Rep. Shane Baker’s Anti-Intellect Power Play

By The Flannel Fist

At a July 15 legislative committee hearing in Frankfort, Rep. Shane Baker, who once pushed to return the Ten Commandments to Kentucky’s Capitol, decided to interrogate a university course on Black Lives Matter, gender and women’s studies. He flat-out demanded to know why our tax dollars are funding lessons on equality and justice.

Smokescreen of "Accountability"

Rep. Shane Baker wants you to believe he’s just being a good steward of your tax dollars. That’s the role he plays in committee hearings, calmly asking bureaucrats why the University of Kentucky would dare offer courses that explore systemic inequality and gender justice. But don’t let the tone fool you. This isn’t budget oversight. It’s a censorship campaign wearing a fiscal mask.

In the July 15 hearing, Baker singled out a UK course titled “Gender and Women’s Studies in the U.S.: Black Lives Matter.” He read the course description aloud to the committee with a tone of suspicion, pausing after this line:

“The 14th Amendment guarantees equal protection… but for Black people, as the Black Lives Matter movement demonstrates, this promise remains unfulfilled.”

No serious concern about university budgeting. No actual figures. Just pure discomfort with a class that suggests systemic racism exists.

Then, Baker turned to university officials and asked:

“Could you check on that and let us know if those are still offered? And help us understand the value of those and why the taxpayer dollars should be expended on those things.”

That’s the whole play right there: take a single elective course, frame it as suspect, and imply that Kentucky taxpayers are being fleeced. Not because the course is expensive, but because its ideas are inconvenient.

He didn’t call for audits of failing contractors. He didn’t question ballooning administrative salaries. Instead, he targeted one of the few spaces in higher ed where students are asked to think critically about justice, inequality, and power. Why? Because education that challenges white conservative orthodoxy is, to folks like Baker, the real threat.

This isn’t about trimming fat. It’s about gutting higher education of anything that might make students question the status quo. And if he has to pretend it’s about “the budget” to get it done, so be it.

Hypocrisy in Plain Sight

Let’s talk about what Shane Baker really values, because it sure as hell isn’t intellectual honesty.

Baker has no problem pushing for religious indoctrination in public spaces. He pushed for the Ten Commandments to be reinstalled in the Kentucky State Capitol, arguing it was a “foundation for law” and “history,” not just religion. But when a public university offers a course that explores actual constitutional law, the 14th Amendment, civil rights, and social movements. He treats it like a subversive plot.

That’s not principled conservatism. That’s performative theocracy. One set of values is sacred. The other is suspicious.

And the playbook isn’t new. What Baker is doing isn’t far removed from the red-baiting paranoia of the McCarthy era, when politicians hunted down any ideas they didn’t like by branding them un-American. Back then, it was "Communism" in classrooms. Today, it’s "wokeism," "critical race theory," or anything that teaches students to question racial or gender hierarchies.

Just like McCarthy, Baker doesn't need proof. He just needs a microphone and a whiff of culture war outrage. He’s not coming with evidence of fiscal waste. He’s coming with ideological suspicion. One course. One professor. One mention of Black Lives Matter. That's enough for Baker to start waving the rhetorical pitchforks.

He isn’t auditing sports subsidies or bloated administrative salaries. He’s not asking how much corporate-sponsored research gets public funding. He’s only hunting for classes that challenge the conservative narrative, and he wants them gone.

This isn’t about trimming fat. It’s about creating fear. Fear among educators, students, and anyone daring to speak the truth about systemic injustice. That’s classic McCarthyism: use the machinery of government to chill speech and punish dissent.

So when Shane Baker pretends he’s standing up for "taxpayer values," what he’s really doing is laying the groundwork for thought control in the name of political convenience.

Kentucky doesn’t need another demagogue with a grudge against facts. It needs leaders who protect the freedom to learn. Even when that learning makes some people uncomfortable.

Final Thought

Shane Baker isn’t asking tough questions—he’s silencing them. If you're tired of politicians waging culture wars while ignoring working-class needs, this is a moment to speak out. Kentucky deserves representation, not ideological vigilance committees masquerading as lawmakers.

Location: Kentucky, USA

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