared to poke fun at Senate Democrats for coming out in support of the filibuster after her former party had called for it to be abolished over the past four years to push through Democratic agenda items.

Sinema, who left the Democratic Party nearly two years ago, responded on the social media platform X to a report by the Washington Examiner citing Democratic senators who now say they support the Senate filibuster to block President-elect Trump’s agenda in his second administration.

“Please, please, please stop what you’re doing and read these quotes,” Sinema said.

“Filing under: schadenfreude,” she continued.

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Sinema and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who has also left the party to become an independent, were the two then-Democrats who opposed eliminating the filibuster during the Biden administration when Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., attempted to abolish it in 2022, although he was unsuccessful without the support of Sinema and Manchin in a razor-thin majority for Democrats.

Both independent senators did not run for re-election and will be leaving the Senate in January.

In August, Schumer told the New York Post that Sinema and Manchin are “both gone” in 2025 when asked if he would make another attempt to eliminate the filibuster.

After the election, Schumer pleaded with Republicans to prioritize bipartisanship.

“I offer a word of caution in good faith: Take care not to misread the will of the people, and do not abandon the need for bipartisanship,” Schumer said.

Earlier this month, Sinama responded to Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., who said she would not support eliminating the filibuster now that the GOP will control the House, Senate and White House, but would have supported it if Democrats had the trifecta.

“You don’t say?” Sinema wrote on X.

The report from the Washington Examiner quotes several Senate Democrats, including Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill; Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii; Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who all expressed support for maintaining the filibuster to halt Trump-backed legislation.

“I’d be lying if I said we’d be in a better position without the filibuster,” Blumenthal said. “We have a responsibility to stop autocratic and long-headed abuse of power or policy, and we’ll use whatever tools we have available. We’re not going to fight this battle with one hand tied behind our back.”

Durbin said he views the filibuster as “part of the calculation” on how Democrats will resist Republican bills in the next Congress in which the GOP will hold a 53-47 majority in the Upper Chamber.

“We had to live with it when we were in the majority,” he said.

Schatz said: “I’m going to try not to make a mess of my position on this one.”

The Hawaii democrat previously slammed the “unprecedented abuse of the filibuster by Republicans” during the Obama administration as he backed reforms.

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“You play with the rules that exist,” Murphy said, adding that he is open to changes but not to “obliterate” the filibuster, which he criticized in 2021 as “downright dangerous,” a “slap in the face to majoritarianism” and an “argument that essentially prioritizes consistency over democracy.”

Incoming Senate GOP Leader John Thune, R-S.D., recently said that the filibuster will be “safe under Republican control,” even if it blocks Trump’s agenda.

“I find it ironic that a party that has spent a fair amount of time this election cycle talking about the importance of preserving our democracy seems intent on embracing the thoroughly undemocratic notion that only one party should be making decisions in this country,” Thune said.

While human trafficking reports do not necessarily increase during the holiday season, busy shopping and transportation hubs may make it easier for traffickers to get away with criminal activity.

There are some key signs of human trafficking that concerned citizens should look out for if they suspect nefarious activity, according to experts working to combat the global trafficking crisis, which the Department of Homeland Security defines as “modern-day slavery” that “involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion.”

“Child sex trafficking happens 365 days a year in small towns, big cities across the country, and that definitely includes the holidays,” Staca Shehan, vice president of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s (NCMEC’s) Analytical Services Division, told Fox News Digital. “Trafficking victims don’t get days off or have holiday leave like many of us. That being said, though, our data does not show an increase in reports to the National Center of Child Sex Trafficking around the holidays, specifically the November to January timeframe.”

She noted, however, that the holidays are a busy time of year during which “people may be distracted, preoccupied” or “very focused on the fact that the holidays should be a happy time.”

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“And that could lead to missed opportunities maybe to identify red flags,” Shehan said. “We know that traffickers take advantage of any type of opportunity. Children and teens, they’re typically in school and around these holidays. They’re off for longer periods of time. And that could mean that people who often have opportunities to see signs or red flags like teachers, school resource officers, school nurses … they may not have those opportunities during the holidays [to identify red flags].”

While home may be a safe place for some children, for others, it could be where their trafficker lives, and that person could have “increased access” to the victim while the victim is home from school and the trafficker is home from work for the holidays. There might also be substance or domestic abuse issues going on at a child’s home that inspire them to run away and therefore make them become potential targets for human traffickers.

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Retired New York Police Department (NYPD) Sgt. Paul Grattan Jr., managing director of public safety consulting firm Graypoint Strategies, similarly said that while there is not much reliable information showing a particular increase in human trafficking during the holiday season, “There are some circumstances during the holidays that may make it easier for traffickers.”

“[T]he increase in travel presents opportunities for traffickers to move individuals or find potential victims traveling alone…”

— Paul Grattan, Ret. NYPD

“Vulnerable individuals are prime targets for traffickers, especially when they have leverage to coerce potential victims. The holidays can be a tough time of year for many who are separated from family or have otherwise been ostracized by loved ones due to personal struggles with drugs, alcohol, or crime,” Grattan said.

“Likewise, the increase in travel presents opportunities for traffickers to move individuals or find potential victims traveling alone or trying to find the means to travel or house themselves.”

New statistics, Grattan explained, “like calls to trafficking hotlines and cases prosecuted by U.S. Attorneys, point to a drastic increase in trafficking over the past ten years.”

“The spike in migrants crossing the border is a big part of this — as people seeking a better life in the U.S. are drastically more vulnerable,” the former NYPD officer said. “Evidence supports that much of human trafficking is rooted in forced labor — something that criminals try to capitalize on with migrants trying to cross the border, find refuge in the U.S., make money, assist other family members, and travel to be closer to family who are already here.”

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Hurricanes Helene and Milton are other crises that may exaggerate human trafficking in certain parts of the country.

Trafficking is a multibillion-dollar industry that preys on the vulnerable, including children and adults alike. Human trafficking has estimated annual global profits of $150 billion, according to the Department of Homeland Security, victimizing an estimated 25 million people across the globe, with approximately 80% of victims forced into labor and 20% forced into sex trafficking.

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Oftentimes, a child knows his or her trafficker, whether the trafficker be a member of his or her own family or a close family friend. However, traffickers can also be strangers seeking victims when they are alone in public places. 

“This includes businesses at large, so hotels, motels, shopping centers, convenience stores, truck stops would be one of them, as well,” Shehan said. “But it also includes places where families go. So they could be shopping for the holidays and someone could oversee or overhear the interaction … where some of those red flags are present. The unfortunate circumstances are: almost any area or venue or physical location could be an opportunity.”

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Another place where human trafficking can take place, or at least be initiated, is online. Predators often use social media apps and gaming systems in an effort to contact children and groom them from behind a screen before they eventually convince that child to meet up in person. 

“We know that the Internet is heavily used by teens, and it is a place where vulnerabilities can become more obvious, where there may be discussions about things the child is struggling with or some of the challenges that they face — it could be housing instability, that their family is in a situation of poverty. It could be a situation where they’re sharing about abuse or neglect in the home,” Shehan explained. “And traffickers are savvy that they will use that as a point of manipulation to target that child and … manipulate them into a false sense of security, of safety or care or well-being.”

There are specific signs one should look for if they suspect someone is being trafficked, according to Shehan. 

“There are some things that people can look out for, and that includes signs of physical or sexual abuse, symptoms of neglect or malnourishment, the appearance that a child is unwilling or unable to answer a question and that they let others speak for them, or maybe they have … appear to be a missing child who has run away and they have material goods that are inconsistent with their access to money,” Shehan said. 

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If a child is “unwilling or unable or too reluctant” to go to school, if a child has many “unexplained absences,” or if they are “known to sleep in class,” those could all be signs of possible trafficking or other abuse, according to the NCMEC expert.

Branding such as tattoos of signs of wealth that are inconsistent with what a child might own are also signs, Shehan said.