Virtue by Force

The Rise and Fall of DEI in America

Virtue by Force: The Rise and Fall of DEI in America

By Dana F. Harbaugh
5 April 2025

In 2022, as a concerned homeowner, I stood before both the Fairview Park City Council and the DEI Committee—the latter of which the Cleveland Plain Dealer proudly called the “Anti-Racism Task Force”. I also sat in Mayor Cooney’s office during an interview for a volunteer position on the DEI Committee, where I voiced and submitted in writing my firm opposition to the very existence of such a committee. Why? Because the premise was flawed from the start.

Fairview Park is 94% Caucasian. And according to the twisted logic of DEI ideology, that makes our city inherently racist. Ipso facto, we must atone in front of an unelected panel of “experts” with no CV’s or background resumes either online or elsewhere that are available for the tax paying citizens of this fine city to review.

For speaking out, I was called a conspiracy theorist. A wacked-out Veteran. A man “afraid of change.” Some even implied I feared people of color. (Even though the mayor admitted that “they don’t actually do anything”, they declined my application. Apparently, my thoughts are TOO diverse)

That was two years ago, in the thick of COVID lockdowns and a national hysteria for all things “reparations.” But now—April 2025—the tide has turned. And the truth is becoming undeniable.

Let’s ask a simple question: Why have nearly every major U.S. corporation, media outlet, and government institution either canceled, defunded, or outright banned DEI programming?

Here’s a partial list of those who’ve walked away:

Amazon, AT&T, Bank of America, BlackRock, Boeing, Chipotle, Citigroup, Deloitte, Disney, Ford, GM, Google, Goldman Sachs, Harley-Davidson, John Deere, Lowe’s, McDonalds, Meta, Paramount, PBS, Starbucks, Target, Tractor Supply, Uber, Victoria’s Secret, Walmart, Warner Bros., and even The Smithsonian Institution.

And who could forget the Bud Light catastrophe—billions in lost brand loyalty and sales—all because of a virtue-signaling marketing stunt driven by DEI dogma.

Even the entire Federal Government has finally banned DEI programs across its agencies. Why? Because DEI isn't about diversity—it’s about division. It isn’t about equity—it’s about ideological coercion. And it certainly isn’t about inclusion—it’s about power.

My understanding of this manipulation isn’t theoretical—it comes from direct military training.

As a U.S. Navy Aircrewman, I was trained in SERE School—Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape—also known as Prisoner of War training. It’s designed to prepare service members to withstand capture and resist Marxist-style brainwashing and psychological warfare. The same psychological tactics I was trained to resist—group identity indoctrination, forced confessions, humiliation rituals, and guilt-based reprogramming—are now being embedded into corporate boardrooms, classrooms, and government training sessions.

DEI turns citizens against one another. It encourages distrust, resentment, and weaponized guilt. It demands ideological purity and punishes dissent. Many of its loudest advocates—consultants and "experts" with six- and seven-figure salaries—have no meaningful experience in the businesses or institutions they’re reshaping.

Instead of fostering excellence, DEI rewards superficial appearances over substance and merit. The obsession with identity quotas and "representational optics" has led to hiring, firing, and promotional decisions based not on qualifications—but on skin color, gender identity, and political conformity.

And the methods? Straight out of a totalitarian playbook.

Across America, “struggle sessions” have been reported—where white employees are seated at the front of the room and berated by colleagues over their “racist whiteness.” Some break down in tears. Some experience psychological trauma. These are not “workshops”—they are ideological re-education camps.

This kind of humiliation was a hallmark of Communist China’s Cultural Revolution, where millions were publicly shamed, beaten, and even executed for failing to parrot the party line.

And let’s not forget the self-feeding extortion loop. During and after the BLM riots, guilt-ridden CEOs, investors and politicians funneled billions in retirement accounts and tax dollars into activist groups and DEI programs—often under threat of reputational ruin, vandalism, or even personal violence. That’s not justice. That’s ideological mob rule, that has also been linked to foreign actors who financially support anything that destabilizes our nation.

It’s extortion cloaked in compassion.

What DEI promoters fear most is merit—because merit reveals the fraud. True competence, honor, discipline, and excellence expose DEI’s hollow core. These are the values that built America, and they are incompatible with a system that sees people only as identity groups, never as individuals.

Hopefully, Fairview Park won’t be the last holdout still waving the DEI flag like it’s 2020. It’s time to acknowledge the truth:

DEI is not progress. It's a regression into tribalism and ignorance and the only progress is towards societal entropy.

America is waking up. Let’s hope our city does too.

With the greatest respect,

Dana F. Harbaugh

Concerned Fairview Park Homeowner

U.S. Navy Combat Veteran (100% Disabled)

Former Managing Editor, Veterans Journal

Subject Matter Expert: Omni-Directional Warfare

Writer, Photographer, and Combat PTSD Journalist

Life Member VFW, Life Member American Legion

Life Honorary Member Pearl Harbor Survivors Assoc.

Former Commander, Combat Vets Motorcycle Assoc. Chapter 12-7

(see next page for Navy service)

Dana’s Navy service:

US Navy 1987–1993 (Active Duty)

• Aviation Anti-Submarine Warfare Operator, 2nd Class, (AW2) Naval Aircrewman (NAC)
• S-3A Viking Enlisted Multi-System Weapons Sensor Operator (SENSO) Callsign “Hardball”
• VS-38 Fighting Red Griffins, Air Wing 2, USS Ranger (CV-by-God-61), Battle Group Echo
• Viking Tailhook SENSO AW Aircrew Division Training Petty Officer
• Subject Matter Expertise: Active Combat Theater Order of Battle threats and priorities
• 1989: Operation Earnest Will. (aka, The Tanker Wars in defense of global oil shipments)
• 1990–1991: Operation Desert Shield, Desert Storm, The Defense of the Kurdish Peoples
• 275 missions aboard carrier-based tactical jet with 235 carrier arrested landings, 115 at night
• Squadron Alpha Strike Crew: 42 consecutive night combat missions during Desert Storm
• Twice awarded for heroism under heavy enemy anti-aircraft fire. (Air Medal w/ Combat "V" Navy Comm w/ Combat "V"
• Member of Navy’s Personnel Reliability Program, Special Weapons Loading Team Member
• Numerous awards and citations (available upon request)
• 1992–1993: US Navy Instructor: Fleet Aviation Special Operations Training Group Pacific (FASOTRAGRUPAC) Teaching Intermediate and Advanced Submarine Acoustic Analysis and S-3B Viking Non-Acoustic Sensor Fleet Introduction Training
• 1993: Honorable Discharge: 1993–1997 (Reserves)

Those interested can view the Navy service videos I created on my YouTube channel.

Go to: https://www.youtube.com/@Hardball1Alpha