When Hitler’s Nazis took complete power on 5 March 1933 the first groups they and the Brownshirts went after hammer and tong were Communists, other political parties (within three months they were all gone), intellectuals and the Jews. Among the intellectuals, they focused on university professors, who they judged not sufficiently “reliable” to parrot the Nationalist Socialist ideology, and the music directors of large orchestras, who were mostly Jews.
During the first few months of the 3rd Reich, the Nazis eviscerated higher education. On 7 April 1933, the Reichstag, the German parliament now controlled by Hitler, passed the Enabling Act, which contained a civil service provision that provided for the dismissal of “politically unreliable” state employees. This was a catch-all phrase for Jews, Communists, non-Aryans, as well as anyone who had had the temerity to criticize the Nazis. And since, unlike other countries, all colleges and universities were state-owned, that meant many of Germany’s best and brightest were now out of work and facing physical danger. This included 20 past or future Nobel laureates. Albert Einstein was one of them — Germany’s loss; Princeton’s gain. But the Nazis never cared.
They easily had already coopted university students. On 10 May 1933, at the instigation of Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, German university students organized an “act against unGerman spirit” (a euphemism for non-Nazi ideology) in nineteen university towns across the country. They compiled a list of “unGerman” books, seized them from all the libraries they could find, piled them up in public squares, and set them all alight.
I mention this history, because I’ve been thinking about what is happening in Florida, as well as in a number of other red states. But it’s Florida that interests me most, because of its Governor, Ron DeSantis, who little by little unveils his nakedly ambitious and relentless drive to become our president.
I started down the Ron DeSantis rabbit hole more than a year ago when he revoked the Walt Disney Company’s Special Taxing District designation, which had been in effect for 55 years, because Disney CEO Bob Chapek had the temerity to criticize the Governor’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Take that, Goofy!
Then, in an act of cavalier cruelty, he sent two planes full of undocumented immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, to stick it in the eye of northern liberals.
Next, once again flexing his imagined Popeye muscles, he had his Commissioner of Education ban 54 math textbooks because of their potential to indoctrinate Florida’s children with Woke ideology (I never knew math could be so divisive).
And, speaking of book banning, acolytes of DeSantis have had a field day doing just that all over Florida, most notably in Escambia County where more than 100 books have become restricted, or just plain banned altogether, taken off the shelves of school libraries and put in permanent storage.¹
Moving right along, DeSantis fired a prosecutor, elected by the citizens of Hillsborough County (yup, a governor can do that in Florida), because he said the prosecutor, Andrew Warren, had been “soft on crime.”
He bullied a group of high school students for wearing masks at an event at the University of South Florida. “You do not have to wear those masks. I mean, please take them off. This is ridiculous,” he told the teens just before slamming his folder on a lectern. He all but said, “Don’t you know Covid-19 won’t hurt you?”
He’s Florida’s grand puppeteer who wants to be America’s grand puppeteer. For whatever reason and by whatever means the Governor seems to have every Republican legislator in Florida dangling from his many-fingered hands. Whatever he demands, they do. Last week they passed a law that changes what was Florida law and allows him to remain Governor as he runs for President (Is that a sign of a lack of confidence on his part, or just careful planning?).
On Monday of this week, after spending months beating the Woke out of what was once an excellent state educational system, the Governor signed a law prohibiting state colleges from offering courses in DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion). I can’t think of any other colleges that explicitly prohibit a specific course from being taught because of ideology. Can you?
“If you look at the way this has actually been implemented across the country, DEI is better viewed as standing for discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination,” DeSantis said during a news conference at New College of Florida in Sarasota. “And that has no place in our public institutions.”
You tell ’em, Ronnie.
As if all that weren’t enough, yesterday the Governor-wanna-be president signed five newly-passed bills (at his instigation and encouragement) that will govern student pronouns in public schools (they’re out), limit access to gender-affirming care (that’s out, too), and allow group prayer before sporting events (that’s in, thank God).
To add to the theme, he signed the bills on a stage at Cambridge Christian School in Tampa.
From banning books, to muzzling teachers, to eviscerating DEI, to criminalizing any teaching that racism is endemic, to slapping down any discussion of gender identity, to picking a huge fight over a small issue with Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse, Machiavellian DeSantis continues to find new and improved ways to wage the full scale culture war he thinks will lead to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
And just now, the Tampa Bay Times has reported DeSantis will formally announce his candidacy at Miami’s Four Seasons Hotel next Thursday, 25 May. Should be quite the show.
But here is a question for you: Do you think Ron DeSantis, Yale undergrad, Harvard Law, actually believes what he’s spewing all over the Sunshine State (and now in Iowa and New Hampshire, too)? Or, is he the consummate hypocrite trying to see what really resonates with the MAGA crowd and beyond by throwing the worst of the worst up against the wall to see how much sticks?
It’s got to be one or the other. Both are bad. Really bad.
And now for a house selling update
I cannot allow Ron DeSantis to have this entire page, and I know you’re curious. It seems that realtors Kurt and Tom were right. We have many people who want to see the place. Maybe one of them will want to buy it. Maybe more than one of them. Wouldn’t that be nice? I’m beginning (barely) to forget the six weeks of drudgery lugging all those boxes and plastic bins. It seemed there’d never be an end to them. But now, here in the Berkshires, even Lancelot the wonder dog seems happy for us.
Open House isn’t until Saturday, but we already are loaded with what Kurt and Tom call “showing appointments.”
Friends, this is beginning to turn into a fun project.
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¹ For a deeper dive into Escambia County’s book banning shenanigans, see Judd Legum’s continuing and relentless coverage of this miscarriage of educational justice in Popular Information.
Tags: book banning, Florida, Nazis, Ron DeSantis
