When institutions get captured by the left and repurposed for the advancement of a woke agenda, they often start having operational breakdowns. People with the knowledge and skills to keep it operating either get forced out or leave in disgust. A story flying below the radar of most national media has been the drawn-out loss of electric power by tens of thousands of Nashville-area residents. About 200,000 Nashville Electric Services (“NES”) customers lost power in an ice storm on Sunday, Jan. 25. A week later, there were still over 30,000 customers without service, with temperatures continuing to dip well below freezing. The mounting death toll has included a 92-year-old man and a 79-year-old woman, both found dead in their frigid residences. NES is a public utility that has been captured by woke leadership focused on DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) and ESG (Environmental Social Governance) rather than focusing on being a provider of reliable, affordable energy. (RELATED: The End of DEI’s Legitimacy) Maintaining a functioning electric grid is noticeably absent… As documented by the Tennessee Star, NES produced a “Community Investment Report” with a heavy focus on green energy, sustainability, and DEI. The CEO, Teresa Broyles-Aplin, boasted that employees were put through over 100 “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility, & Belonging” training sessions. The report also identified “renewable energy, electrification, energy efficiency and demand response, resiliency, diversity, equity and inclusion, employee engagement and development, and greenhouse gas emission as the topics most important to NES and stakeholders simultaneously.” Maintaining a functioning electric grid is noticeably absent from that itemization. One reason the storm was so destructive is that NES deliberately refrained from trimming trees along power lines. Just this past August, Ms. Broyles-Aplin boasted on a local TV station about the utility’s decision not to do preventative trimming, stating that “We care about the canopy. We have to live here too. I don’t want us out destroying the canopy.” Unfortunately, that canopy got covered in ice, and much of it fell on power lines, causing extensive damage. With NES apparently incapable of handling the core functions of a utility, nor capable of getting service restored, there is a growing clamor by state politicians for changes in how the inept utility is run. It has now been more than a year since the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles, an event that revealed a total collapse in administrative competence. The fire itself was spawned by the embers of the Lachman Fire, which, though contained, had been left smoldering due to administrative negligence. Once the Palisades were engulfed in flames, it was soon discovered that fire hydrants were dry because the Santa Ynez reservoir was empty. The knowledge on how to prepare for fires and how to fight them has apparently been lost in Los Angeles. (RELATED: A Well-Deserved Takedown of the California Political Class — From Newsom to Bass) The Jackson, Miss., water system deteriorated consistently with the city’s overall descent into a corrupt spoils system. There have been numerous indictments, and the FBI is still trying to untangle the depth of the corruption. Meanwhile, the city lost the ability to provide potable water to its residents. Finally, in 2022, the federal government seized control of Jackson’s water system due to persistent non-compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act. The city is pressing to re-take control of water treatment and delivery, but that seems unlikely to happen soon, since it can’t even provide accurate billing and meter reading. The problem isn’t just with municipal entities; the world of arts is suffering from the loss of those who keep things running. The Kennedy Center has been in the news as artists and left-wing politicians protest the Trump administration’s makeover. It had become famous for the promotion of performances advocating left-wing politics, but it had also become financially mismanaged, and its physical plant was seriously deteriorated. As documented by Richard Grennell, the Kennedy Center was in disrepair and near bankruptcy, forced to pay salaries out of an emergency cash reserve set aside for debt service. Mr. Grennell also stated that “The woman who had the job before me was getting paid $1.4 million a year with an expense account to travel the world — and yet the elevators didn’t all work, the fountains were broken, the roof was leaking, the foundation was crumbling, and the inside lounges weren’t touched since 1973. Donald Trump saved it.” Those who once knew how to manage money and maintain the facilities were apparently long removed from the famous center. In 2021, the Art Institute of Chicago fired all of its docents due to a lack of diversity. They were mostly affluent white women who volunteered their time to serve as tour guides and do other volunteer work for the museum. They had averaged 15 years of volunteer service, carrying with them a wealth of knowledge. Their demographic was very upsetting to the woke leadership of the institute. When dismissing the docents, the Art Institute’s Executive Director of Learning and Engagement stated that the museum needed to change “in a way that allows community members of all income levels to participate, responds to issues of class and income equity, and does not require financial flexibility.” Since then, the Art Institute of Chicago has suffered with declining attendance, financial struggles, and a Payroll Manager going to prison for embezzling over $2 million. If that weren’t enough, last May, its president was arrested for undressing in a state of intoxication aboard a flight to Europe. Not only are the docents all gone, but apparently, there are no responsible, mature adults left either. At the community level, I saw my family’s longtime Presbyterian Church go from a well-maintained facility that was buzzing with activity to a neglected building with grounds in disrepair. The left-wing politics coming from the pulpit drove out the parishioners who had served as in-the-trenches volunteers. In days gone by, the men of the church would bring their tools to fix potholes, replace lighting ballasts, remove fallen branches, etc. They’re all gone. The rainbow-clad “clergy” took control of the church, but lost control of its upkeep. Be it a municipality, a museum, a church, or any other institution captured by the left, leadership that pushes a woke agenda will push out a great many of those with the knowledge to keep the operation running efficiently. READ MORE from Buck Throckmorton: While Canada Cozies Up to China, Mexico Imposes Harsh Tariffs Due to Chinese Auto Dumping EVs and Autonomous Vehicles: General Motors’ Doomed Focus on Unprofitable Boutique Products The War on Labor Expense is Renormalizing Slavery, Just in a 21st Century Form