Who Will Be Next?
“Never forget that under a totalitarian system cruelty and absurdity go hand in hand.” Ai Weiwei
Florida is currently holding the poll position in the race for most notorious governance by a red state led by its nakedly ambitious Ivy League educated governor Ron DeSantis, who gleefully channels George Wallace and Lester Maddox.
Hardly a day passes without another news story about the latest cruel, stupid or bigoted law passed by Florida’s GOP-controlled legislature. While parts of Florida where millions of people live and work are under real threat of disaster from climate change, DeSantis and his political allies have nothing more productive to do than attack Mickey Mouse, ban books they don’t like, make the lives of transgender people hellish, and prohibit the mention of racism, slavery and white supremacy in school classrooms.
This brand of political malpractice and legislative thuggery comes naturally to southern politicians. DeSantis is a descendant. His political ancestors employed terrorist violence — spearheaded by the Ku Klux Klan — along with every level of legislative and judicial power they could muster to turn back the gains Black people made during America’s first reconstruction. DeSantis seeks to take the baton of naked white supremacy from Donald Trump and run with it.
But it’s not just Florida. Texas legislators want the Ten Commandments posted in every public school classroom; they want breaks for prayer, too.
Iowa’s GOP-dominated legislature is totally down with making it easier for employers to exploit the labor of children.
The governor of Arkansas wants applicants for state jobs to express their admiration and respect for her on their applications.
You can’t make this stuff up. Donald Trump re-wired the GOP to make it the party of performance and absurdity. Clever cruelty is more highly prized than competence. As Peniel E. Joseph writes in his book, The Third Reconstruction, “Trump’s America unleashed white supremacy’s pervasive anti-democratic impulses.”
These acts of brutish authoritarianism reflect deeply held American notions of white supremacy and our place at the top of the world heap. In the early years of the California republic, the state legislature appropriated public funds for the purpose of killing Native people. The state also passed a law preventing Chinese from carrying baskets on poles, which seems absurd, but the point of it was likely to make the lives of Chinese people more difficult and degrading.
Americans are taught to believe how exceptional we are compared to the rest of the world. Absurd, indeed, but this nonsense is spoon fed to us from the time we emerge from the womb. But exceptionalism has never extended to all citizens. As DeSantis and his legislative goons are showing the nation every day, the number of people who aren’t part of the American story or deserving of a seal of approval is always expanding.
Where will all this cruelty end? What happens when red states grow bored with banning books and prohibiting drag shows and putting children on assembly lines and making life hell for transgender people? What and who will they go after then?
