Press: Can’t we all just agree that slavery was wrong?  

For me, this is personal. Debating issues is a national sport. I’ve spent most of my life at it: on my high school and college debate teams, as co-host of CNN’s “Crossfire,” on national radio and TV shows, and around countless Thanksgiving dinner tables.   

Political debate is part of who we are as Americans. And the livelier the debate the better, on almost any topic: gun control, abortion, climate change, affirmative action, minimum wage, nuclear power, animal rights, health care, the death penalty.  

Debating those issues, and more, is healthy. That’s how we learn, grow, come together and move forward.  

The problem today is that our politics has turned so upside down that we spend too much time debating issues we shouldn’t be debating at all: issues that were decided a long time ago, issues on which we thought we could all agree.  

Take presidential elections, for example. While we may support different policies and different candidates, we used to agree to accept whatever the voters decided. No debate. But no longer. Now there’s a debate in several states about allowing state legislatures to name their own slate of presidential electors if they don’t like what the voters decided. That should be non-debatable. 

Or take love of our country. We used to agree that, for an American citizen, the worst possible act was to betray or attack the United States of America. No debate. But no longer. Now there are many, including some members of Congress, who argue that those who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and sought to stop the peaceful transfer of power should not even be charged with a crime, but should instead be hailed as patriots. That, too, should be non-debatable.   

But now the worst of all. As of this week, thanks to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), we’re forced to debate the argument that slavery — yes, slavery! — wasn’t so bad, after all. Can you believe it? Talk about something that should not be debatable.  

Last week, in order to comply with the Stop Woke Act that DeSantis signed into law by in April 2022, the Florida Board of Education adopted a new standard for teaching Black history. From now on, the Board ruled unanimously, middle school students must be instructed that slavery wasn’t all bad. It actually had some redeeming features. After all, students should be taught, “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” 

It’s hard to imagine anybody could actually believe that nonsense, let alone mandate that it be taught in public schools. Slavery wasn’t a jobs program, training people for careers they might get on a farm or factory after they left the plantation. Slaves were held at the point of a gun. They were bought and sold like chattel. If it weren’t for Abe Lincoln, they might never have left the plantation.  

Any skills they may have learned were only to enrich their masters. 

As Vice President Kamala Harris reminded us last week: “Come on. Adults know what slavery really involved. It involved rape. It involved torture. It involved taking a baby from their mother. It involved some of the worst examples of depriving people of humanity in our world.”  

Yet, according to Ron DeSantis, simply condemning slavery without also acknowledging its positive side is no longer allowed in Florida because it’s too “woke.”   

DeSantis is wrong. Florida’s not where “woke goes to die.” It’s where American history and decency goes to die.  

Press hosts “The Bill Press Pod.” He is the author of “From the Left: A Life in the Crossfire.”