Baitball Blogger
Baitball Blogger's JournalI know. I could write stories about this crazy belief.
I saw it for the first time in the nineties when this community went insane over the fate of a failed P.U.D. It is a very detailed history, but it came down to one major landholder trying to develop his private property. Small groups of connected people met in public and private meetings to discuss ways to stop him. Some thought they were fighting to protect the PUD, and others were more interested in how they could personally benefit from the inevitable event that it would be dismantled. I researched that time period through public records. We lived here while it was happening, but were not part of the connected group until everything was set in motion. It was an eye opener.
At some point, they were trying to figure out how to get around land development laws in order to dismantle the P.U.D. The most corrupt local lawyer even spread a faulty legal opinion to persuade the community, using the master hoa's monthly magazine. And it is my belief that the good ole boys in my community applied what he was telling them to try to dismantle the common grounds in our private HOA property.
And here is the thing about allowing community leaders and elected officials to meet in private meetings. Things are said that are simply not legal or sound. But the most greediest and ambitious in a community will use that information like it's gospel. There was a group of them in my HOA, and I believe they applied the faulty legal interpretations in an attempt to take over our HOAs common grounds. We didn't even know what hit us, but I was part of a small group of people that slowed them down, just long enough to understand what was going on. I believe we would have had 100% success if it weren't for a couple of local lawyers who interfered when they had conflicts of interest. It always felt like we couldn't find firm ground to stand on, because, without proper legal advice, it's a lot like trying to walk through a slippery mud pit.
What an alarming period. My neighbor was the president of our HOA, and our community also had a well-connected good ole boy down the street who had better political access. Information he brought into the community, affected the president's judgment. The first tip-off that something was very wrong came from the behavior of president's wife. She would go into conniptions whenever my husband mowed even a foot over an invisible property line. This went on for several stressful years. The best we could do was leave a mohawk of grass between the properties. She was so rattled by it, that she once pointed at me and told her workers, "There's bad blood between us." Fuck, what? How did I get caught in this deplorable country song?
For the most part, I avoided her, which is my go-to strategy for anyone that I feel might be tempted to think that Manifest Destiny is an acceptable white privilege they can use to take over common ground or someone else's private property. You would be surprised how many people will throw out restrain and good judgment when they're taking part in a bickering basket.
Those were stressful years. Nerve-wracking, and completely drained me of any trust I had in people. But it helped me to see how, in a white suburban community in Florida, the seeds for self-destruction are already planted and ready to burst out of the ground.
By courting the hard right, De Santis is deluding himself.
All along, De Santis has been pandering to the hard right faction of the Republican party. It's the side that embraces the idea that America belongs to the "right" kind of American, which is to say, Anglo-centric conservative roots. To court them, he uses terminology which is not disguised. The Anti-woke rhetoric is very much in our face, evidenced by his programs. He took on Disney in the beginning because they dared to stand up to his anti-gay policies. He's removing books in our schools that teach tolerance or awareness about the minority experience. THESE are very loud tells about his personal prejudices. Yet, I think he believes that no one has deciphered what he thinks is a dog whistle.
Every time that someone takes him head on and asks him a question that would expose him for the racist that he is, he avoids giving a direct soundbite that would make it simple and easy to replay. And we need these statements to reach the Republicans who are go-alongs. They're not full blown racist, or anti-gay and this failure to look deeper will blind them into voting for someone who can very well become our first American Mussolini.
I'll give you two examples of these kind of voters. One Republican just dismisses De Santis rhetoric, claiming he is talking big just to expand his voter base. He doesn't live in Florida and doesn't really believe that De Santis will follow through with his programs. Another Republican is a mother who has a gay son, loves him dearly, accepts his lifestyle, but she likes what De Santis is doing. When I told her that De Santis has an anti-gay agenda, she replied that the media twisted his words.
That's why we need a hard hitting, concise statement from this weaselly governor that leaves no room for doubt that he does have an anti-gay and anti-racist agenda and he doesn't support women. He cannot go into the next election with these issues left dangling.
So far, he's been able to get away with it by either getting pouty and angry at the questions or claiming that he did not have anything to do with the changes that are taking place at the local level. i.e. He claimed that he was not responsible for the school book removals because he didn't give the direct order, yet the orders stand because everyone knows that's what he wants. They are riding out a direct dog whistle, like they think we are incapable of deciphering the message. And that's why he's such a weasel.
In Florida, he'll get away with it, because this is how Florida operates. It is behavior that I call: it is, but it really isn't. I saw it when we had two leaders representing our HOA during a chaotic time in its development. One was the leader that tried to take control of the board by extending his term without a formal election, and the other was a good ole boy who had a direct relationship with the Mayor. So I got to see both ways that Florida operates. The backwater way, and the way that pretends to follow the rules. Imagine trying to get proper representation with that situation? They both pretended they were following the proper process, at the same time that they were defrauding us by withholding information, just so they could get the results they wanted when it came down to recording a vote. The hidden alliances with their supporters gave them the power to sell snake oil at the formal meetings.
There is only one way to break out of this rabbit hole, and that is to expose their agenda loudly, clearly and publicly. Unfortunately, in my HOA case it would take years to figure out the game board and time is of the essence in these situations. But in De Santis' case, we know everything we need to know. He is anti-gay, anti-minority and anti-female. The media needs to get those soundbites that show his affiliations now, so he has no pretense of enjoying dog whistles that to us, are as loud as a steam locomotive.
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Gender: Do not displayCurrent location: Seminole County, Florida
Member since: Sun Mar 18, 2012, 10:16 PM
Number of posts: 46,752
