States in U.S. Try to Quash Democracy – Part I

A month after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “froze for 20 seconds in a press conference, the same “frozen” appearance, this one for 30 seconds occurred again while he took reporters’ questions at a forum. His possible neurological issues may come from ongoing problems after he suffered from polio as a child. After the last episode, Republicans started demanding his resignation, and he’s due to return to Washington in two weeks.

In many states, democracy is struggling.

Montana: The state Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen is lying about an investigation into litterboxes in schools and proof that they exist. There is no proof and no investigation. The claim of children behaving as “furries” comes from the transphobia sweeping red areas of the U.S.

Kansas: A judge has ordered authorities to destroy all electronic copies they made of the files for the Marion County Record after police raided its office this month with insufficient evidence to justify the seizure.

Georgia: A federal judge ruled Rudy Giuliani, a former personal lawyer for Deposed Donald Trump (DDT), liable for defaming two election workers in the state after he falsely accused them of tampering with the 2020 election results. It was a default judgement “as a straight-up sanction” for his failure to provide documentation ordered by the judge. Giuliani will go to trial in D.C. federal court for monetary damages, but a judge already ordered him to pay approximately $132,000 for refusing to hand over the information. Giuliani agreed not to contest his making false and defamatory claims about the two women but maintained his comments were protected by the constitution and didn’t cause damage.

About election fraud, Giuliani had claimed in texts that his statements didn’t need “to be proven, but does need to be easy to understand” and highlighted the video in which he falsely described the women removing “suitcases” of ballots. DDT referenced the video in his demands with Georgia’s Secretary of State to “find 11,780 votes.”

Giuliani is reportedly selling his condo on Manhattan’s Upper East Side for $6.5 million to pay his bills. His phone bill alone is $57,000, and the voting machines company Smartmatic is suing Giuliani for defamation. He purchased the apartment for $4.77 million about two decades ago.

Ohio: Republicans failed to keep a pro-choice citizens’ measure on the election and failed to push through a law requiring 60 percent to pass the measure. So they’re trying another tactic: lying on the amendment’s summary for voters. A lawsuit states that “the prescribed ballot language—drafted and introduced by respondent Secretary of State Frank LaRose and approved by the Ohio Ballot Board in a 3-to-2 vote—fails to comport with the Ballot Board’s duty to provide ballot language that impartially, accurately, and completely describes the amendment’s effects. Instead, it is a naked attempt to prejudice voters against the amendment.”

The summary falsely states that the amendment would restrict “the citizens of the state of Ohio”—rather than the state—from interfering with Ohioans’ exercise of their right to make reproductive decisions. Instead of the “clear, simple 194-word text of the amendment itself on the ballot, … the Ballot Board refused, instead adopting a wholesale rewrite.” The “condensation” is longer than the adopted language. In addition, the new text replaces medically accurate terms such as “embryo” and “fetus” with the emotional “unborn child.” The lawsuit requests that the state either use the original language of the amendment or ask the board to reconvene “to prescribe lawful ballot language.”

Louisiana: Ranking #45 in health care and #46 in education, the state is paying $101 million to renovate the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge. The women’s basketball team’s head coach asked for funding for a private foundation.

Tennessee: GOP legislators thought they fixed their problems by expelling two Black members of the state House for protesting unlimited gun ownership in the state after the March murders of children and staff at a Nashville private Christian school. Foiled by that expulsion when both legislators were reelected in special elections, they passed a ruling against any signs of protest by observers. A judge overturned that law so they moved to pass a new rule allowing Republicans to block any legislators who addressed a different topic from the debate from speaking on floor.

On the first day of the new law, one of the Black formerly expelled lawmakers, Justin Jones, was prevented from speaking during the remainder of the special session. Republicans denied Jones’ topic addressed the issue. The question is whether there will be another ruling against legislative rules. [Note: a large majority of Tennessee voters support stronger gun restrictions.]

The special session ended with a shoving match between Justin Pearson, one other expelled Black legislators, and Cameron Sexton, the House Speaker, after Republicans forced an adjournment before Pearson could call for a vote of no confidence in Sexton. The Speaker claimed that his security detail had pushed him into Pearson in the chaos of departure.

Florida: The first of DDT’s dozen opponents for the White House seems to be leaving the race: Miami Mayor Francis Suarez announced he is suspending his bid after failing to gain momentum during his 76-day campaign. Using rewards for donors, he had met that RNC requirement but missed on the polling.

With multiple crises in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis canceled some of his presidential campaigning to return to the state. Fox host of Outnumbered, Emily Compagno, praised him for “suspending” his campaign to take care of his own state as a “servant.” Unfortunately, DeSantis was booed at a vigil for the three Blacks deliberately shot and killed by a white man at a Dollar Store in Jacksonville (FL) because of their skin color. Many of those who attended the vigil were angry because of DeSantis’ refusal to recognize racism and blocked schools from any Black history except his personal revisionist one.

People hold DeSantis personally responsible for the open racist attitudes in the state because of his policies and rhetoric specially targeting Blacks. Residents complain about his next-to-obsessive efforts to eliminate diversity and inclusion efforts in the public schools, doing away with gender studies, defunding DEI activities, and implying that Blacks benefit from slavery. He also removed many gun restrictions, including permitless concealed weapon carry. When DeSantis and other Republicans rejected the AP African History class, they ignored reviewers who objected to the state’s curriculum sanitizing slavery and the Blacks’ plight throughout history. A GOP objection to the course was the “viewpoint of an oppressor vs. oppressed” in slavery based on race or ethnicity.

Idalia, a Hurricane Category 3, started sweeping over Florida yesterday, turning into a tropical storm when it hit land. Even so, it caused a 100-year-old oak tree to fall on the governor’s mansion in Tallahassee while DeSantis’ wife and three children were in residence. The anti-Biden DeSantis, went begging to the president for an “emergency declaration.” Biden backdated the declaration to August 27 when DeSantis requested it and said he was giving the governor “full support

Before Idalia hit land, NOAA had to ground its third and only remaining data-collecting “hurricane hunter” plane because of a generator failure. The other two planes are undergoing repairs. In 2022, NOAA had asked for four C-130 planes to replace two P-3s in service and another that was decommissioned in 2018. The fourth one was to “meet the expanding airborne data requirements and objectives.” The planes are deployed only over water, not over land. An Air Force flight collected some data when the hurricane hunter failed.

Because of Republicans’ refusal to pass funding, FEMA is running short of money after the dozens of storms and wildfires thus far in 2023, 65 thus far with nine in the past week. The number is more than any full year from 1953 to 1995. This shortage will compound problems for rebuilding Florida after DeSantis collected millions from insurance companies who were allowed to restrict payments for damage in the state. In addition, the poor building regulations resulting in damage has led to major insurance companies pulling out of the state. Biden asked Congress for $12 billion for replenish the disaster fund and said that if the government is unable to provide enough disaster aid during the current hurricane season that “I’m going to point out why.”

In another “hurricane,” DDT attacked Disney and fired an elected state attorney in nearby Orlando. According to the Daily Beast, DeSantis helped a Osceola County sheriff by getting rid of Monique Worrell who was ready to “crack down on a wide-ranging cover-up by deputies who, she says, were faking documents to hide lethal and abusive behavior.” The job of the governor’s close associate Larry Keefe, who got his job through Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), is to coordinate the illegal removal of local prosecutors to embarrass Democrats. To replace Worrell, DeSantis appointed a circuit judge DeSantis put into office before putting him in the charge of the Ninth Judicial District State Attorney’s Office.

For the second time, DeSantis’ “don’t say gay” law throughout K-12 grades in public schools survived in court—with a DDT-appointed judge. Wendy Berger said that verbal abuse of LGBTQ+ students is no problem because bullying is “a fact of life.”  

More state news, hopefully tomorrow, with a big chunk on Texas, the biggest and perhaps most bigoted undemocratic state in the lower 48.

GOP Prez Candidates Search for Messages, Debates

In another look at the Ohio rejection of Issue 1, requiring a 60 percent vote to add citizens’ measures to the state constitution, Republicans aren’t dealing well with the overturning of an attempt to suppress citizen participation in democracy. Pitiful Secretary of State Frank LaRose, also GOP candidate for U.S. Senate blamed the defeat on out-of-state money although the 80 percent of the $32 million spent on the initiative coming from out of state was evenly divided. The biggest single donation, $4 million, came from ultra-conservative Richard Uihlein. Recently-elected Sen. J.D. Vance said the difference in the vote would be a matter of a few thousand votes; Republicans lost by 400,000 votes.

Nine GOP presidential candidates have satisfied polling requirements for the first GOP primary election debate on August 23 with only one glitch, a really big one—their promise to support any winning GOP candidate for the 2024 candidacy. Only one of them, Vivek Ramaswamy, has thus far pledged to support even a convicted felon. Another demand for the first debate is agreeing to a data-sharing agreement with the RNC. Chair Ronna McDaniel stated she will bar any candidate refusing to support the primary candidate winner from monthly televised events and any other debates.

Most of the GOP presidential candidates dragged their feet about DDT’s lies about a “stolen” election in 2020, but they are now reluctantly admitting that—maybe—DDT was wrong. The evolution—or reversal—may have come from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaking publicly that DDT lost the election. Some candidates vaguely allude to supposed problems with the election although they failed to provide any evidence, but they seem to agree that Biden is the “legitimate” president. Their problem, however, is that DDT’s indictments have moved the nation’s focus to the January 6, 2021 insurrection with the accompanying denial by a majority of the GOP members.

In another problem, GOP presidential candidates have stayed largely silent as Democrats push to lower costs for healthcare, giving them the inside track on the issue. Only Will Hurd agrees that people “should have increased access to healthcare at a decreased cost”  although 54 percent of Republicans find these costs are a major concern.

The first GOP candidate, Nikki Haley, is criticizing Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) for blocking military officers’ promotions and thus endangering national security. Her husband is serving overseas while 301 confirmations cannot go through the Senate. As commander-in-chief, the president is responsible for dealing with these problems. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said that Tuberville won’t “back down” because “he’s become a celebrity folk hero in the fringe right.” According to Murphy, Tuberville “is prepared to burn the military down.”

Most Republicans opposed the billions being spent on the infrastructure, but they’re home for almost seven weeks bragging about it. Red states are getting more money than blue ones despite GOP congressional members voting against the funding and their current attempt to overturn the law. Sixty percent of GOP senators opposed the bill as well as 201 Republicans, all except two in the chamber at that time. Of the announced projects, 80 percent of the clean energy investments have gone to districts held by House Republicans, all of whom voted to repeal those benefits. President Joe Biden’s signs at all the projects clearly give the source of the funding although graciously calling the bill “bipartisan.”

Although DeSantis is at top of the GOP candidate list except for DDT, he rapidly going down, the more minor candidates benefiting from his loss. In a “reset,” he’s trying hard, firing a large number of his staff and trading his 34-year-old campaign manager, who had no experience before working for him, with a 33-year-old replacement who has no experience. The fired campaign manager had been DeSantis’ chief of staff, a strong Federalist member who built the governor’s conservative policies including anti-mask, anti-abortion, and anti-LGBTQ rights. 

DeSantis’ authoritarian methods are based on DDT’s philosophy, the governor’s most recent action suspending a legally-elected state attorney Monique Worrell in the Orlando area because she disagreed with his policies. This is the second time in a year that he fired an elected official, and federal judge said DeSantis had violated his free speech rights. Andrew Warren, who DeSantis suspended a year ago, called Worrell’s suspension a “tantrum” because of DeSantis’ floundering campaign.

Republicans may be losing faith in DeSantis, partly because of Disney’s lawsuit against DeSantis and state officials, a “relentless campaign to weaponize government power against Disney in retaliation for expressing a political viewpoint.” DeSantis’ war on Disney started when its CEO Bob Eiger criticized the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” law. Signatures on an amicus brief supporting Disney include former GOP governors Arne Carlson (MN) and Christine Todd Whitman (NJ); former GOP House members Christopher Shays (CT), Tom Coleman (MO), and Claudine Schneider (RI); and chiefs of staff, commissioners, and attorneys from former Republican and Democratic presidential administrations. The brief declares:

“The fact that Governor DeSantis has taken these anti-democratic actions so blatantly and brazenly— that he is proud of them—only makes them all the more damaging to the political and social fabric of Florida and the country as a whole.”

The brief also describes how DeSantis’ retaliation against Disney hurts Florida’s economy from a loss of business. The authors said that DeSantis follows the autocratic examples of Russian and Chinese governments. Local Florida attorney Jacob Schumer expects Disney to win the court case because DeSantis’ retaliation violates the company’s constitutionally protected free speech rights.

DeSantis’ wish to kill migrants suspected of smuggling drugs also doesn’t make him popular. Asked how law enforcement can know which ones are “running drugs,” he said a police officer would “make judgments”—in other words, just guess which people to murder. No trial, no search, just shoot on a hunch. 

A recent New York Times/Siena College poll also shows that DeSantis’ anti-woke campaign is losing its energy. Only 24 percent of GOP voters chose “a candidate who focuses on defeating radical ‘woke’ ideology in our schools, media and culture” over “a candidate who focuses on restoring law and order in our streets and at the border.” In another choice, 52 percent prefer a candidate and government permitting non-interference with what corporations support. Candidate Ramaswamy, who called “wokeness” a “cultural cancer” has moved on. authored Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam, has called “wokeness” a “cultural cancer.” His campaign stickers that read “Stop Wokeism. Vote Vivek” are replaced with “Truth.”

Another DeSantis problem is his dumbing down of education in the state. He has backed down on his order not  to teach AP Psychology which including sexual orientation and gender identity, but book banning has expanded to William Shakespeare’s plays. Because of “sexual” content in Shakespeare’s writing, teachers are no longer permitted to assign entire plays; instead they must give students squeaky-clean excerpts. Ultra-conservative book banning Florida groups such as Moms for Liberty are offering reading lists after they have been the primary source of censorship in the state and the nation. A high school reading teacher said:

“I think the rest of the nation—no, the world, is laughing at us. Taking Shakespeare in its entirety out because the relationship between Romeo and Juliet is somehow exploiting minors is just absurd.”

In the past, one school district would require students to read two complete novels or plays in English classes; the new requirements are one novel and excerpts from five to seven different books. Frustrated with the changes, a school board member wrote on social media about the changes by the State Board of Education and the GOP legislature:

“Honestly, it feels that much of this is intentional, in order to cause as much chaos in public education as possible, so that the collapse of public education is swift and the agenda of education privatization can move forward with less obstacles.”

Book banning is costing school districts tens of thousands of dollars as each book on the schools’ shelves must be digitally chronicled. The arduous task has been outsourced, costing from $34,000 to $135,000 annually. The policy also leaves the school districts open to more book objections and led to a “ban first, review later” mentality and censorship. In the meantime, books are not available for students. At least two lawsuits, one by the huge publisher Penguin Random House, are challenging school districts for the books they have pulled.

DeSantis claimed that his new laws were to prevent schools from indoctrinating students. Yet materials provided to schools by far-right advocacy group PragerU are intended to indoctrinate, according to its founder Dennis Prager, right-wing radio host promoting climate denial and opposing democracy. One of his videos,  a cartoon about Christopher Columbus, gave the “good side” of the adventurer who says, “Being taken as a slave is better than being killed, no? I don’t see the problem.” The state education department declares the “material aligns to Florida’s revised civics and government standards.”

To conform with state laws refusing the use of transgendered student names in school, Orange County Public School District, the eighth largest district in the U.S. with 200,000 students and 130 schools, requires signed parental permission for teachers to use students’ nicknames. As a student, Ron DeSantis would be called “Ronald” without his parents’ written permission. On the other hand, educators can display photos of same-gender partners because it doesn’t count as “classroom instruction.”

BTW, Florida ranks 48^th in the nation in teacher pay. “Make America Florida!”