Ron DeSantis’ War on Freedom

By David Corn  February 28, 2023

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis holds a press conference on January 18, 2023. Paul Hennessy/Sipa via AP 

Freedom—it’s what Republicans and conservatives have long insisted they care most about. At campaign rallies and conservative shindigs, they get all weepy when Lee Greenwood sings, “I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free.” For decades, they have accused their political foes of seeking to destroy freedom by imposing socialism, communism, Bolshevism, collectivism, or whatever upon the US of A. This has been a ruse. The right has often been an enemy of freedom. For instance, conservatives have sought to limit the reproductive choices of women and prevent Americans from marrying the people they love. In recent weeks, we have seen a very specific assault on freedom in Florida waged by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is not yet a 2024 presidential candidate but who already seems to be competing with Donald Trump for the GOP leader most committed to authoritarianism—and who today is releasing a book with a highly ironic title: The Courage to Be Free.

Last week, two bills were introduced in the Florida legislature that would advance DeSantis’ crusade and limit important freedoms for Floridians. The first continues DeSantis’ long-running attack on the Sunshine State’s education system, which has included banning math textbooks that he claimed included “woke” ideology, prohibiting classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity, thwarting the introduction of an AP African American studies course (and threatening to kill all AP courses), and deriding “liberal indoctrination” in the school system. The laws he has already passed have led to book banning in some school districts.

This new measure would block public colleges and universities from offering major or minor degrees in gender studies, intersectionality, or critical race studies. (Several Florida schools offer gender studies majors; it’s unclear whether any does so for critical race theory.) The measure also would compel colleges to offer general education classes that do not “suppress or distort significant historical events or include a curriculum that teaches identity politics.” These courses must “promote the philosophical underpinnings of Western civilization.”

This legislation, filed by GOP state Rep. Alex Andrade, a DeSantis ally, establishes the state government as an education censor, preventing schools, faculty, and students from determining the contours of college education. Andrew Gothard, president of United Faculty of Florida, the union representing instructors at Florida schools, described the bill to Higher Ed Dive as a state-sponsored form of indoctrination. He called it “fascism in its purest form.”

The legislation would place the decision to hire faculty members at public colleges in the hands of campus governing boards that would ultimately be controlled by the governor. It would prevent schools from funding diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.

This is a power grab—and a mind grab. DeSantis is seeking control over what is taught. The legislation would require general education courses to “promote the values necessary to preserve the constitutional republic”—without fully defining these “values.” (Isn’t respect for diversity in a diverse country such a value?) These courses cannot describe American history “as contrary to the creation of a new nation based on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence.” So what to say about the central role of slavery in the US economy and power structure? Even though the founding fathers were conflicted about slavery, the course material cannot reflect that? One main problem with legislation of this sort is that because it does not provide specific guidelines, schools and teachers will self-censor to avoid being called out by the Orwellian thought-police of the state bureaucracy. (You have undermined the “values necessary to preserve the constitutional republic.” Please come with us.) Which is precisely DeSantis’ goal. 

“This bill will be a gut punch to anyone who cares about public education in a democracy or academic freedom or the fact that our system of higher education is the envy of the world,” Irene Mulvey, president of the American Association of University Professors, told the Chronicle of Higher Education. “Because higher ed in America is organized around the fact that research and teaching and decisions involving research and teaching are best made by experts and scholars in the field.”

The other anti-freedom measure—also introduced by Andrade—would make it easier to bring a defamation case against the news media, which DeSantis last year identified as a priority for his administration. This legislation would especially help plaintiffs who have been accused of prejudice. As the Tampa Bay Times reports, the bill could have “a chilling effect on news outlets reporting about people accused of discriminating against others on the basis of race, sexuality or gender identity, legal experts say.” The paper explains:

In cases involving a person reported to have committed sexuality-based or gender identity-based discrimination, the bill limits the defenses available to the publisher being sued. An outlet accused of defamation cannot prove its reporting was factually sound by citing the person’s religious or scientific beliefs, the bill says.

The bill is designed to render it difficult—and legally perilous—to call out racists, bigots, and misogynists. It also applies to social media. A tweeter could be slapped with a defamation suit for posting such an allegation.

There are other worrisome provisions in the bill. For instance, it would require that a statement provided by an anonymous source be presumed false for the purposes of a defamation case. This could dramatically inhibit the use of anonymous whistleblowers and witnesses by news organizations. Certainly, one can debate the value and over-usage of unidentified sources. But they are often necessary for journalism that scrutinizes powerful people and interests.

Kate Ruane, director of PEN America’s US Free Expression Programs, slammed this bill:

With this legislation, Florida politicians seek to insulate themselves from criticism and weaponize the courts to chill speech and attack journalists. It’s blatantly unconstitutional, but could still wreak tremendous havoc if it passes. The United States has a long tradition of open and robust political debate, which has been underpinned by a strong and free press that need not fear a lawsuit for doing their jobs. This bill will hobble reporters as they investigate the impacts of the implementation of policies like the Stop W.O.K.E. Act and the “Don’t Say Gay” Law.

DeSantis and his minions are mounting an assault on essential freedoms: academic freedom and the free press. In the ways of demagogues, he is trying to seize greater control of campuses and curb news outlets from investigating folks like him. The defamation bill even affords special protection to people accused of racism and gender bigotry. Whether or not he runs for president—this past weekend he assembled donors and political supporters for a conference that could be a prelude to an announcement declaring his candidacy—DeSantis is cruising full speed ahead to wage culture wars and impose MAGA extremism on his state, blazing the trail for other would-be autocrats.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Mulvey of the American Association of University Professors says. “The future of higher education is at stake. If it works in Florida, you know it’ll spread to other red states.” Trump raised the bar for right-wing politicians who fancy authoritarianism—and DeSantis is clearing it.

Got anything to say about this item—or anything else? Email me at ourland@motherjones.com.

Racist of the Week Update

In the last issue of Our Land, Scott Adams, the Trumpist creator of the (formerly) widely syndicated Dilbert comic strip, was the last-minute winner of the Dumbass Comment on the Week for a racist rant. In a video he recorded, Adams branded Black Americans a “hate group” and declared that he “doesn’t want to have anything to do” with them. He offered this advice to white people: “Get the hell away from Black people…It makes no sense as a white citizen of America to try to help Black citizens anymore.” He added: “I’m going to back off from being helpful to Black America because it doesn’t seem like it pays off…It makes no sense to help Black Americans if you’re white…You just need to get away from them. Just get as much distance as you can.” What was especially awful and striking about his remarks was that they were not off-the-cuff racist comments, as many racist comments are. He was not caught on a hot mic. He did not accidentally say something he was privately thinking.

This racist diatribe was planned and purposefully delivered—a clear sign that Donald Trump has created a permission structure for explicit racism. There’s no need to beat around the bush for racist Trumpers. Of course, Adams, after being roundly denounced, insisted people had to consider his comments within a fuller context that he presented in a two-hour-long video. But there’s no need to accept that invitation. And many newspapers that ran Dilbert didn’t buy this. The strip was dropped by hundreds of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, and the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The editor of the Cleveland paper noted, “This is not a difficult decision.”

We’ve been awarding the Dumbass Comment of the Week for close to two years now. And rarely—perhaps never?—has the winner ever had to face a consequence for his or her stupid remark. Trump has shown us all that you can utter the vilest bigotry and be rewarded with the highest office in the land. So the judges are heartened that last week’s winner paid a price for a very deliberate act of hate speech. Was Adams canceled? Yes, as he should have been. This episode is a reminder that cancellation is not inherently wrong. Adams remains free to record new racist videos and post them on whatever platform doesn’t mind being associated with racist tirades. But he has no right to be protected from his own professions of hatred. Promote racism, misogyny, hate, disinformation—which you have a free speech right to do—and you can be chastised, shunned, and sh*t-canned. Conservatives ought to appreciate this; it’s just the market at work.

The Watch, Read, and Listen List

Your Honor. The first season of Showtime’s Your Honor was one of the best crime-thriller shows of recent years. Bryan Cranston expertly plays New Orleans judge Michael Desiato, a decent, liberal-minded jurist doing his best in a city burdened with the average amount of municipal corruption and police abuse. After the murder of his wife, the judge and his teenage son Adam have pulled their lives together, until another tragedy occurs: While driving in a desolate neighborhood of the Big Easy, Adam accidentally hits and kills a young man. He flees. Desiato encourages him to go to the cops and tell all—until he discovers that the victim is the son of the city’s top crime boss, Jimmy Baxter (Michael Stuhlbarg). To confess would be to commit suicide. From then on, Desiato is committed to covering up his son’s crime, and his well-intentioned scheming leads to a host of lies, crimes, and terrible consequences. The show is a wonderful rollercoaster ride, with imaginative plot twists and intertwining narratives stretching from the mayor’s office to the underworld. Every time the judge nearly sews everything up, it all goes to crap. The suspense is masterfully crafted. Few shows will cause a viewer to experience as much on-the-edge-of-your-seat anxiety.

Season 2 began a few weeks ago, and the judge is back, down-and-out, stripped of his robe due to what happened at the end of the first season. (I’m not going to say.) Cranston has gone from playing a desperate and ingenious father to a heavily bearded and slovenly fellow who has no effs left to give. Yet—like Michael Corleone in the one disappointing Godfather movie—he is drawn back into the world he wishes to escape. This is due to the arrival of a federal prosecutor played delightfully by Rosie Perez, who forces Desiato to covertly assist an effort to wipe out a major crime syndicate in New Orleans—while he contends with the consequences of his wife’s murder. Once again, he’s in a pickle in which it is tough to do the right thing without jeopardizing the people he loves. This season has a fair share of thrills and chills, but the storyline feels more forced than the original one. Without Season 1, this installment would still rate high among TV crime dramas, though it is not as compelling as the first. Yet it is an indication of the initial season’s superbness that a viewer will still care deeply about Desiato and want to see how he navigates this new labyrinth and whether he can achieve a measure of justice—and perhaps peace—in a cold, hard world.

Richard Thompson. British singer-songwriter Richard Thompson inhabits spot No. 69 on Rolling Stone’s list of greatest guitarist. That is a significant undervaluation. He plays guitar as if he has three hands, his right thumb plucking rhythmic bass lines, while the rest of that hand (seemingly independently) produces a blistering combination of ever-changing chords and lead lines. Close your eyes, listen, and you will swear there are two or three guitarists performing together. And Thompson pulls off this feat on a wide variety of songs from a marvelous, decades-old catalogue: ballads, rockers, (dark) love songs, narratives featuring misbegotten souls, social satires, and much more. He is a wonder to see and hear. I had the good fortune of doing so the other night at the Birchmere, a midsize club outside Washington, DC.

I’ve attended many a Thompson concert, and I was delighted to see that at the age of 73, this ever-acerbic and witty guitar-wiz, who was a member of Fairport Convention, a band that helped to invent folk rock, seems to be...getting better. As several Thompson-heads at the show concurred, at this outing, Thompson, playing solo with a gorgeous-sounding Lowden acoustic guitar, exceeded his usual excellence. His performance of one of his best tunes, “1952 Vincent Black Lightning,” a ballad of a doomed criminal, his moll, and a motorcycle, was sublime. As was “Beeswing,” the tale of a free spirit of the 1960s who did not fare so well in later years. Thompson demonstrated that he can still crank out fine new material, playing several numbers from an album due to be released late this year and “If I Could Live My Life Again,” a song of regret from an EP he recorded during the lonely, lock-down days of Covid. I was mesmerized by his rendition of “Sunset Song,” a melancholic tune of broken love off his 2007 album Sweet Warrior. (“Now in your waking, in your dreams / I'll not be martyred / On that cross where some say I belong / Opinions are coffins, I'll just trust my feet /To find the sunset song.”) After the show, Thompson told me this was a difficult song to play. Of course, he made it look easy.

All of this is a long way of saying you should see him. He’s touring during the next few months. Check out the schedule.

Read Recent Issues of Our Land

February 25, 2023: The GOP plays the race card with a train wreck; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Scott Adams); an Our Land focus group—do you wanna zoom?; the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

February 22, 2023: The corruption of Fox News—worse than you thought; the GOP’s very long war on Social Security; The Banshees of Inisherin is no laughing matter; and more.

February 18, 2022: Trump vs. DeSantis, Round 1: who’s a groomer?; a Chinese balloon and Chinese history; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Nikki Haley); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

February 14, 2023: The Trump-Russia denialists still can’t handle the truth; American Psychosis: an update; Joe Henry’s stunning new album; and more.

February 11, 2023: Joe Biden’s Americans First agenda; an arrested FBI agent and a mysterious Albania lobbying campaign; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Ben Shapiro); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

February 7, 2023: Justice for Warren Zevon; remembering the Myanmar coup; the great love story in HBO’s The Last of Us; and more.

February 4, 2023: How we got the Santos story and what comes next; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Rob Portman); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

January 31, 2023: The bull of John Durham; George Santos: it never stops; nominating Navalny; Judith Owen’s brassy Come On & Get It; and more.

January 28, 2023: Remembering Victor Navasky, the unflappable ringmaster of the Nation; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Julie Kelly); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

January 24, 2023: Tucker Carlson, Glenn Greenwald, the JFK assassination, Watergate, and the MAGA perversion of history; the right-wing disinformation machine and Hunter Biden; David Crosby, RIP; and more.

January 21, 2023: Is it getting harder to enjoy action thrillers?; Santos and a big-money con; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Donald Trump Jr.); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

January 18, 2023: Trump Derangement Syndrome on the right; nominating Navalny; the weirdness and ghostliness of Tar; and more.

January 14, 2023: Why Ron DeSantis shouldn’t—or won’t—run for president; the many faces of the George Santos scandal; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Ryan Zinke); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

Got suggestions, comments, complaints, tips related to any of the above, or anything else? Email me at ourland@motherjones.com.