We need more of this, not only in Florida, but anywhere that repressive fascism threatens constitutionally guaranteed liberties. As Desantis attempts to make a run for the GOP nomination, Floridians make news and take his headlines by protests against his repression and his conspiracy-theory based restrictions in education, amounting to the elimination of freedom of conscience, guaranteed by the constitution. That should help keep voters informed of what's going on. It may not provide immediate relief for Floridians, though it may motivate enough of them to vote this out of existence in two years, but it will help keep it from spreading to the rest of the country.
Wendell Griffen, an Arkansas Baptist pastor, news commentator, addressing the gathering in Tallahassee on March 9th, wore a "woke" button and dared Florida Governor Ron Desantis to apprehend him "for being politically and racially aware." He advocated that those gathered at the rally, and others who are opposed to the restrictions on personal liberty and conscience that Desantis is promoting "be a community of prophets."
"But teach as one," he said, "and correct, confront, organize, interact, defy, dissent, disrupt," he added.
He equated Desantis' anti-education measures with those of Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders and called them "Confederate States of America thinking."
"Everything to prohibit public schools from teaching about the history of bigotry, discrimination and hate of this society is a 21st century attempt to transform every public school into the Woodrow Wilson White House," he stated. It is to "validate bigotry, ignorance and distrust about marginalized people," and he added that this is "a calculated attack on democracy."
Elections Have Consequences
It's good to see frustrated Floridians taking a stand, showing up and making their voices heard. I think, as what Desantis is doing sinks in, and people feel the full effect of what is happening, there will be an awful lot more of this. That's great. Keep the pressure on. I can't imagine that there's much happiness right now in the educational community of the state right now, especially with the number of out of state students enrolled in its colleges and universities. This will build, and it will provide some wonderful footage to play in the background as the news media enjoys its back and forth commentary on who's who in the upcoming Presidential race, legitimizing the bigotry as just another campaign issue.
Florida was one of the few places in 2022 where turnout went flat. I'm not big on criticizing Democrats running for office, and I'm not there, so what I am saying is more what it looks like from here. Val Demings ran a great campaign, but she really had to compete on her own. In 2018, the difference between Andrew Gillum and Ron Desantis was just 40,000 votes, less than half a percentage point, with a 63% turnout. But in 2022, turnout was 10% less, almost all of that Democrats. Desantis got about the same number of votes he did in 2018, but Charlie Crist just didn't excite voters, leaving it all up to Val Demings and congressional candidates who are locked in blue districts to carry the state. That can't happen again, and if it does, what is happening in the state now will continue to happen and it will spread to everywhere else election apathy keeps people at home on election day.
What Desantis is doing is sheer propaganda, relying on bigotry to force the education system to advance a right wing agenda by claiming that it is advancing a left wing agenda. Florida's Democratic party constituency relies heavily on African American and Latino voters, and to a lesser extend, Jewish voters. Desantis' strategy has been to play on the divisions which exist between those constituents, and to motivate far right white voters with fear.
Oppression Unites the Oppressed
An anti-education agenda, combined with an "anti-woke" agenda, if that term is still descriptive or if it has lost its meaning, has the potential to unite plenty of Desantis opponents. Personally, I think it will lead to his defeat on the national stage, even among Republicans who are loathe to see the orange headed buffoon have another shot at the Presidency. Whether there are enough Republicans to coalesce around a mainstream candidate any more is doubtful, but given time, this will be the pendulum shift in Florida politics. Arkansas, no chance. Florida is not a deep south state, though that element certainly exists, but what's happening now does indeed have the potential to unite reluctant allies in the state to win, like Democrats did in 2008 and 2012, and perhaps to even break the gerrymandered legislature.
Conservatives have been sabotaging our education system for a long time. An educated electorate is the key to a successful democracy. Look at American education, controlled by local school boards and state departments of education, great swaths of public education is incapable of leading students to achieve the minimum benchmarks in core subjects for their grade level. If a state has a consistently conservative legislature, and consistently conservative governors, its education system is in a shambles. Arizona is a prime example, where for-profit charter schools and parent vouchers have bankrupted the public schools and with the exception of Mississippi and Louisiana, the words "student success" are an oxymoron.
Arkansas is already there, near the bottom, so Governor Huckabee Sanders does not have far to go to achieve her goal. She got elected governor and that fact alone is a sign that Arkansas does not have anything resembling an "educated electorate.
Governor Desantis is leading Florida right down the same path.
So follow Pastor Griffen's advice, and protest, correct, confront, organize, interrupt, defy, dissent, disrupt. And then make sure you vote.
No comments:
Post a Comment