This is posting late Eastern Standard Time. If you are in the western hemisphere and inducing stress is not a part of your nightly routine, come back to this tomorrow. Have a good night sleep. :)

Some qualifications, I am a second-generation Floridian who has lived in most the major regions of FL. It’s easy to see the ‘burbs and rural areas start to swell faster and faster. Florida is the 3rd most populous state in the country. It continues to grow with increased immigration due to COVID policies, sunshine, and strong personality ready to defend the American way at large (?). Sources for this blurb range from friends/acquaintances/colleagues’ anecdotes in lobbying, academia (grade school and collegiate), those whose families have lived here long enough that the road their family lives on bears the same last name as their great(+/-2) grandparent who first broke ground in the area.

The main point of this post is not just to draw a line across local and national headlines, but to paint a clearer picture of what is going on down here… and give you reason to not pass off DeSantis as just-another-GOP-clown-without-foresight. It was feared another populist would see how easy an idiot like Trump could take the reigns of minds, and perfect it. This is post is in hopes to persuade that DeSantis has a plan to make at minimum a generation of Floridians ignorant enough to keep conservatives in power.

Some follow-up on this comment referenced below of ‘why DeSantis won in 2022’, and context on just how wild the last Florida gubernatorial silly season.

That being said, Nikki Fried vs Charlie Crist was a tough match up that people hope would prove better for the state. But when it really comes down to it, DeSantis leveraged quarantine to pull a publicity stunt to turn heads in the GOP. Ever since, he’s been acting as though he had a mandate in 2018 (for the record, it wasn’t a mandate). As such, Florida’s gotten redder with over a million people coming to a “Free” state with no income tax and low cost of living. So, the GOP machine has been pivoting to DeSantis from Trump as the 2024 heir apparent as J6 settled.

That non-mandate from the prior election was to the tune of 0.4% of the vote. Again, DeSantis won against the Democratic candidate Gillum by 0.4% of the vote in 2018.

Four years later, DeSantis won against Crist by 20%. THAT’S a mandate. As such, DeSantis is pressing his advantage for more votes in the formerly purple state with his not-so-subtle campaig—I’m mean book tour, pressuring the already fragile democratic party in FL.

Charlie Crist was forced to resign in order to run for governor and has not been heard of since. Despite losing the Democratic bid to Crist, Nikki Fried was tapped as the new Democratic Chair of Florida last month. That resign-to-run law is unique to Florida, yet set to be repealed, courtesy of the Republican Supermajority explicitly stating this is for DeSantis’ benefit come 2024 campaign season.

Keeping this in mind, environmental and left-of-center lobbyists are wary of working with DeSantis, fearing that giving him a win provides him more ammo to appeal to centrists come election time 2024.

Anti-woke bills sandwiched in the “Don’t Say Gay” law, what Disney reacted to.

ICYMI, DeSantis didn’t lose to Disney (at least, yet, I’m hoping). He won the first battle. He took away Reedy Creek as a threat of power. Per sources (paraphrasing here), DeSantis took Chapek behind closed doors and held up 3 pieces of paper that Florida’s government had acquiesced to Disney in years past. Reedy Creek was the least impactful of the three, and with the other two, he told Chapek, ‘You already lost this one, step out of line again and you come back here and get to choose what you lose next’. Now, there are many issues with Chapek, but this was a contributing factor in his unceremonious exit. Iger came back in time for DeSantis to kick off his book signing tour in Orlando upon signing Reedy Creek’s return to public purview. Of course, over the course of drafting this, Disney’s said they aren’t done yet, and I’m interested to see how this one plays out under Iger.

The play on education – raising the Right, “right”... right? The meat of the post.

DeSantis is playing the long game with education, and it doesn’t start with New College. This time last year, DeSantis raised teachers’ minimum wage while stunting the pay ladder for long-standing teachers. In effect, he incentivized incoming teacher’s salaries while snubbing existing teachers pay. While doing so he’s worked toward (and pushed through) a policy of granting veterans and enlisted military a waiver to the teaching certificate requirement. Meaning, vet’s and enlisted personnel do not need formal training to be teachers in grade-school classrooms, public or charter. No less uncertain terms: this is a ploy to attract and enable underqualified candidates into classrooms with (one would assume) an leaning similar to the governor’s leaning - all while slyly inferring to those who have a tenure that they will not be rewarded for their time teaching liberal ideals, of course.

‘Don’t Say Gay’ is a part of the his ‘STOP WOKE’ bills. DeSantis is weaponizing the inefficiency of Trump-esque bureaucracy (or lack thereof) to pass bills, sometimes without proper infrastructure to carry out, as a top-down blanket enforcement of law to remove books from classrooms and libraries completely. Per sources, the anti-woke review board has left elementary through high school with empty shelves and no function. Now, on the list of books being covered and removed includes classical literature, books on slavery, the holocaust (e.g. The Diary of Anne Frank), and other ‘touchy’ subjects to the right. Yet this Anti-woke review board leaves some

Now remember, Florida is the 3rd most populous state… this is a sweeping blow to the future of a nation starting from a young age. As they grow, the State of Florida would pay not only for teachers to prepare students for college, but pay for AP exams, course material, etc. The 3rd most populous state in the United States covered each student’s College Board fees for AP exams. I have yet to substantiate this, yet this accounted for about 20% of College Board’s revenue. Regardless of this number, the third most populous state paying the College Board threatens to cut their programs, and the College Board reacts by saying “the customer is always right!” They have walked it back since, though this tid-bit is a little additional context as to why the College Board’s initial reaction – the state pays for students’ college preparation.

Speaking of college, New College of Florida (NCF) is the PERFECT political target for DeSantis to make an example of in his backyard - oh by the way, it’s this New College:

Just over 500 students total year-round (light on resources), a top producer of Fulbright recipients and known as a Post-Graduate style prep-school for terminal degrees. All-in-all, a premier liberal arts school in the nation with little infrastructure. Yet, DeSantis’s takeover of this college was only the first to make national headlines. The canary in the coalmine was a former conservative Senator Ben Sasse installed as President by DeSantis in University of Florida months prior, with intent to shape education to DeSantis’ agenda. In due course, the conservative activist at NCF summarily axed all board members not of conservative mind at NCF shortly upon arrival.

Sources heavily implied Chris Rufo, said conservative activist installed at NCF, is lambasting Florida State University (the major uni in Florida’s capital city) is merely foreshadowing where he will go next once his time as an NCF appointee is up. In other words, he was placed in NCF first to pad his resume before handing the baton off to another conservative activist when taking on FSU. That said, FSU is already starting to see changes including (but not limited to) reform of its Department of Equity & Inclusion, Black Student Union, and other ethnic unions. This includes sources within the state system (gov’t and academic) pushing for DEI public outreach ventures using state resources getting a direct order from the governor’s office to halt.

But let’s venture further from the capitol… did you forget? Florida is the 3rd most populous state in the United States – the proud home of College Football’s 2017 National Champions University of Central Florida boasts itself as having largest enrollment in the nation (fluctuating year-to-year among Texas A&M and Ohio State). Where things stand amongst the colleges, it is seen a crown jewel ripe for brainwashing a generation or two conservative reformation.

IF DeSantis gets his way, Florida is a conservative pedagogical breeding ground from K-12 and into higher education. This being, IF he doesn’t win in 2024.