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Or this DeSantis?
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ second inaugural address Tuesday sounded word-for-word like a re-election campaign rally — only shorter. It was delivered from a familiar place, the steps of the historic Capitol in Tallahassee, but was aimed at a faraway national audience of Republican presidential primary voters.
[ RELATED: DeSantis declares 'freedom lives here' as he begins 2nd term ]
The governor’s talk carried a lot of the usual DeSantis rhetorical flourishes, and very little in the way of specifics.
If you didn’t catch it, here’s some of what you missed:
“When the world lost its mind — when common sense suddenly became an uncommon virtue — Florida was a refuge of sanity.”
Here in Florida, the state’s chief public health officer doubted the efficacy of vaccines or masks at the height of the pandemic. Some 84,000 people have lost their lives due to COVID-19 in this “refuge of sanity.” Unlike in California and New York, a huge portion of those deaths came after the development of vaccines, and, according to a Yale study, largely among the very Republican voters who were most likely to believe the anti-vaccine lies offered by Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo.
Is that enough sanity for you?
The myth of ‘the freest state’
“We choose to navigate the boisterous sea of liberty rather than cower in the calm docks of despotism,” DeSantis said.
Freedom and authoritarianism don’t mix. The notion of Florida as “the freest state” is a myth, manufactured by DeSantis and his image-makers to sharpen the narrative of his expected presidential candidacy.
His is a curious definition of freedom.
Florida has become a place where it’s easier than ever to remove books from school libraries, but harder than it should be for people to request vote-by-mail ballots.
In the “freest state,” Florida teachers fear talking about the country’s racist history. A vote of the people to ban large cruise ships in Key West was wiped away by DeSantis and Tallahassee politicians. How free is that?
In this supposedly “free” state, academic freedom faces the most dangerous sustained assault in Florida’s recent history.
In “the freest state,” higher education is perpetually under the thumb of the governor’s office. On Wednesday, DeSantis demanded that all colleges and universities report every dime spent on “diversity, equity, inclusion and critical race theory.”
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device
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