Florida is one of the major laboratories for the GOP’s grand plan to implement right-wing, minority rule. Before MAGA rolls out their strategy nationally, Florida and Texas often serve as willing guinea pigs to test the waters.
Florida Republicans, especially Governor DeSantis, have spent the past few decades ensuring they control nearly all the levers of power in a state that is actually more diverse than headlines would have you believe. Whereas Virginia and California actually let the voters decide on their redistricting measures, DeSantis decided to bypass the people, and apparently the law, when he drew up and bumrushed a newly drawn map to give Republicans four more seats.
According to recent polls, a majority of Floridians disapprove of DeSantis’s authoritarian measure, but when did MAGA ever let popular opinion, the Constitution, or decency ever get in the way of fulfilling their rich donors and King Trump’s anti-democratic desires? These restrictive measures reflect the GOP’s growing desperation and realization that they have lost the majority, including many Trump voters. There’s no bailout or cover-up for Trump’s disastrous Iran war, reckless trade war, corruption, scandals, and relationship with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Nothing is working anymore. The gig is up.
So, they have to cheat. The best way is to rig the elections by diluting Black votes, passing the Save Act, ending mail-in ballots, unleashing ICE agents to harass voters in blue districts, and relying upon the Supreme Court to rubber-stamp any authoritarian measures needed to keep Democrats from taking back Congress and the White House.
Meanwhile, the state’s Democrats are weak and feckless, according to Lev Parnas, who lives in Florida and is running for office. They’re also wasting $20 million on TV ads instead of listening to organizers and activists on the ground, such as Jasmine Burney-Clark, co- founder of Equal Ground, a Black-led, non-profit organization working to build Black political power in Florida and fighting in the trenches against the MAGA machine.
Equal Ground just filed a lawsuit this week against DeSantis and his power grab. “This map is not just flawed; it is a deliberate and unconstitutional attempt to manipulate our electoral system for partisan gain,’ said Equal Ground Executive Director Genesis Robinson. “The newly enacted map – pushed through with an unlawful mid-decade redistricting process – is in direct violation of the Fair Districts Amendments, overwhelmingly passed by Floridians to prevent this exact type of overreach.”
Burney-Clark joins The Left Hook to discuss how organizers and activists like herself are fighting back against the GOP’s gerrymander efforts in Florida, and why Americans should pay attention to the Sunshine State and its treatment of Black voters because it will serve as a bellwether for what the GOP plans to do ahead of the 2026 and 2028 elections.
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Thank you Amy Gabrielle, Cat: Poli-Psych, LeftieProf, Grace Alexandra Hayden, Copeland Morris, and many others for tuning into my live video with Lev Parnas and Equal Ground Florida! Join me for my next live video in the app.
