FLORIDA

( pronounced: "Floor a duh" )

Governor Ron DeSantis is leading the charge to fascism in Florida. Other red states are taking lessons.

The further decline of education in Florida is a Republican objective.

His "War on Woke" is a war on knowledge which is one of the first institutions budding dictators engage. A successful democracy depends on the existance of educated voters...so authoritarians attack education. Stop Woke Act impinges on free speach and also is an attack on private businesses in the state. Republicans have demonstrated they are not concerned with anyone's rights when they confilct with their ideology. Ask Disney, the largest single employer in the state who DeSantis attacked by using the power of the state to pubish them for their exercise of their free speech rights.

Woke is defined in the dictionary as  "aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)" so the obvious intent on the right is to remove citizen's awareness.  Much easier to control a docile poorly educated voter.

In his words, Florida is where knowledge and awareness goes to die.

Among all US states rankings in education. Florida is ranked near the bottom with a score of only 41. It will get worse under DeSantis's regeim.

( Most red states hold the lower ranks...but not all Blue states rank high either )

Book banning.  He likes to claim there is no such thing but ask any teacher fearful of losing their teaching certificate or freedom if they bring a wrong (banned) book to class. That us censorchip by threat and intimidation.

Destruction of diversity.  His move starts with New College where he is eliminating all programs aimed at maintaining a diverse student population. He is forcing removal of courses that do not meet his personal ideology. The right has gone to extremes to ban something that does not exist in grade schools in Florida...and never has. CRT or Critical Race Theory has never been taught in public schools but it remains a target of GOP. It is totally offensive to ban any course of study in any institute of higher education.

DeSantis and GOP lawmakers are attacking parent's right with a law that claims to be for parent's rights. It only gives a parent a right to protest a book but not to protest the removal of any book. It is a one-sided "right" designed to favor only conservative parents but to silence liberal parents. ( So much for equal protection under the law )

LGBTQ attacks. About 5% of all Americans identify as being transgender. At the same time gun violence is now the leading cause of death in children. So...DeSantis decided children need "protection" from trans people but not guns. He's passing laws to restrict the rights of citizens of Florida while proposing to make guns easier to get and cary with no education or permits required.  I have not heard of on single childhood death by transgender people anywhere in the world let alone here in Florida.  But by all means...let's have more guns.

One GOP legislator proposed that, in order to "protect" himself and fellow GOP politicians from critics there should be a law that requires bloggers who writhe about them to register with the state and be subject to up to $2,500 fine for negative critizism. This would not apply to anyone but individual bloggers so it is a specific and direct attack on their 1st Amendment rights.  This likely will not be enacted due to it's being blatenely unconstitutional but it demonstrates who little regared some Republicans have for our constitutional rights as citizens.

DeSantis is now pushing for more attacks on women in Florida with his proposal to repeal the current 15 week abortion ban to replace with a 6 week ban...before most women even know they are pregnant.

TENNASSEE

Recent GOP attacks on free speech in this state include a bill to ban "drag shows". There is no probibition in Tennassee about racists parading in public with loaded assault weapons evan as the leading cause of death among children in America is guns, not drag shows.

It's pretty obvious kids are smarter than Republican politicians.