Lessons from Florida: DeSantis vilifies minorities. Imagine what he’d do as president | Opinion

Under Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida has used the power of government to assault the freedoms of anyone he and his supporters consider different.

Black people, gay and trans people and immigrants have all felt the unmistakable hostility of the state. In his pursuit of a far-right record that could outstrip Donald Trump’s, DeSantis has systematically — during five years in office, with a lockstep Republican Legislature — turned Florida into an unwelcoming place for many.

As DeSantis runs for president, voters across the country only have to look at Florida to understand what he’s pushing. Divisiveness. Anger. Marginalization of anyone who might not be white, Christian, straight or whose family doesn’t go back generations in the United States.

He has harnessed the power of the governor’s office and Legislature to do it. We can only assume he would continue on that un-American trajectory if he were to succeed in winning the White House. Even if he fails to win the 2024 Republican nomination, DeSantis is just 44; he’ll likely remain in politics for a long time to come.

And that’s a problem. The kind of attacks on vulnerable groups that have flourished in DeSantis’ Florida harm us all. The United States is supposed to be a beacon of hope and opportunity. But his policies, too often, are the opposite of that ideal. Florida, under DeSantis, has become an example of what not to do.

Immigrants seeking refuge here are among DeSantis’ favorite targets. There were those infamous migrant flights starting last year, when he used Florida tax dollars to fly asylum seekers from the border to “blue” places like Martha’s Vineyard. He has pledged to support an end to birthright citizenship, something generally believed to be unconstitutional.

In Florida this year, a new law that cracked down on employment of undocumented immigrants and made it a felony to transport into Florida anyone who has entered the country illegally has had negative impacts: Key businesses like construction and agriculture have started losing workers.

And as Hurricane Idalia made landfall last week, the new law raised fears that immigrants and their families wouldn’t seek shelter from the life-threatening storm.

There’s plenty to criticize about immigration policy in this country, but using people as pawns on migrant flights and scaring others so much they’d rather risk their lives in a hurricane than ask for help from the government is about creating headlines, not solutions.

Crush critics

And then there are DeSantis’ well-documented attacks on the rights of trans and LGBTQ people. The best known of those policies is his parental-rights law, known as “Don’t say gay,” banning the teaching of gender identity or sexual orientation in public schools and threatening teachers with a felony charge if they do. He’s also backed laws to make gender-affirming care illegal and exercised control over which pronouns students use and even which bathrooms.

Disney, a vast multinational company, dared to criticize DeSantis on the “Don’t say gay” law — and the governor went after the company with a vengeance. The message was clear: Florida’s governor will use the power (and money) of the state to try to crush those who disagree with him.

That brings us to DeSantis’ actions toward Black people. His 2021 “anti-riot” bill masqueraded as an attempt to keep public order but was actually aimed at squelching Black Lives Matter marches in the wake of the George Floyd murder. Now DeSantis has defended the incredible and revolting claim in the state’s middle-school curriculum that “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” It was a blatant recasting of history to make it more palatable for white people and it drew scorn, as it should.

It’s no wonder DeSantis was booed when he showed up to speak in Jacksonville about the shooting of three Black people by a killer with swastikas on his gun. All things considered, booing seems like a rather restrained response. Don’t forget, this is the same leader who refused to condemn neo-Nazi demonstrators in Florida for years.

The cost in dollars

These anti-Black, anti-LGBTQ, anti-trans, anti-immigrant actions have a financial price, too. Conventions have begun refusing to come to Florida — at least 10 have canceled in Broward County alone. Disney killed a $1 billion development planned for Central Florida after DeSantis attacked the company’s right to free speech. The NAACP issued a travel advisory in May of this year, urging people of color and LGBTQ individuals to avoid the Sunshine State, a move the governor derided as a “stunt.” That was three months before the Jacksonville shooting.

Other groups have cautioned about coming to Florida. The Florida Immigrant Coalition issued a travel advisory this year. So did Equality Florida, an LGBTQ civil-rights organization. As the group’s senior policy adviser, Carlos Guillermo Smith, told the Editorial Board, Florida has “rolled out the welcome mat for hatred and bigotry.”

There is a term for what DeSantis has been doing as he stokes resentments of immigrants and Black people and trans people. It’s called “othering” — when you turn the person you’re attacking into someone you keep at arm’s length. You don’t know them or understand them or care about them. You can impose all sorts of negatives onto that kind of a blank canvas. It’s the opposite of empathy. And it makes it easier to pass laws that target them. They’re the “other.”

What’s going on in Florida isn’t a left-versus-right thing. It’s a right-versus-wrong thing. Going after various groups of people to push them out of public life isn’t about liberalism or conservatism. It’s about denying them human dignity and human rights.

DeSantis, though, specializes in dread and fear. So far, he has been restricted to one state. Imagine what he would do if he exported his vision to the whole country.

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