An NBC News opinion column asserted Wednesday that Gov. Ron DeSantis’ efforts to ban CRT and protect young children from being taught about gender and sexuality in inappropriate ways in public schools, represents “thought control that has happened” in “Nazi Germany” or “today’s China.”
Written by former federal prosecutor Dennis Aftergut, the opinion piece, titled “Ron DeSantis has taken Trump’s playbook — and made it much more dangerous,” discussed how the Florida Republican has turned Trump’s “divisive talk into real (and really harmful) action” that mirrors action done in “totalitarian societies.”
Aftergut’s reasoning included a variety of DeSantis’ recent policy decisions including the enactment of the Parental Rights in Education Bill, but he was really focused on the governor’s latest initiative, which Aftergut described as, “censoring math books.”
He wrote, “So it’s come to this in Florida: censoring math books. Last Saturday, the state’s education board banned 54 of 132 books submitted for inclusion in public schools’ math curricula.”
He added, “The board said it had decided to reject more than half of the math textbooks submitted because they included ‘prohibited topics or unsolicited strategies, including CRT.’”
Aftergut snarked, “Were the textbooks’ algebraic equations somehow encoded with secret woke messages, like CRT Trojan horses?” and responded, “I won’t hold my breath for answers.”
The state of Florida released several examples from the rejected math textbooks. One described the Implicit Association Test which measures levels of ‘racial prejudice’ while displaying a graph suggesting conservatives are more inclined to be racially biased.
The other examples were, of course, about race “social and emotional learning” deemed not fit for the state’s math curriculum by the Florida Department of Education.
Still, Aftergut claimed, “It’s all part of DeSantis’ bid to politicize education,” Aftergut argued.
Aftergut added, “Certainly, what’s happening now in Florida looks a lot like the thought control that has happened in totalitarian societies. Whether in the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany or today’s China, the banning of books is a central strategy for strongmen. DeSantis has no qualms using that playbook if he thinks it will benefit him politically.”
Following that, the author argued DeSantis might end up being more popular than Donald Trump for the 2024 election cycle.
“Trump’s popularity may have peaked. Meanwhile, DeSantis’ political star is on the rise,” Aftergut stated.
“DeSantis presents an even clearer present and future danger than Trump does,” he warned.
“Consistently, where Trump has sown divisive messages, DeSantis has added to the harm by turning them into real (state) policy. Putting aside his divisive proposals on race, he’s also attacked the LGBTQ community and engendered a cruel homophobic backlash,” he added, referring to the governor signing the parental rights bill.
Aftergut also mentioned DeSantis’ push for the “Florida Legislature to punitively repeal Disney World’s right to govern itself on its property in the state,” his success in “voter suppression” and “his push to expand Florida’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ statute while cracking down on protests.”
He concluded, “If he emerges as a national candidate, get ready to fight his brand of demagoguery.”
I guess it’s safe to say that DeSantis hit a nerve by blocking woke child grooming in his state. What do you think? Let me know in the comments below.