This 'Sneaky' DeSantis Power Grab Might Be His Cruelest Yet

[Celerity]

Republicans are going after trans people across America. But the potential 2024 contender from Florida is targeting people more efficiently than anyone else.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/florida-governor-ron-desantis-anti-trans-campaign-is-sneaky-power-grab



For months now, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been aggressively using his executive power to deny transgender medical care for two of society’s most vulnerable groups—children and the poor. In that, he has been far from alone, as Republicans across the country lean into an ugly backlash against the trans community and the science that supports it.

Along the way, DeSantis has been employing a power grab some fear will be adopted by other Republican governors—with disastrous results. As part of DeSantis’ ongoing MAGA crusade against progressives, his administration is simultaneously using different state agencies to cut off what is referred to as “gender-affirming” care that helps trans people realize their identities. When a far-right state legislator failed to pass an anti-trans bill earlier this year, the governor resorted to backroom bureaucracy to get the same result.

It’s the latest instance of DeSantis implementing increasingly cruel policies as he builds a national reputation in the run-up to a possible 2024 run for the White House. But it also illustrates what political commentators say distinguishes DeSantis from his presumptive primary foe, former President Donald Trump. DeSantis knows how to operate the machinery of government effectively—as a weapon against the marginalized. And time is running out for anyone to stop him.

“We’re worried that DeSantis is creating a playbook for political ideology. Legislatures are failing to pass these laws because they are against science—and against what constituents in states want to be done with tax dollars. Governors are going to see this and think this is something they can do to sidestep the democratic process,” said Carl Charles, a civil rights lawyer with the advocacy group Lambda Legal, which is fighting to block one of those policies.

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[Timeflyer]

1. The dangers of an authoritarian in control of a one-party state.

[Firestorm49]

4. Much the same as what Skippy Walker dreamt of in Wisconsin.

[Baitball Blogger]

2. That's why I'm saying it's a mistake to write Florida off completely.

The autocratic agenda has been steadily getting traction in this state because property rights attorneys began to push their agendas through the courts. One by one they changed policies through the courts, quietly, since the 1980s. Local Dems didn't fight against it. On the contrary, many of them joined the onslaught through the real estate industry.

Now this same process is being used to undermine every national effort to support minorities and diversity. It has gone mainstream. Don't expect the looney old guard Dems in Florida to know what to do. We need help from outside from civil rights lawyers who have job security, to come in and start blowing them away with court cases. Challenge them before it's too late.

[Mad_Machine76]

3. Anybody filing lawsuits against any of this?

ACLU?

[Celerity]

5. A federal lawsuit brought by the LGBTQ civil rights group Lambda Legal and others is seeking to stop

Florida from restricting its Medicaid this way, with a trial set for May 2023—in front of the same judge who once struck down Florida’s ban on same-sex marriages. Meanwhile, another civil rights group taking part in that lawsuit, the Southern Legal Counsel, is also eyeing a potential challenge to the medical board’s oncoming threat to doctor’s licenses.

[Mad_Machine76]

7. Good Thanks.

The changes to Medicaid almost surely run afoul of Federal Medicaid rules

[Solly Mack]

6. K&R