DeSantis faces pushback in Florida as voters tire of war on woke
It's about time that Florida citizens started to push back against DeSantis's far-right "anti-woke" agenda.
The bill banning rainbow flags from public buildings in Florida sounded like a sure bet. State Rep. David Borrero (R), the legislationās sponsor, argued that it was needed to prevent schoolchildren from being āsubliminally indoctrinated.ā That rationale echoed other measures championed by Gov.Ā Ron DeSantisĀ (R) as part of his āwar on woke.ā But instead of sailing through the Republican-dominated legislature, the DeSantis-backed bill died a quick legislative death, making it only as far as one subcommittee. It wasnāt the only culture war proposal from conservative lawmakers to end up in the bill graveyard during the session that ended Friday. One rejected bill would have banned the removal of Confederate monuments. Another would have required transgender people to use their sex assigned at birth on driver's licenses ā something the state Department of Motor Vehicles is already mandating. A third proposed forbidding local and state government officials from using transgender peopleās pronouns. Some of those ideas have come up in the past and may surface again next year. But the fact that the bills failed, even with public support from DeSantis, marks a change from the days when the GOP supermajority in Tallahassee passed nearly everything the governor asked for. [...] But the pushback is growing. Parents and others have organized and protested schoolbook bans. Abortion rights advocatesĀ gathered enough signaturesĀ to put the issue on the ballot in Florida in November. A bill that would haveĀ established āfetal personhoodāĀ stalled before it could reach a full vote. Judges are also canceling some of DeSantisās marquee laws,Ā including the āStop Woke Act.ā A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled Monday that the law āexceeds the boundsā of the Constitutionās First Amendment right to freedom of speech and expression.
















