DeSantis Signs 94 Laws, Vetoes 4 Others

[jaxlongtimer]

Excellent article.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ron-desantis-is-viktor-orb%c3%a1ns-true-american-disciple/ar-AAWHkza?li=BBnbfcL

MusicMan, thanks for posting.  I get bullets here for comparing DeSantis' actions to steps toward authoritarianism and leaders of that ilk.  So it is interesting to see this analysis coming to similar conclusions.

In June of last year, Hungary's far-right government passed a law cracking down on LGBTQ rights, including a provision prohibiting instruction on LGBTQ topics in sex education classes.

About nine months later, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed the so-called "Don't Say Gay" bill banning "classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity" up through third grade. According to some knowledgeable observers on the right, these two bills were closely connected....

....This is not a one-off example. DeSantis, who has built a profile as a pugilistic culture warrior with eyes on the presidency, has steadily put together a policy agenda with strong echoes of Orbán's governing ethos — one in which an allegedly existential cultural threat from the left justifies aggressive uses of state power against the right's enemies.

Most recently, there was DeSantis's crackdown on Disney's special tax exemption; using regulatory powers to punish opposing political speech is one of Orbán's signature moves. On issues ranging from higher education to social media to gerrymandering, DeSantis has followed a trail blazed by Orbán, turning policy into a tool for targeting outgroups while entrenching his party's hold on power....

....There is no doubt that Hungary, an authoritarian state in all but name, is becoming more and more important in the American right-wing imagination.

Tucker Carlson, the most influential media figure in today's GOP, is at the forefront of this effort. In January, Carlson released a "documentary" on Orbán's government lionizing his regime and encouraging Republicans to emulate it. That same month, Donald Trump endorsed Orbán for reelection, calling him a "strong leader" who has "done a powerful and wonderful job in protecting Hungary."....

....Orbán's political model has frequently employed a demagogic two-step: stand up a feared or marginalized group as an enemy, then use the supposed need to combat this group's influence to justify punitive policies that also happen to expand his regime's power. Targets have included Muslim immigrants, Jewish financier George Soros, and most recently LGBTQ Hungarians. Hungary's version of the "Don't Say Gay" law — which the government labeled an anti-pedophilia bill — expanded both government control over curricula and its powers to regulate programming on Hungary's airwaves.

You see a similar logic in DeSantis's Florida. Alleging that classroom education on LGBTQ topics somehow threatens children, the governor and his allies pushed through a vague and broadly worded bill that empowers both the state and private citizens to go after schools that teach about LGBTQ identity. A moral panic about alleged LGBTQ "grooming" serves to justify the imposition of ideological controls on public education — and the speech rights of progressive and LGBTQ teachers. (Relatedly, both Orbán and DeSantis have taken aim at curricula and textbooks used in K-12 schools on expressly political-cultural grounds.)

Predictably, the Florida bill provoked a backlash from corporate America — which DeSantis used as a justification to engage in even more Orbán-like behavior....

....On another hot-button culture-war issue, social media, DeSantis has actually outstripped Orbán.

In February 2021, Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga proposed a bill to regulate "the Hungarian operations of large tech companies" to counteract what she earlier called their alleged restrictions on "Christian, conservative, right-wing opinions." While Varga's bill never passed, a version of it became law in Florida just three months after her proposal. Florida Senate Bill 7072 gave state regulators the power to fine social media companies if state authorities determined they improperly "deplatformed" a political candidate for office. (Shortly after its enactment, a court ruled that the bill violated the First Amendment; oral arguments for Florida's appeal are set for mid-May.)....

....These similarities reflect a certain ideological convergence between the post-Trump Republican Party and Fidesz: a belief in the central importance of cultural war and the need to wage it using state power.

Broadly speaking, both Orbán and DeSantis characterize themselves as standing for ordinary citizens against a corrupt and immoral left-wing cosmopolitan elite. These factions are so powerful, in their telling, that aggressive steps must be taken to defeat their influence and defend traditional values. University professors, the LGBTQ community, "woke" corporations, undocumented immigrants, opposition political parties — these are not merely rivals or constituents in a democratic political system, but threats to a traditional way of life....

....Any politics that puts emphasis on punishing political and cultural enemies tends toward illiberal and anti-democratic practices....

....Today, the Hungarian political system is best described as a form of "competitive authoritarianism": a system where leaders do not ban elections or nakedly stuff ballot boxes, but instead hold contests under profoundly unfair background conditions — pervasive state control of the media, for example. By combining repressive tools with a culture-war message that genuinely resonates in Hungary's conservative countryside, the government can maintain a near-absolute hammerlock on power without needing to resort to the most obvious forms of electoral cheating....

....The American federal system delegates huge amounts of power to state governments, enough to severely undermine democracy within a state's boundaries. The United States has a long history of state-level authoritarianism: Jim Crow laws, in addition to being a form of racial apartheid, were also designed to guarantee indefinite Democratic control over Southern states.

In this political context, any diffusion of Hungarian-style culture-war authoritarianism to the state governments is extremely disturbing — potentially accelerating a decade-plus process of democratic decline in Republican-governed states. If DeSantis is in fact creating a blueprint for American Orbánism that Republicans across the country choose to follow, the implications for American democracy could well be disastrous.

[BridgeTroll]

Lol... you get bullets for opinion pieces... just like this one. It's not objective... simply one mans opinion that reflects your own. Awesome. Up here in Georgia the republicans are split pro Trump Perdue weirdo's vs a moderate Kemp. So far it's Kemp in a landslide.  He will likely face democrat Abrams for Gov.... Interestingly... when you register to vote your not pigeonholed into a party.

[vicupstate]

^^ Opinions formed from observation of factual evidence of two parallel political events that are demonstrably similar. Either comment on the validity of that opinion or offer your own. If the facts upon which the opinion is based are flawed feel free to point out such flaws. Dismissing it based on it being a statement of opinion is to likewise condemn your our 'opinion'.

BridgeTroll are you familiar with the the metaphor of the frog in the frying pan?  I think it applies here.

[jaxoNOLE]

An excess of power concentrated in the executive branch was concern #1 for the founders, hence our system of checks and balances. We've observed the willing surrender of much of the Legislatures' power  to the executive for decades. And executives who overreach are not new phenomena. Abraham Lincoln is quite a classic example. And I believe Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden have all executed actions via the administrative state that should have been legislative decisions.

Whataboutism doesn't excuse individual abuses, so by all means--criticisms of DeSantis' clear desire for more power and hard-right virtue signaling are well deserved. But I would argue we've been the frog in the frying pan for far longer than DeSantis' tenure.

FWIW, the controversial bills this session were passed by the legislature. Policy/moral disagreements are not prima facie evidence of fascism or authoritarianism. The real question should be, why does the legislature feel beholden to acquiesce to DeSantis' demands? Much of his agenda would be impossible without their cooperation. And the legislature has not always been so accommodating to the governor.

[jaxlongtimer]

^^ Opinions formed from observation of factual evidence of two parallel political events that are demonstrably similar. Either comment on the validity of that opinion or offer your own. If the facts upon which the opinion is based are flawed feel free to point out such flaws. Dismissing it based on it being a statement of opinion is to likewise condemn your our 'opinion'.

BridgeTroll are you familiar with the the metaphor of the frog in the frying pan?  I think it applies here.

Ditto, Vicupstate .  When facts get in the way, some just like to respond with unsupported, inflammatory, emotionally charging, name calling and/or diversionary rhetoric.  That is how we got to the current state of affairs and it is dangerous.

[BridgeTroll]

^^ Opinions formed from observation of factual evidence of two parallel political events that are demonstrably similar. Either comment on the validity of that opinion or offer your own. If the facts upon which the opinion is based are flawed feel free to point out such flaws. Dismissing it based on it being a statement of opinion is to likewise condemn your our 'opinion'.

BridgeTroll are you familiar with the the metaphor of the frog in the frying pan?  I think it applies here.

Ditto, Vicupstate .  When facts get in the way, some just like to respond with unsupported, inflammatory, emotionally charging, name calling and/or diversionary rhetoric.  That is how we got to the current state of affairs and it is dangerous.

You mean like calling people Nazi's and fascists? I certainly agree with you there JLT... Just to be clear though... I also happen to disagree with most of Desantis policies recently... but that certainly doesn't make him a fascist or even authoritarian... he is exercising the powers he was elected with by the people of the state.  I would expect a democrat to exercise his executive powers in a similar fashion.

Regarding the validity of the author... as soon as he refers to legislation by the inflammatory and incorrect "don't say gay bill" he instantly losses credibility because it is designed to obfuscate the actual facts regarding the bill... it is also intellectually lazy.  It's an opinion piece... clearly not objective... and matches your position... awesome. 

[MusicMan]

DeSantis actually did something good for all Floridians last week, or at least he tried. He vetoed the Utility Lobby legislation to undermine rooftop solar. Only problem is, in the Republican rush to burn textbooks, he threw the instruction manual for rooftop solar into the burn pile.

[jaxlongtimer]

.. he is exercising the powers he was elected with by the people of the state.  I would expect a democrat to exercise his executive powers in a similar fashion.

I would quibble with this.  DeSantis barely won the election and, taking into account voter turnout (shame on those who don't vote!), he was elected with far less than 50% of those he is supposed to serve.  Many, if not most of his "initiatives" are not supported by the majority of the populace so one can't say he is "exercising his powers" in the interest of the State... more in his own personal interest to run for higher office.  Given the effective workings of our primary system, he only caters to the minority of hard core voters who are much further right than the greater population.

Did you note, by the way, DeSantis & Co. preserving the divisive electoral system we have by having just passed the "election policing" bill that includes barring nonpartisan style rank choice voting for any election in the State, overriding even local communities adopting it?  Just further proves he has no interest in serving all the people of this State.

[BridgeTroll]

I would quibble with your quibble...   regardless of the margin of victory (I don't recall that as a factor of governance...) he is doing exactly what his opponent would have done with regards to exercising his executive powers... He isn't creating these powers out of thin air like a true authoritarian autocrat.  You simply disagree with him...

[jaxlongtimer]

I would quibble with your quibble...   regardless of the margin of victory (I don't recall that as a factor of governance...) he is doing exactly what his opponent would have done with regards to exercising his executive powers... He isn't creating these powers out of thin air like a true authoritarian autocrat.  You simply disagree with him...

I don't know of any modern Florida governors who have used their "executive powers" as abusively as DeSantis has.  Instead of dealing with substantive issues like property insurance, environment, resiliency, COVID, food insecurity, Medicaid, real education improvement, housing affordability, bringing people together, climate change, etc. he is using his "powers" to divide the populous over nonsense, overblown or overstated issues such as "wokeness", classroom and university speech, chastising those who demonstrate against him, election police, election "reform," a State army,  immigration at the Texas border, demonizing oppressed persons, shutting down minority and dissenting participation in government, wading into abortion rights, now promising "constitutional carry" gun rights, fighting with Disney, constraining medical professionals, dictating to local school boards, gutting home rule, trying to control speech on privately run social media, etc., much of which will be undone by the courts or future administrations.  Little, if any, of his "legacy" will stand the test of time making his time in office a waste of taxpayer dollars and full of missed opportunities to truly do good.

Along with endless self promotion, most of his time is used to throw red meat to his "base" so he can run for president.  That's not opinion, it is a fact.  That is not what he was elected to do, period, which will make him, in the eyes of history, among Florida's worst governors (and, we have had some pretty bad ones!). 

[BridgeTroll]

He has abused absolutely nothing.  Except perhaps your sanity. 

Pure sour grapes... his education record is outstanding... teacher pay raises, per pupil spending highest ever, increased pre-order spending, huge increases in school choice spending and much more.

Secured nearly a half billion in additional environmental protections and much more...

The list is pretty long... I simply don't have the time or ambition to argue your sour grapes.

I suggest you don't vote for him...

[MusicMan]

I'd wager there are at least 1,000,000 carpet baggers voting illegally in Florida. Some are Democrats, but a big majority are Republicans.  Like my mother in law. She has a house in Boca but lives in Illinois. She spends about 4 months a year here and files taxes and votes here. She's a Republican who lost interest in voting in Democratic Illinois.  So she moved her legal life here but keeps her social life up there. I've worked in Naples, a So FLA Republican stronghold, long enough to know 70% of it's residents are in fact NOT residents. They are rich, old and white. They have been the ones putting people like Rick Scott and DeSantis into office. They come from Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana .......  They show up at Thanksgiving and leave at Easter. Now that we have an election police I wonder if they'll start requiring these carpet baggers to actually satisfy the residency requirement? Probably not, many people don't care.  But it's never been easier to prove. Just ask for their Cell phone records.  Until Democrats start recruiting out of state Demo's to move here in much larger numbers (AND VOTE), we're at the mercy of these folks.   

[BridgeTroll]

Any proof, pseudo proof, or anything to back up such a reckless wager?

[jaxlongtimer]

He has abused absolutely nothing.  Except perhaps your sanity. 

Pure sour grapes... his education record is outstanding... teacher pay raises, per pupil spending highest ever, increased pre-order spending, huge increases in school choice spending and much more.

Secured nearly a half billion in additional environmental protections and much more...

The list is pretty long... I simply don't have the time or ambition to argue your sour grapes.

I suggest you don't vote for him...

No point in continuing to argue.  We both know where each other stands.  I could respond with comments about your points being lipstick on a pig but it isn't going to change your mind so we will just call a ceasefire... for now  .

[BridgeTroll]

Sure thing... but a huge difference between you and I... I have repeatedly said that I have issues with many DeSantis policies... you on the other hand... are a partisan democrat who will not or cannot find anything positive to say.  You cannot even acknowledge the "lipstick"... the very definition of ideologue.