Doug Ducey of Arizona, Greg Abbott of Texas and Ron DeSantis of Florida. Images by Gage Skidmore, Wiki Commons.
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The idea that cruelty can serve as a political tool should give us all pause. Our humanity as a nation is at stake when politicians seek support from those who view some people as subhuman and thus seek to divide us.
The news has been awash with commentary about Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his expensive stunt of flying 50 Venezuelan migrant refugees to Martha’s Vineyard and dumping them there. Maybe he thought this stunt would “annoy the liberals” living there or some such idiocy.
Greg Abbott of Texas and Doug Ducey of Arizona have been busing immigrants to New York, Chicago and Boston to “stick it to the libs” and it’s probable that DeSantis wanted to get the same “recognition” being garnered by these two. The funny part—not so funny for the people who found themselves being pawns—was that DeSantis did not fly these folks from Florida. Nope. He spent a pile of taxpayer funds to charter two flights to fly these people up from Texas.
DeSantis spent lavishly on this stunt, paying $12,300 per seat for the charter flights.
So DeSantis spent the $ of Florida taxpayers at the rate of $12,300 for each one-way ticket to Massachusetts to deceive then illegally transport human beings as a political stunt. That seems . . . wrong. https://t.co/V6nqlXRtFz
There are lots of disturbing facts about DeSantis’s stunt and the ongoing bus charters being done by Ducey and Abbott. But rather than rehash these facts—the volume of which seems to be growing by the hour—we need to focus in on one point: cruelty.
As with the previous administrations family separation policy, cruelty seems to be the main point.
These people are so desperate to arrive on our land that they have braved thousands of miles of hostile travel and danger to get here. They are fleeing for their lives. Yet DeSantis, Ducey, Abbott and their supporters—and apparently some holdovers from the previous administration in Department of Homeland Security—are hell-bent on using these folks as props. These people are not seen to them as people and apparently this makes it okay for them to be subject to whatever mistreatment can be handed out.
Reducing any individuals to subhuman status is a symptom of a specific mindset: Nazism. Sorry to throw that “N” word in here but this is the picture and it is in sharp focus. The social progression of this mentality only leads in one direction and history has taught us what that direction is.
Politically, DeSantis, Ducey and Abbott are pandering to the lowest of the low in our country: the white supremacists, neo-nazis and religious extremists who see anyone with a darker skin or different concept of God as an enemy to be destroyed.
Pervasive violence and death is what these people are largely fleeing from their own countries. And the dangers they are trying to leave behind are something we as Americans have a hard time wrapping our heads around. Yet these three governors and their racist fanboys see it as smart politics to ship them out of their states and get rid of the “undesirables.” One assumes they see Chicago, New York or Boston as internment camps or another type of camp.
DeSantis however took this process a step further. He “borrowed” immigrants from Texas for his stunt. This action is actually a violation of Florida state law—which he is bound by his oath of office to uphold:
State law: §787.06(2)(d), F.S.,defines human trafficking as “transporting, soliciting, recruiting, harboring, providing, enticing, maintaining, or obtaining another person for the purpose of exploitation of that person.”
A law firm representing a majority of the trafficked migrants—who are actually asylum seekers—has asked for a Federal investigation into DeSantis’s stunt.
BREAKING: The law firm representing 30 of the 48 migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard at the direction of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis asked Massachusetts and federal officials to open a criminal investigation into the incident on Saturday. https://t.co/2VXCKUP9D1
But there’s more. According to immigration attorney Rachel Self, current members of DHS participated in the DeSantis scheme by falsifying records for the immigrants to set them up for immediate deportation.
Rachel Self, a Boston immigration attorney tells you everything you need to know about immigrants sent to Martha’s Vineyard.
They’d been given falsified U.S. addresses by immigration officials, perhaps ensuring that they’d be deemed in the country illegally. pic.twitter.com/mBp7AqBow1
This brings up the probability of collusion between current staff in DHS and DeSantis. Holdovers from the previous administration or just more hidden Stephen Millers in our midst? Either way, this needs to be investigated forthwith.
The idea that cruelty can serve as a political tool should give us all pause. Our humanity as a nation is at stake when politicians seek support from those who view some people as subhuman and thus seek to divide us. And those who seek to divide us do not wish to represent us—they want to rule us. Dividing humanity into tiny little imagined cliques is literally a divide and conquer strategy.
All these Governors are demonstrating their adherence to this despicable strategy and by their lack of humanity are showing us that they are unfit for their current, or any, office. And as luck would have it, they are all up for re-election on November 8th.
Marty Kassowitz
Marty Kassowitz is co-founder of Factkeepers. As founder of Interest Factory and View360, he brings more than 30 years experience in effective online communications, social media management, and platform development to the site. He is a writer, designer, editor and long time observer of the ill-logic demonstrated by too many members of the species known as Mankind. After a long history of somewhat private commentary on a subject he totally hates: politics, Marty was encouraged to build this site and put up his own analyses as well as curate relevant content from other sources.
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