Then-President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2019. Photo via Executive Office of the Governor
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What we saw on Nov. 5 was the real-life equivalent of school administrators handing over the running of classrooms to bullies, fools and miscreants. Or a prison warden handing murderous inmates the keys.
“It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.” – James Baldwin
Whatever policies Republicans conjure up nationally under Donald Trump, they will be building on the work of Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Republicans, who have burnished the vehicles of petty revenge and retribution.
Since DeSantis took office in 2019, far-right Republicans have been bludgeoning their opponents and perceived enemies using laws, policies, and subterfuge. Florida is where political plans hatched in GOP laboratories by Leonard Leo, the Heritage Foundation, the Koch network, and other extremists augur what lies in store for America.
Anyone paying attention to Ron DeSantis’ tenure as governor will see comparisons between his attempts to reshape Florida politically and imprint an extreme conservative stamp on the Sunshine State and what his fellow ideologues elsewhere seek to do.
As he told the Florida Legislature in 2023, Florida is on “the front lines in the battle for freedom,” adding that “we have the opportunity and indeed the responsibility to swing for the fences so that we can ensure Florida remains number one.”
Being No. 1 in DeSantis’ eyes translates to the imposition of far-right conservative pet projects, including loosening gun control and boosting access to weapons; imprinting conservative dogma on elementary, high school, and college education; expanding school vouchers; and dismantling diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
DeSantis and his allies have delighted in torturing their enemies, real and perceived. They have targeted, tried to bully, and harassed African Americans, undocumented immigrants, and members of the LGBTQ+ community including transgender individuals using laws, fines, and other sanctions.
The Southern Poverty Law Center details DeSantis’ abuses of power and his willful disregard for segments of the population he purports to serve. To push his extreme agenda, DeSantis promoted right-wing policy in the state and fought for his self-created culture war in court, the report said. He has also created and employs a state militia and police force in attempts to intimidate and cow opponents into submission.
“Ron DeSantis has used his power as Florida governor to intimidate voters, influence elections, threaten immigrants and attack those that advocate for causes he opposes, such as LGBTQ+ rights and acceptance. He even picked a fight with Disney World. He has also positioned himself as the standard bearer for the right wing’s ‘war on woke,’ which is the concept of having an awareness of social injustices and fighting for equity,” the organization says.
Right-Wing Playbooks
Donald Trump, DeSantis, and other political leaders have employed playbooks created by the Heritage Foundation, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), Koch network, and others, using legislation, the courts, sleight-of-hand, disinformation, and blunt force to get their way.
Given the success of all these strategies, Trump, Vance and their lackeys will feel free to enact these measures on a large scale.
The election, and Republican control of all three branches of government, has given the extremist wing of the GOP the ability to impose neo-conservative, MAGA policies—encompassed in Project 2025—but we can expect considerable resistance inside and outside of the body from all those opposed to tyranny by the minority.
In the first week of the new Trump administration, we’ve seen Project 2025’s fingerprints all over Trump’s executive orders, proclamations, and statements. This includes:
U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement and a refusal to limit carbon emissions that cause climate change.
Denying a pending U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service request to recognize an indigenous sacred site within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Giving all executive branch departments and agencies 60 days to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, including all “chief diversity officer” jobs, “equity action plans,” and “environmental justice” positions.
Mandating that all federal civil rights law and labor law be interpreted and enforced with the understanding that “‘sex’ is not a synonym for and does not include the concept of ‘gender identity.’”
And dissolving the White House Gender Policy Council and repealing Department of Education guidelines on Title IX concerning transgender rights and various documents advising schools on how to support and protect LGBTQ persons.
DeSantis and his underlings and sycophants are now emboldened to continue to slash and burn programs and policies they despise. Women of childbearing age, undocumented immigrants, African Americans, Caribbean and other Africans in America, transgender individuals, Democrats, and anyone who objects to their lies and bullying are now at risk.
Haunted
The 2024 presidential election will haunt America for a long time.
But hey, the people have spoken.
If we learned nothing else on Nov. 5, we now fully understand that America as a bright and shining city on a hill is fiction. That American exceptionalism is a fallacy. The boisterous declarations of DeSantis, his supporters in Florida, and almost half of America are empty.
What comes next will be ugly.
Continuing with the school bully analogy, for the next four years or longer, the other students will be persecuted, harassed, and beaten up by idiots bent on cruelty, spite, and revenge. Innocents will tremble; others will be afraid. They will worry about the cost of standing up, apprehensive, trying to defend themselves, looking for someone to rescue them.
But no one is coming to help them or us, except us.
In practical terms, as Americans United for Separation of Church and State observes, conservative zealots will roll back LGBTQ+ rights; erase marriage equality; ban the most accessible forms of abortion and limit reproductive health care; create impediments to racial justice; eliminate the U.S. Department of Education; fund private religious schools with taxpayer money; and use religious freedom to discriminate against the majority.
This is the situation in which America and Florida find themselves.
Florida Phoenix
The Phoenix is a nonprofit news site that’s free of advertising and free to readers. We cover state government and politics with a staff of five journalists located at the Florida Press Center in downtown Tallahassee.
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