Opinion Beware, DeSantis is as much a threat to America as Trump
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Pretty standard for prisoners not to be free. It's why they're called prisoners.
Nope. Don’t do that. Not everybody is Hitler. You, and others, use that as a defense and/or avoidance mechanism.
DeSantis has a record of DOING SHIT that DESERVES SCRUTINY — both from Ds and Rs.
Just, you know, watch what you say in the classroom.
Lol. Look at your mentality. You simply can’t think outside of us/them, winner/loser, red/blue.
You’re a freaking child.
Lmao. You come on here acting like you aren’t some hardline liberal when in reality you are one of the worst on here. It’s comical. You have an absolute lack of self awareness
Why are you deflecting? Who cares what ideological mix lives within me? Deal with the argument.
Nope. Because I’m a mix. And I’ve explained, thoroughly, this many times. You need me to be your equal opposite. I’m not. I don’t see all this in black/white.
I have worked on the campaigns of some (old school) conservatives for good reason.
Keep deflecting.
Ron DeSantis is not a flattering reflection of the conservative movement. Nor are you.
Ron DeSantis will be the next Ronald Reagan.
If you want to keep saying you are a mix, you might want to show people something other than the hard line lib stuff
This type of thinking is a real threat to American intelligence (or lack thereof). And the only purpose it serves is to normalize Trump—the greatest existential threat who has ever disgraced the White House.at to America as Trump
By Jennifer Rubin
Columnist |
November 21, 2022 at 7:45 a.m. EST
If you believe Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis would be a less dangerous presidential candidate than former president Donald Trump, take a moment to consider the recent ruling striking down DeSantis’s “Stop WOKE Act.” That opinion — as well as other rulings against his attempts to inhibit dissent — makes clear that DeSantis is just as willing as Trump to embrace the GOP’s authoritarian element and use state power to punish his enemies.
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To recap, the Stop WOKE Act — also perversely known as the Individual Freedom Act — is the Orwellian scheme that DeSantis signed into law earlier this year to muzzle the candid discussion of race and racism in classrooms and the workplace. As U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker explains in his opinion, “The law officially bans professors from expressing disfavored viewpoints in university classrooms while permitting unfettered expression of the opposite viewpoints.” He dryly continued, “Defendants argue that, under this Act, professors enjoy ‘academic freedom’ so long as they express only those viewpoints of which the State approves.”
DeSantis, in attempting to curtail the discussion of political positions of which he disapproves, followed in a long line of authoritarians who have attempted to paint dissent as dangerous and, therefore, unprotected.
The law, for example, bars discussion of the concept that a person “by virtue of his or her race, color, national origin, or sex should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment to achieve diversity, equity, or inclusion.” During oral arguments, when asked if this would bar professors from supporting affirmative action in classroom settings, attorneys for the state government answered, “Your Honor, yes.”
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Walker cited that admission, finding:
The law so blatantly violates the concept of free speech that one wonders if remedial constitutional education should be a requirement for Florida officeholders.
Walker tore into DeSantis and the GOP legislature, holding that the law “is antithetical to academic freedom and has cast a leaden pall of orthodoxy over Florida’s state universities.” He declined to mince words: “In this case, the State of Florida lays the cornerstone of its own Ministry of Truth under the guise of the Individual Freedom Act, declaring which viewpoints shall be orthodox and which shall be verboten in its university classrooms,” he wrote. “The First Amendment does not permit the State of Florida to muzzle its university professors, impose its own orthodoxy of viewpoints, and cast us all into the dark.”
That is the essence of authoritarianism. DeSantis’s willingness to back such a monstrous violation of free expression should send up warning flags about his commitment to uphold the Constitution.
Walker is the same judge who struck down another DeSantis assault on the First Amendment — his vague anti-riot law to quell demonstrations. In that opinion, Walker recalled, “In 1956 and 1961, Florida’s anti-riot laws were used to suppress activities threatening the state’s Jim Crow status quo.” DeSantis apparently considered such efforts commendable.
“What’s past is prologue,” Walker wrote. “Now this Court is faced with a new definition of ‘riot’ — one that the Florida Legislature created following a summer of nationwide protest for racial justice, against police violence and the murder of George Floyd and many other people of color, and in support of the powerful statement that Black lives matter.” He added, “The question before this Court is whether the new definition is constitutional.” Spoiler alert: It’s not, just as Jim Crow-era laws to prevent civil rights demonstrations were not constitutional.
As the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida explained, the anti-riot law “risks criminalizing peaceful protest and shields those who injure or kill protesters — for example, by ramming their vehicles into protesters — from civil penalties.” DeSantis all but admitted as such when he boasted the measure was “the strongest anti-rioting, pro-law enforcement piece of legislation in the country” and vowed that “a ton of bricks [will] rain down on” those who violate it.
DeSantis seems to have no fondness for the basic rights our Constitution confers on Americans. Instead, he delights in using state power to demonstrate his contempt for the expression of views he dislikes. This forms the core of his political brand, underscored by his “don’t say gay” law, his statute banning “critical race theory” in schools and his firing of a county prosecutor who criticized his abortion policies. DeSantis has also regularly flexed his power as governor: excluding media from events, taking public proceedings behind closed doors (including the selection of the University of Florida’s president) and exacting revenge on supposedly woke corporations such as Disney.
DeSantis’s contempt for dissent and his crackdown on critics should not be discounted. This is the profile of a constitutional ignoramus, a bully and a strongman. Voters should be forewarned.
Shame on the author.
Link to hard line lib stuff. And Ronald, like Bill Clinton, was not good. A lot of our economic issues trace to them, quite directly. You are a have, vs a have not, so you’re fine with it. But, then, please don’t ever complain again about crime, or any other societal malady related to the growing wealth gap/consolidation/concentration. Don’t complain about economic instability, or the demise of small-town USA.
I’m a have, too, kid. But I have taken the time to understand and diagnose the problems borne of the developments over the last 40 years or so. I know them to be both R- and D-created, too, and that the current corporate D party is hardly making inroads towards addressing the roots of the issues we face.
You keep to your simpleton (lack of) understanding of all this. Think me a “hard line lib” all you want. It suits you to keep things simple like that.
I am usually just dismissive whenever someone blathers on about "danger to America", one way or the other. He has his conservative policies, others don't. But he is a really vindictive son of a bitch, and I don't particularly want that in my president.
Why do you republicans keep being pulled far right. DeSantis is not and never will be Reagan. You people used to think trump was the next Reagan and that didn’t turn out very well. The one conclusion we can come to is, republicans have really bad judgement.
I would be surprised if that is easier to do (gaining ballot access) than when Perot volunteers did it. By the time Trump realized he couldn’t win the GOP nomination he’d need to get the nomination of some other party already on the ballot.
e.g. In Florida it appears he’d need more than 132k signatures from registered voters submitted by July 15th of the election year.
That’s just what the dictator you voted for wants you to think!
Reed weren’t you on Gulf front and lost your house? I seem to recall you had a very bad experience.
I used to live 50 feet from the intercoastal in Gulf Breeze, but wasn't my house....now I live 72' above sea level in Pensacola
So…the next guy to ruin the middle class and blow up the national debt?? That’s what you want? Holy hell.
Which year in Reagan's 8 in office did the Democratic House pass a smaller budget than he proposed?
Who cares? He blew up the deficit and crushed the middle class with his BS trickle down. It wasn’t the Democrats who cut the corporate tax rate by 60%. Reagan effed us and we’ve been paying for it ever since.
No it's not if your insurer is one of those that are exiting the state and you are trying to find new insurance after two hurricanes hit the state. I'm fine, luckily. However, many in my neighborhood which is 50 feet above sea level, hasn't had a hurricane hit in 100 years and is 20 miles from the coast, are not. One person has a quote for 11,000 when the previous rate was 3,500.
Ron, his name is Charlie Crist.
Unless you did in fact murder the son of god, in which case I think I see a negative campaign add in your future.
Where does spending originate?
How do you ascribe Reagan credit when Tip O'Neill always sent him more spending than requested?
Why do you not credit the Democrats for spending when they control the purse?
I mean, aside from reality not advancing the narrative you prefer, why would you do that?
Well I’m not calling you mr. Desantis or governor. Those could be misconstrued as me having respect for you, Ron.
Fear! Panic! Chaos!
Just for the love of God don't pay attention to:
Our economy
The government entities being put in place to watch over you.
Collusion with a crypto maker
War money ending up in political donors pockets
The stock market
The uncontrolled migration at the boarder
Student loan forgiveness being shot down
The FBI being absolutely worthless
( not a bad list for of the top of my head while shitting)
Just for the love of God don't pay attention to:
Our economy
The government entities being put in place to watch over you.
Collusion with a crypto maker
War money ending up in political donors pockets
The stock market
The uncontrolled migration at the boarder
Student loan forgiveness being shot down
The FBI being absolutely worthless
( not a bad list for of the top of my head while shitting)
Well I don’t live in Florida so he’s literally not my governor.
Get better sleep, shouldn’t be yawning in the morning.
