Ron DeSantis Wants To Fight The Kids. Let's See How That One Works Out For Him.

Do not bet against Gen Z.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's plan to culture war himself into the White House by pissing off everyone under the age of 30 is going swimmingly. Yesterday Florida students staged a one-hour walk out to protest DeSantis's many attacks on educational institutions, faculty and students, most recently his plan to defund all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, which he describes as “hostile to academic freedom" — an impressive bit of Orwellian doublespeak.

Really you gotta have some balls to claim to be protecting academic freedom at the same time you're banning books, threatening teachers with lawsuits if they say things you don't like, and trying to eliminate tenure for professors. Guess he's got room for swollen gonads, though, being blissfully unburdened by shame, integrity, or basic human decency.  

Normally your Wonkette would refrain from speculating on the dimensions of a politician's genitalia. But DeSantis is all up in everyone's junk, demanding information from state universities on students receiving gender affirming care in the interests of “governing institutional resources and protecting the public interest,” an unmistakable preparation to block insurers from covering trans health care for students who buy insurance from schools. Florida has already banned treatment of gender dysphoria for minors, because, as always, the cruelty is the point.

Yesterday's protest was organized by Florida College Democrats and youth activists from the group Dream Defenders . Students at colleges and universities across the state as well as at some high schools participated in the demonstration. Those would be the voters replacing their reactionary grandparents at the polls, and they showed up big for Democrats in 2018 and 2022.

“From the #STANDFORFREEDOM walkout at USF in Tampa! #CANTBANUS”

— Dream Defenders (@Dream Defenders) 1677184017 

"He has displayed a pattern of behavior in which he Hijacks School Systems as he did with the New College of Florida, Marginalizes and Dehumanizes The LGBTQ Community, and portrays an abject Disregard Of The Rights Of Students," read a signup form for the protest, referring to DeSantis's recent replacement of the board at a small, liberal arts college with conservative allies in a performative attack on liberal academia. "He says we are being indoctrinated by wokeness, but we say he is using us in his narrative, and destroying our schools to achieve his vision."

“We are so proud of our chapters across Florida taking a stand against the radical attacks on our educational system by Ron DeSantis. Together, we are fighting back for all students and showing the extremist GOP our right to education isn’t a politcal game. #StandForFreedom”

— Florida College Democrats (@Florida College Democrats) 1677207724 

Attacking kids seems like a poor electoral strategy generally, and particularly when it comes to Gen Z. Because these kids give a shit , and they will come for you.

“This man is a fascist governor who is traveling around the state and the United States of America to present himself as the next president. And if we don't take charge of Florida now, he's going to turn the United States of America into the new Jim Crow,” Malik Gary, a Dream Defenders activist who organized the walkout at Tallahassee's universities, told Teen Vogue last week. “Ron DeSantis, we're on our way to take you down and we're full-steam ahead for a better day."

The kids are good. We need to let them run everything. And for the love of all that is good, we need to invest in getting them to the polls in every single election.

Also, DeSantis is a fucking ghoul.

[ Teen Vogue / ABC ]

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