Excerpt from Reddit, link included. Desantis is a bureaucratically inclined fascist authoritarian.
This is really chilling!
DeSantis joins the pro-Putin MAGA crowd
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/15/desantis-ukraine-maga/
https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/11rw1o2/desantis_joins_the_proputin_maga_crowd/?utm_name=androidcss
Desantis is a bureaucratically inclined fascist authoritarian.
He uses the cloak of democracy to persecute and punish the "other", like no one else has in government in our history, even in the darkest days of Regan or Nixon, there were still people fighting the good fight, but Desantis will make certain those people are sued, abused, attacked, arrested, deported, or conveniently silenced. Just... like... Putin.
His interest is entirely in gaining power to hurt the people he hates. He does this through systematically replacing anyone has the power to with his cronies and goons. Given his actions in Florida, at the federal level, this will mean an unprecedented presidential overreach because our presidency is imbued with incredible powers that have never been codified into law, or arbitrated in our court system.
Trump never understood the power he had. Desantis will, and it will stun and confuse everyone with shocking efficacy.
Putin represents the sort of governance he wants, defacto control of every level of society with no checks and balances, where he is the big boss, the guy who decides what is acceptable, and what is "anti-american".
Desantis understands that governance can be used like a cudgel to make it harder for people to vote you out or to have any agency at all. A man with no scruples, no decency, no respect for anyone or the rule of law... can destroy the fabric of our country, and truly turn us into a very dark and sad place with nothing but autocracy ahead.(See Russia)
A Desantis presidency will not just end democracy, it will actively persecute anyone who dares speak against him, press, media, protestors, individual citizens will be targeted by his thugs. It will make freedom of speech into "freedom from respect and dignity". A country where the president gets to decide what freedom of speech is, and who can use it.
He understands that the people to the right of center don't much care about what happens to people they disagree with, and people further right actively want those people physically hurt and imprisoned.
Like Putin, Desantis understands that generally people don't like to stand up against real power, when they have relative comfort and stability. They know he is wrong, but as long as they have bread and circuses, as long as no one they know gets arrested, as long as they can excuse the horrific abuse in some way that normalizes it (ie-those people deserve it)... The center will not revolt under him, because he will move on the fringes first, and most people generally don't care about trans folks, certainly not enough to stop him/vote against him. The fear cloaks everything.
Get used to this phrase from your friends and the news "But He can't do that... can he?"
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