DeSantis has amassed more power than any governor of Florida in my memory, and is using it exclusively to limit the rights of anyone who disagrees with him. In addition to weakening tenure rules, prohibiting university employees from serving as witnesses against his government, censoring math textbooks for no obviously good reason, imposing criminal penalties on parties with no direct involvement in violence at demonstrations, prohibiting local governments and businesses from imposing mask and vaccine mandates, creating a new elections police force to investigate bogus claims of fraud, and supporting invalid legislation directed at tech companies and minority voters, DeSantis has now done the following:
- Persuaded the Florida Legislature to leaving the drawing of legislative districts to him, in spite of clear legal requirements to the contrary; and
- Rammed through legislation explicitly punishing Disney for its advocacy of LGBTQ rights, an obvious violation of the First Amendment.
In short, freedom for me and mine, and cudgels for thee and thine, regardless of what the state and federal constitutions require. How should the Democrats respond? By calling him out as an American Orban, of course. If that’s his goal, he should be made to own it.