It’s been a grim few weeks. Democracy, human rights and free speech are under assault as they’ve not been in generations. Misinformation and fabrications are carpet-bombing reality. Thought policing is muzzling expression and rewriting history as a worship-jerk. Individual freedom is in retreat. Authoritarianism–bullying, vengeful, exultant–is triumphant.
I’m not referring to Ukraine, but to Florida, where the DeSantis administration and the state Legislature are closing in on the most reactionary–most revanchist–session in memory.
Using Floridians as bombing range DeSantis is waging a proxy war against all things lefty as buildup to a 2024 run. He’s making Donald Trump look like a compassionate con artist in comparison. Any semblance of inclusivity, of governance, of compromise or–heresy of heresies–moderation is out. The inquisition is back in. Strong-arming anything in the way is not a means to an end. It is an end in itself. There is no purpose to DeSantis’s governance other than himself, no grand policy agenda. It’s DeSantis as caudillo, now complete with his own Chavez-like election force.
His timing is perfect. Floridians are losing interest in democracy enough to believe bogus voter fraud claims and embrace insurrectionist violence as political speech. It’s how Goebbels saw Kristallnacht, too. Cleansing time. They don’t respect mere demonstrators, those pitiful social justice warriors. They see them as weak. As woke. It’s the red bait of the day.
We’re seeing the authoritarian impulse poison our own communities, as we did last week when Flagler Palm Coast High School student leader Jack Petocz was suspended after leading a brief walkout to protest one of those reactionary bills. He and Principal Greg Schwartz had agreed to the parameters of the march. But just as it was getting started, Schwartz saw that Jack was handing out pride flags. He ordered him to stop. Jack ignored him. Flags flew.
You might see that as an act of defiance. I see it as a foolish miscalculation on the principal’s part, ordered by the district office, an arbitrary muzzling of the very symbol representing the marchers’ point. You could say that district rules forbid political symbols. You’d be wrong. Pride flags are on many a teacher’s desk or in stickers on their doors, to reflect that their classroom is a safe space on a campus that unfortunately–unpardonably, considering the year–still needs them. And no student is being told to remove MAGA hats or Trump 2024 shirts.
Let’s give the district the benefit of the doubt and assume the rule against flags, which is in fact on the books, was applied evenly. Objectively, the rule is not at all unreasonable. It is designed to forbid all flags, confederate, neo-nazi and political party propaganda included. It is designed to keep the district from having to do “content discrimination”–allowing one type of message while disallowing another. Anything like that would get struck down in court. You either allow all or allow none. The district’s rule as written allows none.
So was the district wrong to impose the no-fly zone on the walkout? Absolutely.
The walkout was an agreed-upon disruption of the school day–explicitly agreed upon by Schwartz, with the district’s equally explicit allowance, as spelled out in an email to school board members by Superintendent Cathy Mittelstadt. From that point on, those 15 minutes granted the walkout were a protected demonstration intended to express the students’ opposition to specific bills in the Legislature. It was the essence of political speech–political speech that justifiably would not be allowed during the school day, but that just as indisputably was allowed for those 15 minutes.
Within that time frame, within the context of the walk-out, which took place outside the school halls and on the track, the students were given the freedom to express themselves within the bounds of free, political expression. The flags were part of that expression. They were deployed for the march, and only for the march that Schwartz agreed to. For Schwartz to ban them was no different than if he had banned students from yelling “Say Gay!” or if he had censored parts of Jack’s speech. He at that point was doing precisely what the law forbids: he was doing content discrimination within the very bubble of free expression he had granted.
The suspension was arbitrary and retaliatory, pure and simple, and it was right in line with state edicts making a mockery of free speech, like the Soviet-style legislation just passed that makes demonstrating on some sidewalks illegal, or the legislation walkout was demonstrating against, which forbids teachers from discussing sexual orientation in certain grades and allows parents of any student in any grade to sue the district if certain subjects are broached against parents’ beliefs.
This is not democracy. It’s vigilantist autocracy violating students’ human rights, a violation echoed in the legislation banning abortions past 15 weeks, a brutal assault on women’s autonomy over their bodies that doesn’t even make an exception for rape, incest or human trafficking. Did I mention that the hippocratic oath has been replaced by the Gospel according to Fox?
Florida’s surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo, our frontier doctor Strangelove who welcomed Covid like it was the second coming, just announced that he would be opposing the vaccination of healthy children under 18. He cited outright falsehoods cribbed from conspiracy theorists–tuxedoed in the regal language of the Barrington Declaration–that vaccines could cause more harm than good even though over 1,000 children have died from Covid. A far larger number have or continue to suffer from long covid. And unvaccinated children continue to be more likely to carry the virus and infect older adults.
Days earlier the governor was bullying students at the University of South Florida for wearing masks and calling it theater, thus unmasking his own claim that he stands for any kind of freedom in that regard. The move was oddly in line with a fundamental tenet of socialism: we will force you to be free. (“Whoever refuses to obey the general will shall be compelled to do so by the whole body,” Rousseau wrote in the Social Contract, handbook to future totalitarians. “This means nothing less than he will be forced to be free.”)
This is what Florida is becoming, an Orwellian state where repression is called freedom, lies are elevated to state policies and reckless public health edicts, and, like in a banana republic, a special gang is unleashed to police elections, something never seen in this country before, though Sinclair Lewis imagined it in It Can’t Happen Here. This is why the district’s response to the walkout at FPC was so alarming, and so unsurprising: the district is now a fully functional iron hand of state power, and that power has curdled into the “virtually unrecognizable” Florida Steve Bousquet, who’s covered state government for three decades, described in his latest column for the Sun-Sentinel.
Lucky for Florida’s Soviets (Putin is a genius!), the war in Ukraine is a splendid distraction. Nothing like championing democracy abroad while clobbering it at home.
Pierre Tristam is FlaglerLive’s editor. Reach him by email here. A version of this piece aired on WNZF.
Sherry says
A truly excellent article Pierre! Let’s not forget the DeSantis war on women’s rights:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/florida-poised-to-limit-abortions-as-supreme-court-mulls-roe-v-wade
Pierre Tristam says
Sherry, it’s…
James says
You are an absolute Moran. The last thing desantis is is authoritarian or anti democratic. He is a realist and something of a hero to stand up to idiots like you, who have the freedom to publish nonsense like you do and still keep your job. If you done like his views, nor president trump for that matter, then move to the country that better suits your needs. Your woke-ness has you confused about what democracy is, and probably the gender that almighty God assigned you as well. I don’t entirely blame you because it was inbred into your social thinking through your woke employers and your lack of courage to speak and do what you know is right in your heart. So you keep publishing nonsense about the few people who challenge your views, earn your pathetic pay check any way your can, but know this God will judge you one day and I would hate to be in your shoes. Grow a backbone!
Chri says
You democrats/snowflakes need to go to russia and see what the real soviet union is,
Frederick says
@James I believe that while you and I are on the same side of the aisle, there is no reason to call Pierre names. He and I have opposite views there is no reason to call him names.
Mark1 says
Facts! Everything I just read is so true. It is such a sad sad state.
Heathen Lady says
Agree, excellent article!
David says
Tyranny is the deliberate removal of nuance.
James says
They would never do that. Instead they sit in their offices complaining and acting like they are championing peoples rights when they are destroying the basic foundation america was built on. Never would the socialist propagandists dare to face their enemies and truly stand for a cause. They will happily hide behind you then question your actions every step of the way. Cowards!
Sharon says
God will also judge you even though you seem to have trouble with language but perhaps Russian is your native tongue.
Audrey Inglesby says
Thank you for such an insightful look at Florida’s descent into an Orwelian world.
Unfortunately, not the first time the Sunshine State became the land of loonies. During the McCarthy era, Florida grew its very own Johns Committee to ferret out unAmerican activities. These state senators banned books, “liberal” curriculum, homosexuals and members of the NAACP. They attacked schools and universities to monitor curriculum which created a brain drain as talented teachers and professors fled to greener pastures with sane policies. It didn’t work out well for the Johns Committee or McCarthy and they went down in history as sone of the most despicable characters in the American saga. I am sure that DeSantis will meet the same fate.
Tim says
Your article tries to put out the thought that our Governor is an authoritative dictator. We are a Conservative leaning state following constitutional laws! These left leaning totally inaccurate articles will Not change the views of Floridians in any way. DeSantis national approval ratings crush Biden’s. Your article shows fear of DeSantis running for President more so than a run of Donald Trump.
[Note: the commenter is inaccurate. DeSantis beats Biden among Republicans. He loses in a national sampling, however.]
Judith A Redican says
And why did you have to start your remarks with name calling? Could not back up your remarks with logical arguments? And to call his paper fill with nonsense and Fox news that their attorney’s state that what no one should believe what their anchors says? Who is the one peddling nonsense? And one more thing – if you are so afraid of gay people and that touching them may give you the gay bug – it does not happen that way. Also God did not make anything he does not love. But I will say prayers for you and hope you can have a wonderful evening.
T says
Trump for treason 2022 or any date read first of all what he did and people complain about biden but damn trump lovers still crying but then say well he your president then we had 4 awful years then but yet he has done nothing for workers and people of america same as ron so learn more
Algernon says
I’ve known some nice people named Moran. Too bad there aren’t more of them amony your readers!
Robjr says
Hello,
Pierre can you provide some assistance and explain what is a Moran?
Pierre Tristam says
Yes. At least I’ll try. A Moran can be a particular type of warrior from Kenya (the Kenyan national basketball team is called the Morans). The state of Assam in India also has a small ethnic community of Morans dating back a millennium and a half. The origin of their name is considered obscure, but it now appears to have originated in Flagler County in the 13th century. Moran can be the daughter of a ship captain who dearly loves her father in “Moran of the Lady Letty,” the 1922 movie starring Rudolph Valentino and based on a work by the underrated novelist Frank Norris, not to be confused with “Moran of the Marines,” the 1928 movie. It can be a reference to the senior senator from Kansas, who likes to claim that he has the third-highest total of bills signed in the 116th Congress, and who will not point out that the Human Rights Campaign has rated him zero five times in a row on LGBTQ issues. He’s a climate-change denier and feared looking into the Jan. 6 insurrection, so all told I don’t think the reference was to that particular moron (sic.). It can be a reference to Col. Basher Moran, Sherlock Holmes’s nemesis. And here’s where it gets interesting: while it is Syriac for “Jesus,” it could also be a typo–Jesus knows we make them here, so our commenters can’t be judged with Old Testament harshness–intending “Koran,” giving the appellation an elegant ecumenical flair. It can also be a reference to two dozen place names around the country, the world and the universe, including the diminishing Moran glacier in Antarctica and, my favorite, Moran 10372, an asteroid in the Kuiper Belt where I wouldn’t mind vacationing for a while, to be as far away from this state as possible, at least until this Soviet invasion ends. Anyway, all told it’s a noble word with many a good reference, the Kansas one aside obviously (too bad, Hill City, Kansas, being my second-favorite vacation spot in the universe). Not to take the thunder away from from “Say Gay!,” but we could start a “Say Moran!” campaign. Not sure it has the same rainbow ring though.
Steve says
The fact you keep leaning on your invisible God to justify how you think gives zero credibility to what’s said in any of the comments IMO
The dude says
Oh James…
So many words just to say “GET OFF MY LAWN!!!”
Deborah Coffey says
Bravo, Pierre! Spot on.
Deborah Coffey says
YOU, James, are in the minority in this country. WE, the majority of non-moron Americans, think it’s you that should move out. We all prefer a democratic nation and people who can tell the difference between democracy and fascism.
Jane says
Desantis is dangerous, deplorable and exceedingly demented. I pray for Florida!
Roy Longo says
Ok. That’s the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time!
Bartholomew says
Although I enjoy your comment, do we have to have the original comment on here? It is crude, hateful and mean spirited. He obviously does not know you by his comments. I do understand that not publishing it goes on a dangerous path, but it gets so tiring to see these types of comments.
Denali says
I truly try to remain neutral in my writings here but your latest comment has me so confused I must request that you be a bit more definitive.
You state that the democrats (little “D” per the initial reference) are “destroying the basic foundation america was built on”.
Could you please extrapolate on this thought and explain exactly how the foundation of the United States is being destroyed? Thank you in advance for your consideration.
Alonzo says
Didn’t read the article, I know I will not vote for DeSantis or any Repubs.
JimmyB says
James just falls in line with his DeSantis and Trump marching band. Anything they don’t like, create a law that gets rid of it. True communist way of controlling things the don’t like. Love it when they say they don’t like being told what to do or say but clamp down on anything they don’t want other to do or say.
DeSantis was useless when he was representing Flagler county and now he is useless as a governor. Worse governor in the country.
MikeM says
So says the flaming liberal author of this piece.
Mark says
Here, Here Denali you’re asking them to give a logical reply. Don’t hold your breath, radical-right wing snowflakes never can.
JimBob says
“Jane, you ignorant slut!” Thank you, Dan Ackroyd!
The dude says
Extra credit for cites and references.
Sherry says
@ james and to all the radical right winged “Cult” members. Personal “Name Calling” is the tool used in emotionally charged desperation by those who simply have zero “credible” facts as a basis for debate. Pierre is the “Owner and Editor” of this excellent and extremely “credible” news outlet . Pierre is a successful, respected, self made man, and no person’s lackey.
If you desire to make any kind of reasonable point, beyond “simplistically” spewing more fear and hate filled vitriol, please limit your comments to mature, civilized discourse. Otherwise, as wonderful Deborah Coffey says, it’s “You” who should should move to a different country. . . or, at least submit your hate filled, non-factual BS to FOX or some other fascist news outlet.
Seek FACTUAL TRUTH and inner Peace, Joy, and Love!
Foresee says
@ James- Glad you’re speaking for God. This is the New Republican Party, self righteous and fascist.
Bill C says
or how about an “Ignorance Pride Day” parade?
joe says
And also not good for your health:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/3/18/2086569/-To-lead-a-long-healthy-weathy-life-don-t-live-in-a-red-state-a-statistical-survey-of-GOP-failure?pm_source=story_sidebar&pm_medium=web&pm_campaign=recommended
Jane's says
That’s the problem. Everyone is offended these days. Only thing no one finds offensive is sin! People need to stop being so sensitive.