• Home
  • Blog
  • Contact
The Screaming Moderate

DeSantis runs right to get ready for presidential run

5/9/2023

1 Comment

 
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, considered at the moment the strongest opponent for the Republican presidential nomination against former President Donald Trump, has about completed his agenda in the state of Florida – an agenda most consider establishing his platform and crowning achievements to position him for his presidential run.

DeSantis is new to presidential politics but not new to politics. He has passed a right-wing agenda in Florida that is hard to square with what a majority of the country prefers. While his agenda will be very tantalizing to Republican primary voters, most pundits question how it will play favorably with a general election audience.

Among the items that DeSantis passed in Florida:

A six-week abortion ban. This goes far beyond the 15-week ban that the state enacted just a year ago. Six weeks is earlier than many women know they are pregnant. Even with exceptions for rape, incest and life of the woman, this ban makes Florida one of the most anti-abortion states in the country.

Extension of the death penalty. Florida is now the state with the lowest threshold for the death penalty. DeSantis signed a law allowing juries to recommend capital punishment with an 8-4 vote rather than a unanimous vote. He also signed a law making child rapists eligible for the death penalty, flying in the face of a Supreme Court ruling.

Gender identity, pronouns. This is an expansion of DeSantis’ “don’t say gay” law. It bans teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity, through the 8th grade. Teaching those areas is likely not in any school curriculum but it puts teachers in the position of questioning even answering student questions in a general way. This and other laws passed that affect teaching makes it difficult for teachers to even touch upon certain subjects, a regression of teaching openness that has existed for years. Teachers are left with a no-win choice: risking breaking the law or being true teachers, as they trained for.

Concealed Carry. Florida residents now may carry guns without a permit. This in the same state that had been moving toward gun safety measures after the murder of 17 people at a high school in Parkland, Fla., just five years ago.

Election changes. In the especially self-serving category, another bill changes Florida law and allows DeSantis to run for president without resigning as governor. Job security to the max.

Not only is DeSantis establishing a platform that restricts rights, he secretly has been using agents form his Department of Law Enforcement to enforce his agenda.

The unit was established to protect the governor and investigate major crimes. Recently, though, they were enlisted in laying the groundwork for a politically charged operation, ordered by DeSantis, to fly border-crossers from San Antonio (yes, the city in Texas, not Florida) to Martha’s Vineyard (yes, the one in Massachusetts, not in Florida).

Florida also has passed a bill that bans transgender people form using many bathrooms and changing areas that match their gender identity on penalty of criminal trespass charges.

This all on top of banning books, banning certain high school musicals from being performed and more.

That, briefly, makes up DeSantis’ agenda for his presidential campaign. Often, GOP candidates will take right-wing positions to secure votes in a primary and then back off them when it comes to the general election. How DeSantis backs off these positions, though, boggles the mind.

When taken as a whole, DeSantis is creating in Florida an environment that bans books, stymies teachers ability to teach, pushes one culture on everyone, takes away women’s rights, takes away LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, asexual, and more) rights, frees citizens to carry a concealed weapon without a permit or certification they are capable to, etc. etc. and so forth.

DeSantis vs Trump. Quite a choice: a dictator-wannabe who uses the system to control people and limit their rights under the Constitution and a dictator-wannabe who ignores the Constitution to control people.

And people wonder why an 80-year-old president might be the preferred choice?


1 Comment
Roberta
5/10/2023 12:06:25 pm

The Republicans have other options that they will not exercise: 1. They can demand another GOP candidate and vote for them instead. 2. They can refuse to vote in the primary, and vote for the Democrat in the General Election instead. 3. They can pretend to vote in the primary but secretly not - and then vote Blue. 4. They can change their affiliation to Democrat, vote in the Dem primary, and vote Blue. 5. They can accept being forcibly bent over. 6. They can move to another country. 7. They can buy a compound in the mountains, go completely off-grid, and let Armageddon hit everyone else without worry for themselves ever again.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

     
    Follow @bjaycooper

    Archives

    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013

    B. Jay Cooper

    B. Jay is a former deputy White House press secretary to Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He also headed the communications offices at the Republican National Committee, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Yale University. He is a former reporter and is the retired deputy managing director of APCO Worldwide's Washington, D.C., office.
    He is the father of three daughters and grandfather of five boys and one girl. He lives in Marion, Mass.

powered by bjaycooper.com