Free Florida
Governor DeSantis has a love affair with the word free.
His two favorite words are “woke” and “free.” In his mind Florida is anything but “woke.” Yet if I were judging which word he loves more, it would be “free”.
And like so many politicians, he equates governing with being at war. In his State of the State address this year, he even said so. “We find ourselves in Florida on the front lines in the battle for freedom.” What can one say to that but “Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.”
For the governor, “Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.” Yet unlike Kris Kristofferson’s lyric about desperation, DeSantis is betting the house that he can win the Republican presidential nomination and then the White House by stating that he is the champion of the concept. But what he is doing is chipping away at Floridians’ freedoms and, ultimately, the country’s if elected.
I remember when Ron DeSantis was a freedom loving, small government conservative. Then freedom to him meant keeping government out of most facets of our lives. He was an advocate for the virtue of people being in control of their own destinies. DeSantis actually (at least outwardly to the world) espoused Libertarian ideals.
Then the power of the governorship coupled with ambition for even more power led to his anti-freedom “freedom movement.” Ron De Sanctimonious bastardized the idea and concept of the word into a Big Brother version. In the novel 1984, freedom was equated with slavery. Ron is a master of Doublethink as practiced by the Ministry of Truth in Orwell’s novel.
Florida is now DeSantis’ version of 1984, land of Oceana where Ron rules with the acquiescence of a veto proof super majority in the legislature. At one time, Republican federal and state legislators stood up to the executives of their party. Since Trump, they are no more independent than those in any authoritarian state. The good of the party doesn’t mean what the thousands of individual members think it should be but rather what Ron tells them it should be.
Free Enterprise in Florida means the freedom not to annoy the governor. You are allowed to run your business as Ron sees fit. Criticize a policy and he will destroy your business…just ask Florida’s biggest private employer, Disney. With 75,000 employees and their economic impact hardly small, Ron’s “woke” war would destroy them if he could for expressing an idea that contradicts him. How dare a private business criticize the Supreme Leader?
Cruise lines that bring billions of dollars to the state’s economy can’t run their private businesses as they see fit. They disagreed with the governor by wanting their customers to be vaccinated. DeSantis deemed that a “woke” decision and he banned the practice. Shouldn’t that be up to the customers to decide whether they will patronize a business with that requirement?
When the Governor-Dictator espoused education vouchers and parental control, I was ecstatic. Here was a way to democratize education and allow parents to choose the right school for their kids. It should have made every school a charter competing for students including the traditional public schools. Instead, it has turned into a giveaway without any real reform.
A true voucher system would give every student the same amount to bring to the school of their choice. Traditional public schools would receive the same amount per student that any other valid accredited school would. Competition in the marketplace for students should result in a better product. By allowing vouchers to some schools but not all, private schools receive a windfall, funding for public schools largely stays the same. No real freedom here except for the rich.
We shouldn’t forget his idea of academic freedom for Florida universities. But it has turned into the universities either getting in line to profess the Doublethink the state wants or they’re out. On campus, faculty and students may bring up no independent thought that hasn’t received Ron’s stamp of approval. Without his imprimatur the teacher will be gone, and the student should look for an education elsewhere…perhaps Yale or Harvard just like Ron.
Ron is also a champion of all life. No reason for women to be concerned with what happens in their bodies. If they do give birth to a child, then don’t be looking for Medicaid to pay your bills. 6 babies die out of every thousand live births in Florida while in the unfree state of California less than 4 do. Decent healthcare for all is not part of Ron’s “Freedom from Want.”
Ron DeSantis has become synonymous with the word freedom. He has smote “woke” and given the definition of the word freedom an entirely new connotation. In his mind, you are not free to disagree with Ron.
