Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida is running for president as a know-nothing, in the grand tradition of the Know-Nothings of the 1850s.  He is unashamedly anti-intellectual and anti-education. In Florida, he has taken over and reconstituted the liberal arts-oriented New College in Sarasota, stocking it with rightwing cronies and remaking it in his image. And he’s taken aim at the Advance Placement test in African-American Studies. He’s talked (no joke!) about ending all AP courses in Florida. He will run on the theme that education (like the media) is a liberal plot.  In fact, there are strong parallels between rightwing attacks on education and rightwing attacks on media – which we’ll talk about in a future post.