The editorial boards of two Florida dailies, the Orlando Sentinel and Sun Sentinel, marked the May 1 imposition of the state’s 6-week abortion ban by jointly publishing an editorial titled, “A frightening tyranny over Florida women.” It’s paywalled, but here are a few excerpts:
Much of the nation — including Florida now — resembles a theocracy where women’s bodies belong to the state, not to themselves…
The greatest immediate danger is denial of emergency care to women with pregnancy complications. Physicians will necessarily think twice about what care to provide, even if delaying it might have lifelong consequences.
Many are to blame for Florida’s theocracy, starting with former President Donald Trump, who boasts of appointing the Supreme Court justices who repealed Roe v. Wade.
There are the six justices who did it; the Florida legislators who took advantage of what they did; Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose state Supreme Court appointments were as maliciously purposeful as Trump’s; the six Florida justices who signed an intellectually corrupt opinion excluding abortion from the protection of Florida’s constitutional right of privacy; and Attorney General Ashley Moody, who maintains that the privacy right applies only to the disclosure of information, not to police-state control of personal conduct…
Like Roe, Griswold and Obergefell depended upon the Constitution protecting the people of the United States from government intrusion into their private lives.
But now, many millions of women in the U.S., and in Florida particularly, are the handmaidens of theocrats who are doing just that.
The opportunities for so many people to do so much harm owe to fundamental fault lines in the constitutional order, and the triumph of “state’s rights” in the defeat of democracy…
Thomas Paine wrote, “tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered.” But in Florida today, the tyrants are winning.
Exactly right. Floridians have an opportunity to defeat the theocrats and restore abortion rights by passage of an amendment to the state constitution via a ballot initiative in November. But it needs 60% to pass, which is a tall order. We’ll see.
Meanwhile, Politico is still trying to make DeSantis happen. The latest is an article with the dumb title, “Has the DeSantis comeback already begun? His next act: Republican money machine.” An excerpt:
TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Gov. Ron DeSantis is poised to take the most public steps yet to rebuild his political future after dropping out of the 2024 presidential race, campaigning for GOP candidates in Florida and beyond in the coming months — and taking a leading role in fighting an abortion-rights referendum in his home state.
Puts me in mind of a quote from Beatrix in Kill Bill, “Bitch, you don’t have a future.”
That said, DeSantis doesn’t really have another play except to align himself with the fanatical opponents of Florida’s grassroots abortion rights initiative. He knows the supermajority threshold makes passage difficult, so he’s positioning himself to take credit if the initiative fails to clear that hurdle.
DeSantis is inextricably connected with the abortion ban regardless — it was a presidential primary stunt that he 100% owns. I don’t think it bodes well for his political future beyond the most fanatical outposts of the wingnut welfare circuit, but who knows?
Politico goes on:
After months of sniping with Donald Trump, DeSantis will soon use his connections and fundraising network to help the former president — and is expected to bring in millions of dollars. But he’s also raising money for members of Congress, including Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Laurel Lee (R-Fla.). Both backed his bid for president.
Someone in comments the other day made an excellent point about the so-called DeSantis funding juggernaut. They noted that DeSantis was the generic not-Trump into whom Trump-weary GOP donors collectively poured their funds for the 2024 primary. Mostly on the strength of idiotic media hype and ignorance about Florida’s bizarre politics.
DeSantis has since proven to be a dud. Will GOP donors contribute to a slush fund so the dud can play kingmaker? Stranger things have happened in the Disarray Party, but color me skeptical.
Open thread.