Thanks to DeSantis, Florida is no California wasteland of wokeness | Opinion

The Golden State continues to generate explosive costs of living, including gas prices over a dollar more than the national average and electricity costs 33% above the nation’s norms.

California has more than 30% of the nation’s homeless while having only 12% of the population, resulting in, according to the MIrror, “rat-infested streets, reeking of urine and rubbish (and) filled with an abundance of people openly using drugs, available for as little as $2 (including) heroin, fentanyl, crack, weed and crystal meth.”

This year, due to an exodus leaving the state and a doubling down on left-wing policies, the Golden State plunged from a $98 billion state budget surplus, to a $22.5 billion deficit in a single year, despite having the nation’s steepest individual income, gasoline and state sales taxes. California has also reversed course on education, moving away from school choice and parent empowerment.

It is also where wokeness lives and thrives with its universities and schools steeped in critical race theory and gender identity ideology. California has gone to such an extreme that one of its school districts is being sued by parents of an 11-year-old student for assisting the transition of her gender without informing her parents under the guise of “Parental Secret Policy.”

Now, with so many fed-up Californian’s leaving the state, lawmakers there want to create an “exit tax” poaching a percentage of wealth accumulated in-state long after former residents have bolted.

Californians that haven’t left the state, do by a plurality, prefer candidates who support the leftist polices of Bernie Sanders according to the latest survey taken by Rasmussen in partnership with Tripp Scott.

By contrast, according to the same poll, the opposite is true in Florida where 30% of Florida voters support Donald Trump policies with an additional 22% supporting more traditional Republicanism. Only 14% of Floridians support Democratic candidates that support the kind of left-wing policies espoused by Sanders.

Interestingly, voters in both Florida and California say they value freedom of speech, press and religion in near identical percentages but Floridians valuing the Second Amendment significantly more. The glaring difference between the states, however, is that people are fleeing California in record numbers, while Florida is the state with the fastest-growing population, according to Census (and U-Haul) data.

Contrast the Sunshine State, where Gov. Ron DeSantis, taking the oath of office after cruising to reelection, repeated his crowd-pleasing applause line: “Florida is where woke goes to die.” And where people come to truly live.

Florida’s attraction was capsulized by New York Post reporter Karol Marcowicz when she revisited a December 2021 viral account of her family’s relocation from New York. “The great majority of people who contact me are like us: full of gratitude and happiness that we got to sanity, to safety, to normalcy,” Marcowicz reported. “The concept is simple: pursue freedom, and celebrate where you find it.”

DeSantis has echoed this concept: “When the world lost its mind, when common sense suddenly became an uncommon virtue, Florida was a refuge of sanity, a citadel of freedom for our fellow Americans, and even for people around the world.”

DeSantis could boast of Florida’s No. 1 status in economic growth, new business formations, tourism and economic and educational freedom. This has driven a record budget surplus in the state budget.

In a separate announcement of a new tough-on-crime package, DeSantis touted “overall crime down nearly 10% year over year, murder down 14%, burglary down 15%, and robbery down 7%.”

True to his word, DeSantis has woke forces on defense after successfully taking on sexual indoctrination of 5-year-olds, working with legislators to halt teaching of critical race theory and banning state pension investments on the basis of ESG (Environmental Social Governance) criteria.

Floridians have recognized DeSantis’ efforts, and in the latest poll, 54% of them would favor his run for president with a plurality of 39% stating that Republicans have a better chance with DeSantis as the nominee (vs. 28% stating that Donald Trump gives Republicans a better chance). Californians, on the other hand, are far less enthusiastic about their governor.

It is clear that California and Florida have taken vastly different approaches to governing. This divide provides a clear choice in the 2024 election.

All of which should draw attention to one further declaration in DeSantis’ stirring speech: “Decline is a choice. Success is attainable. And freedom is worth fighting for.”

It’s a choice, a fight and an opportunity to build on Florida’s success, that all of America may have before it in the months to come.

Edward J. Pozzuoli is the president of the law firm Tripp Scott, based in Fort Lauderdale, and hosts the podcast “Politics & Sunshine.”