Only days after Indiana Gov. Mike Braun was sworn-in in Indianapolis, the former Republican senator officially rid the state government of its Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) apparatus.

Instead, Braun – who grew a small Jasper truck-body business called Meyer Distributing into a major player with 700 product lines – said on Friday it takes a politician who "signed the front side of a paycheck" to understand what economic priorities actually matter, and DEI is not one of them.

"At the [Indiana] inaugural, which was over the weekend for me, there was so much excitement knowing something is afoot even in a good red state like Indiana, mostly because of what's going to happen out in D.C. and the partnership that can happen between enterprising states like ours has always been," Braun said on "Fox & Friends."

"We’ve never really had somebody from Main Street… be our own governor here."

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Braun contrasted the conservative economic vision with that of President Biden and other Democrats, whose platform is "built on big government."

"Rahm Emanuel said ‘never let a crisis go to waste’," he said in that respect, referring to the former President Barack Obama confidant’s motto during the 2008 financial crisis. The line was seen as a suggestion to use tough moments to force through tenets of one’s personal agenda. 

In comments to Fox News Digital, Braun said that in nearly 40 years of running a business, he knows what works and what does not.

Instead of DEI, Indiana needs "MEI" – or Merit, Excellence and Innovation – to be a priority, he said.

"Government should be laser-focused on one thing: getting results for the people they serve. We’re replacing the divisive DEI ideology with a level playing field of MEI -- the same reason we’re eliminating college degree requirements where they’re not essential and adding key performance metrics for accountability," Braun said.

"[That is] because everyone should be judged on what they do, not who they are."

Braun noted his business background and reiterated how his guiding principle of growing Meyer into the expansive business it is today has been "results – above everything else."

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"That’s exactly what we’re putting first in my administration."

In his order, Braun cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard – which found affirmative action programs violate the Equal Protection Clause – and said state resources would not be used to "support [DEI] positions, departments, activities, procedures or programs if they grant preferential treatment based upon one person's particular race..."

It also bans requirements of Indianans to have to disclose their personal pronouns or for employers to mandate job applicants to provide a DEI-related statement.

"We've grown the federal government to a place that I hope DOGE… brings it down because you’ve got a lot of anxious governors that want to double down on [DOGE] – we’re going to do it anyway," Braun said separately on Fox News Channel.

Braun said that since COVID-19, too many Indiana bureaucrats are still teleworking and that the DEI-nixing effort is also another way to streamline government to be more effective, just like Meyer.

The state’s DEI office had been established by Braun’s predecessor, Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb.

After the George Floyd incident in Minnesota, Holcomb addressed Indianans on the issue of "getting to the root causes of inequities and not just reacting to the symptoms."

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Holcomb, who first ascended to the governorship when Mike Pence became vice president in 2017, appointed then-University of Notre Dame public affairs director Karrah Herring to lead the new DEI department.

Braun also received some pushback on his decision:

The Indiana legislature’s minority leader said he respects Braun’s right to position his new administration how he wants but questioned his chosen hierarchy.

"Thinking of the myriad issues Hoosiers are facing, though, I can’t understand why this is a top priority," State Rep. Phil GiaQuinta, D-Fort Wayne, said in a statement.

GiaQuinta added a recent caucus meeting with the DEI office was "insightful and helpful" to their work addressing Indianans’ needs, and called the department’s sunset a "distraction from the real issues."

The brief life of the Ghost of Christmas Present passed upon the stroke of midnight on Wednesday, and children began the countdown to the appearance of his brother, one year from now.  

This Christmas, as I do every Christmas, I read Dickens’ "A Christmas Carol." There is a scene, right after the departure of Marley’s ghost, where Scrooge sees disembodied spirits, doomed to wander the earth. These spirits are begging and pleading, unseen and unheard, with the poor, homeless and disenfranchised. What they lament is their inability to help — a tragic irony, as they had the opportunity to act while alive but, now without physical bodies, can do nothing. 

This got me thinking about homelessness. Is it the same thing? As the mayor of El Cajon, California, I’ve been an outspoken critic of how the state has handled the homelessness crisis. I asked myself, "Is it possible, like Scrooge, that I’ve been forging my own ponderous chain every time I criticize voucher programs, lawlessness and housing-first policies?" I wondered: if I were given the same gift that Scrooge received, what revelations might my hauntings reveal? 

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The Ghost of Christmas Past, which brings to mind the 1970s, would show me a California largely devoid of homelessness. Back then, California was a relative paradise, marked by a sense of law and order.  

But did not Christ say, "The poor will always be with us?" I know the 1970s were full of poor people — I was one of them. Most everyone I knew was poor. Yet we could walk downtown without running a gauntlet of homelessness. Crime existed, but police were empowered to protect communities. Beaches were places of beauty, not encampments filled with filth and despair. 

Why? What changed? In my opinion, it was a conscious decision to make homelessness a viable option — by subsidizing the homeless lifestyle financially, eliminating laws that kept communities safe and clean, normalizing addiction and de-stigmatizing vagrancy (using the blunt language of the 1970s). In my imagination, the ghost would make no judgment but would let me draw my own conclusions. 

Would the Ghost of Christmas Present show me the dark, dangerous encampments, rife with rape, violence and hopelessness? I believe he would. But would the blame fall on those trapped in this hell, or on the politicians? Would he show me the backroom deals and development contracts that sustain the homeless industrial complex — a system in which a select few profit from $25 billion in wasted funds while the problem only worsens, leaving NGOs begging for more?  

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Would the Ghost gaze upon the wretched and say, "Blame me not for this misery. This is man’s doing"? Would he point to the people dying on sidewalks and say, "I see a tent left empty. If these policies do not change, this will be their fate?" Would he show me Christmas dinner tables where people laugh, shake their heads and lament California’s self-destruction? 

The final ghost, like Scrooge’s, would be the one I fear most. He would show me a California where cities are uninhabitable and residents are scattered across the nation as refugees. He would reveal lawless anarchy in the streets, where sexual assault and overdose deaths are predictable and accepted outcomes. He would show shuttered retail stores, overrun hospitals and public spaces rendered unsafe. He would lead me to the ruins of the home where I was born. And, with his skeletal hand, he might point silently to places like Haiti, forewarning what lies ahead. 

It is my Christmas wish that the true recipients of such hauntings would be the political decision-makers responsible for this crisis. May they wake up on Christmas morning with a new vision and vitality — one that prioritizes the welfare of all Californians over greed and failed ideologies.  

If I were Dickens, I would write an ending where the homeless industrial complex is dismantled and replaced with effective solutions. Most importantly, I would write a happy ending for those trapped by homelessness and addiction — not by enabling them, but by enforcing laws that prevent street living while providing, and sometimes requiring, appropriate treatment. I would see municipalities regain the tools to clean their cities and reverse policies that have made California increasingly unlivable. 

In reflecting on this, I see a disconnect between the poor and homeless of Victorian England and the crisis we face today. In 1843, there was no safety net and options were few. I believe Dickens’ poor would have embraced modern shelters, work opportunities and rehabilitation programs — not because they were better people, but because harsh conditions demanded it. "Are there no poor? Are there no workhouses? Many would rather die than go there," they said. This was their grim reality. 

Today, however, our obligation to the poor and homeless must be matched by their obligation to participate in their own recovery. The real Scrooge in this story is the political class that has imposed a failed social experiment on Californians — a failure by every measure. May we all see the truth so we can proclaim, "God bless us, everyone."