On Making America Florida

Supporters of Ron DeSantis were waving “Make America Florida” signs and banners during the CPAC convention. What would that mean, in practice?

Well, over the last year or so, DeSantis and the Florida Legislature have done the following:

1. Banned abortions after 15 weeks;
2. Criminalized participation in street protests which end in violence, even if the individual in question was not involved in any of the violence;
3. Banned local government and business mask mandates, and fought vaccine mandates;
4. Proposed a highly gerrymandered electoral map;
5. Imposed new restrictions on trans people in schools; and
6. At a time when public school teachers are leaving in droves, citing, among other things, a lack of respect from the community, Florida plans to put them under surveillance through the “Don’t Say Gay” and “Stop Woke” pieces of legislation.

Those are just the ones that come to mind quickly. DeSantis and his followers refer to this as the “Freedom Agenda.” What they mean by that is freedom for reactionaries and the virus, and cudgels for everyone else.