By Daniel Nardini
Florida seems to be going downhill under current Governor Ron DeSantis. He has made it official policy that the Gulf of Mexico should be renamed “Gulf of America” in all official Florida statements and documents as well as public school textbooks. This is in keeping with current U.S. President Donald Trump’s simple whim of renaming the Gulf of Mexico. Never mind the fact that the Gulf of Mexico has been the Gulf of Mexico since it was first mentioned in historical records in 1550, and the rest of the world knows the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of Mexico. For one man, even if he is president, to try to arbitrarily change the name that has been known and officially accepted by the rest of the world of a regional area for centuries is a sad commentary of how extreme and insane American politics have become. Sadly, the Florida state government has inaugurated a very dangerous precedent where it will put American children in Florida at risk of being totally out of step with the rest of the world.
As if this is not bad enough, now Governor DeSantis has joined the Trump governors’ coalition of the willing to coordinate any and all U.S. immigration raids in their own states. DeSantis has gone one step worse by now boasting that he has built an “Alligator Alcatraz” for putting undocumented into a tent city near an abandoned air strip in the Florida Everglades. Besides this most probably being a poorly built place with minimal facilities, the place is completely surrounded by swamps and therefore isolated. DeSantis has further boasted the he will build more such facilities in the State of Florida. Already bids are being taken in for private contractors to build such other detention facilities all through the state. This not only screams concentration camps, it means that any and all undocumented will have no real rights under Florida law, and certainly no protection from the U.S. Constitution in Trump’s America. This is as horrid as horrid gets.
In local news in Florida, the officials in Miami—all Republican—have decided that the Miami mayoral election does not have to be held this year, and can be postponed until next year. Besides this being illegal and unconstitutional even by Florida state law, the local Republican lawmakers are trying to stay in office one more year, thus violating their own mandate for when they are supposed to leave. It is to put it mildly a slap in the face for the voters of Florida and Miami in particular. I can be sure of one thing, and that is those Democrats running for the office of mayor in Miami will not tolerate this right to be taken away and will no doubt be filing in court to prevent the Republicans trying to end an electoral process that is a guaranteed right for people not just in Florida but also anywhere in the United States.
There is no doubt in my mind that other Republican-run states may be considering doing the same things as Florida is doing now. Maybe even worse to please President Trump. The only thing holding them back is the thing that I thought would be the least likely force of resistance—the judiciary. The U.S. judiciary has become the first line of defense against a tyrannical takeover of not only the federal bureaucracy but also tyrannical overreach of the Republican-controlled states where civil rights and due process not to mention rule of law no longer matter to those Republicans in power. No matter how powerful the president of the United States may be, the individual Republican states do not have to follow the whims of an aged madman to do what they are doing now. And tragically Florida is becoming ground zero for this madness.
Florida Madness
By Daniel Nardini
As if this is not bad enough, now Governor DeSantis has joined the Trump governors’ coalition of the willing to coordinate any and all U.S. immigration raids in their own states. DeSantis has gone one step worse by now boasting that he has built an “Alligator Alcatraz” for putting undocumented into a tent city near an abandoned air strip in the Florida Everglades. Besides this most probably being a poorly built place with minimal facilities, the place is completely surrounded by swamps and therefore isolated. DeSantis has further boasted the he will build more such facilities in the State of Florida. Already bids are being taken in for private contractors to build such other detention facilities all through the state. This not only screams concentration camps, it means that any and all undocumented will have no real rights under Florida law, and certainly no protection from the U.S. Constitution in Trump’s America. This is as horrid as horrid gets.
In local news in Florida, the officials in Miami—all Republican—have decided that the Miami mayoral election does not have to be held this year, and can be postponed until next year. Besides this being illegal and unconstitutional even by Florida state law, the local Republican lawmakers are trying to stay in office one more year, thus violating their own mandate for when they are supposed to leave. It is to put it mildly a slap in the face for the voters of Florida and Miami in particular. I can be sure of one thing, and that is those Democrats running for the office of mayor in Miami will not tolerate this right to be taken away and will no doubt be filing in court to prevent the Republicans trying to end an electoral process that is a guaranteed right for people not just in Florida but also anywhere in the United States.
There is no doubt in my mind that other Republican-run states may be considering doing the same things as Florida is doing now. Maybe even worse to please President Trump. The only thing holding them back is the thing that I thought would be the least likely force of resistance—the judiciary. The U.S. judiciary has become the first line of defense against a tyrannical takeover of not only the federal bureaucracy but also tyrannical overreach of the Republican-controlled states where civil rights and due process not to mention rule of law no longer matter to those Republicans in power. No matter how powerful the president of the United States may be, the individual Republican states do not have to follow the whims of an aged madman to do what they are doing now. And tragically Florida is becoming ground zero for this madness.