These were the words of a U.S. District Judge when he struck down the “Stop Woke Act” recently passed in Florida with the support of Governor Ron DeSantis. The bill’s purpose was to prevent Florida college professors from discussing points of view the Governor deemed unpopular. DeSantis, like many of his brethren, don’t see the irony of restricting the rights of others and claiming it’s in the name of freedom.
The Democrat Governor-Elect Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania said it well:
Within the House of Representatives exists a group of Republican members called the Freedom Caucus. Its ultraconservative founders include Ron DeSantis, back when he was a member of Congress, Mark Meadows, Jim Jordan, and Mick Mulvaney. They were a small group who got together to control enough votes to ensure no legislation passed they disagreed with. Their definition of freedom seems like a child having a tantrum, shouting, “You’re not the boss of me!”
Republican freedom doesn’t mean liberty; it means the other thing; control. To impose control, they need power they are willing to acquire by any means necessary. They gained control of the House of Representatives by redistricting, Gerrymandering, and voter suppression. One example would be Ron DeSantis in Florida, forcing a redistricting plan over the wishes of a Republican-controlled state legislature. Analysts predicted Republicans would gain four additional Congressional seats in Congress while cutting the number of Black representatives in half, which is precisely what happened.
Republicans are actively taking over school boards to control what our children learn, what they aren’t taught, and who gets to attend. A Florida school recently asked its gay and transgender students to leave. That came on the heels of Ron DeSantis passing his “Don’t Say Gay” bill that prevented teachers and administrators from discussing issues around homosexuality. Something is spreading in Florida, but it isn’t freedom.
I may seem to be picking on Ron DeSantis, but he is a handy example and not an outlier. His success in engineering a sweep of Republican victories in the midterms is seen as a model for Republicans moving forward. The same was said of Governor Glenn Youngkin in Virginia when he won based on his imaginary battle against Critical Race Theory, which was never taught in Virginia schools. Republicans are hoping to ride freedom to victory, which means their freedom to tell others what they can and can’t do.
The recent Dobbs decision reversing Roe v Wade exemplifies Republican freedom. Are women freer to control their bodies? It took fifty years since women obtained the fundamental right to an abortion for Republicans to reverse it, but they got it done. They would tell you they gave states the right to make individual choices and that abortion is legal in several states. Out of the other side of their mouth, they’re working to make abortion illegal in the remaining states. Their push to end abortion had nothing to do with the will of the people who overwhelmingly favor women having the right to a safe, legal abortion. It’s the ability of the few to impose their will over the many that Republicans want; how soon before they come for you?
In fairness, Republican freedom means that some people will be more accessible than before. If you are rich and want to pay less (or no) taxes, if you don’t want to have to answer your children’s questions about what they learned in school about enslavement or the Trail of Tears, if you don’t like true democracy or need the right to force a woman to carry a child while possible at the risk of her health, Republicans are your people. But their ideas don’t sound like freedom; it seems much more like control.
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This post was previously published on The Polis.
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