Texas judge calls Florida “authoritarian, anti-business”
At least Fort Bend County is not likely to sink into the ocean. It’s just likely to flood. But y’all come:
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A Texas judge wrote a letter to Disney’s CEO inviting the company to move its Walt Disney World resort to the Lone Star State after its issues with Florida’s state government.
Friday, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill dissolving the Reedy Creek Improvement District, Disney’s private government that has been in place for 55 years.
This came after Disney openly opposed the Parental Rights in Education Bill, also known as the “Don’t Say Gay” Bill. Last March, the company announced it would end its political donations in Florida and instead support organizations in opposition to the law.
In the midst of DeSantis’ feud with the Disney Company, Fort Bend County Judge JP George, the chief executive officer of Fort Bend County, Texas, wrote a letter inviting the company to relocate to his area and avoid “authoritarian, anti-business, and culture war attacks from extremists in Florida.”
The letter, addressed to CEO Bob Chapek, promoted his county as an ideal location for the large amounts of purchasable land and its strategic location in the state of Texas.
Here’s the letter.
A few Republicans are beginning to believe their party’s anti-gay rights campaign may have gone a skosh too far. What if it spurs a moderate-voter backlash? What if they think the party is anti-gay? What if they have gay family members?
As The Washington Post considers all the anti-gay bills Republican legislatures like Florida’s recently have enacted:
The measures have been accompanied by a push among some Republicans to falsely describe backers of gay rights as “groomers” who are recruiting children to question their own sexuality or gender identity at a young age, torquing up rhetoric that LGBTQ activists say is dangerous. One top Senate Republican also recently criticized the legal underpinnings of a 2015 Supreme Court decision affirming the right to same-sex marriage — a ruling that has broad public support.
Republicans needed a wedge issue for 2022. They created two, at least. One, over discussions of race in schools. Another, over classroom mention of gender differences. They’ve couched these nontroversies as matters of parental rights. That’s the GOP’s preferred smoke screen for thinly disguising widespread prejudice:
“[Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn] Youngkin invented this, and DeSantis has perfected it,” said Dan Eberhart, a GOP donor who is close with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). Eberhart said laws like the one in Florida signal to the base of the party a willingness to take on fights.
But Eberhart said that he thinks DeSantis “may have gone too far” in pushing subsequent legislation that stripped special tax breaks from the Walt Disney Co. after it opposed the parental rights bill. Now, he said, Democrats can paint DeSantis as hurting the economy in central Florida, where Disney employs thousands of workers.
The resurgence of anti-gay rhetoric is reminiscent of a past era, some observers said. In 2004, for example, Republicans pushed state referendums banning same-sex marriage. But by the time of the Donald Trump administration, GOP antipathy to gay and lesbian rights had in many respects faded.
But their true purpose is to inflame passions against Democrats. And against public schools whose funding conservatives would like to see handed to for-profit, Republican-friendly donor businesses. If those businesses will still have them after what DeSantis is doing to Disney.
So move over, Black Lives Matter. Move over, Antifa. Move over Southern Strategy. Hell, move over Republicans’ traditional back-scratching of the Chamber of Commerce. DeSantis and the Republicans of MAGA 2.0 have turned off their inhibitor chips. They’re attacking the hands that feed them. They’ve rejected the principles of democracy, the Declaration and the Constitution. They’re going full authoritarian.
“Free speech for me, compliance for thee.”
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