A Florida man of their own
by Varad Mehta
February 24, 2023 09:45 AM
FEA.Florida.jpgImitation, the saying goes, is the sincerest form of flattery. If that’s true, then Ron DeSantis is the most admired governor in America. Just don’t tell his Democratic counterparts in some of the nation’s biggest blue states who, judging by their actions, might be his greatest admirers of all.
Florida’s chief executive first made a name for himself when he became one of the earliest governors to roll back lockdowns and reopen his state during the initial phases of the coronavirus pandemic. He then moved to bar vaccine mandates and other restrictions. Since then, he has advanced one conservative cause after another. Particularly gratifying to his many supporters, DeSantis has striven to turn Florida into a place, in his own words, “where woke goes to die.” Most recently on this score, he has moved to dismantle the diversity, equity, and inclusion apparatus in Florida’s public universities.
The College Board discovered DeSantis’s antipathy for wokeness the hard way after he announced Florida would reject its new African American Studies Advanced Placement course because state education officials had rightly concluded from a review of its draft curriculum that it would be used as a vehicle for leftist political indoctrination. In response, the organization removed critical race theory, “black queer studies,” reparations, and other objectionable topics from course materials. But its initially conciliatory tone incited a furious backlash by left-wing scholars and activists, prompting the College Board to release a statement “denouncing the Florida Department of Education’s slander” and walking back many of the curricular changes. This in turn led DeSantis to muse that it may be time for Florida to “reevaluate” whether it wants a relationship with the testing outfit at all.
After Disney’s then-CEO Bob Chapek objected to Florida’s parental rights in education law, which limits discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, DeSantis said he would strip Disney of its control of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, the independent entity through which it governs Disney World. Two weeks ago, Florida lawmakers passed legislation placing Reedy Creek under the authority of a board appointed by DeSantis. Nor has he been afraid to challenge his own side, as he did when he forced Republicans in the statehouse to pass a new congressional map much more friendly to the GOP than the one they had proposed. With a new legislative session impending, DeSantis is looking to add notches to his belt on gun rights, abortion, “and other Republican red-meat issues,” as Reuters's James Oliphant put it.
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/a-florida-man-of-their-own
