(DON THOMPSON / iNFOnews.ca)

OPINION

A few of my friends have asked why I continue to live in Florida part of the year, a state that has become emblematic of Right Wing intolerance toward just about everyone who’s not a white male. Some of those friends are gay, others straight, all of them are open-minded.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis - a Trump Mini-Me who likes to brag about his Ultra-Right Wing agenda - promises “you ain’t seen nothing yet.” Women - whose abortion rights already are dangerously curtailed - are especially at risk of losing more freedoms if DeSantis has his way.

Likewise, members of the LGBTQ community are treated as less-than-human in Florida even as you read this. Anyone who cares about voting rights, freedom of the press and believes access to books is a foundation of American society, is threatened, as well.

Florida has been governed by Republicans for more than two decades. Make no mistake, these are not your father’s Republicans, who were largely conservative - both fiscally and socially - but supported Democracy.

No, the Republican Party of the last dozen years caters to an ever-increasing number of white supremacists, those who are narrow of mind and conspiracy theorists who believe everything wrong in the state, country and world can be laid at the feet of Jews, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, immigrants, the LGBTQ community, Liberals and Democrats.

Today’s Republicans are, generally, among the most intolerant, less educated of Americans. Republicans like twice-impeached former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are head cheerleaders of today’s GOP, though dozens of lesser demagogues - like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lindsay Graham, Jim Jordan, Matt Gaetz, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Paul Gosar, Lauren Boebert and Elise Stefanik - are on the jeering squad. Together they are doing their best to end American Democracy.

They do this, of course, while waving the flag and talking about the need to Make America Great Again. Simply look at the bills they sponsor and vote for, the bills they block, and note their actions as opposed to their words and you’ll see they are not patriots. Rather, they pose today’s biggest threat to American Democracy.

Florida is home to a lot of Republicans, though almost as many Democrats and Independents live there. The Republicans are largely big supporters of both Trump and DeSantis. They are - to a great extent - ignorant of issues, policies and facts. I know this because I ask them. Anyone who knows me knows that I engage people, habitually, constantly - it comes with a natural curiosity that has served me well over the years.

Florida Republicans proudly fly Trump banners, wear MAGA baseball caps and stick DeSantis bumper stickers all over their vehicles. Last week, I asked one such fellow what he liked most about DeSantis in the parking lot of a Winn-Dixie grocery store in Williston, FL.

He shot back, “Saving our freedoms!”

“What freedoms are we losing?” I asked.

“You know, everything,” he replied, looking at me suspiciously.

“They’re turning boys into girls, making them read nonsense in schools and making us feel guilty about what happened to coloured folks a long time ago,” he explained. “It’s not right.”

“Who are ‘they’?” I asked.

“Democrats, Liberals, you know, that ‘woke’ bunch,” he said, looking at me like, how could you not know?

“I don’t know what woke means?” I said, playing dumb.

“Those going after Trump, those trying to change our kids… God-haters! DeSantis and Trump are keeping them from indoctrinating our kids, killing the unborn, blaming us for their faults.”

I shrugged and went about my shopping. No amount of facts, truths - nothing I might say would ever convince this man that he, Trump, DeSantis and every white Republican are simply wrong.

So, why do I still live in Florida. Quite frankly, the same reason members of the French Resistance never left Paris when Nazis marched down the Champs-Élysées to impose their will. Florida, and the United States, are worth fighting for. Florida, after all, is not a sovereign state.

I’m sorry, but should good, decent people sit back and let Ultra-Right-Wingers move from state to state pushing for a dictatorship because they believe they can’t win free elections? These un-Americans already claim Florida, Arizona, Texas, Wisconsin, Wyoming, West Virginia, Idaho, Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky and North Dakota - and they want more.

Do you never visit or travel through those states, never buy a product made in one of those states? No! Sorry, I didn’t serve my country in the Air Force so a bunch of ignoramuses can tell the majority what to do.

Trump, DeSantis - most elected Republicans - know they can’t win a fair fight. So, they cheat. They incite violence and insurrections. They bully. The use fear tactics to scare a largely ignorant base of voters.

Look, Jews represent 2.4 percent of the U.S. population, but account for 55 percent of the victims of hate crimes in America. A Black man and a white man commit the same crime in the U.S., the Black man’s sentence is more than 20 percent longer.

Millions of women in America don’t have a final say when it comes to their pregnancies, a group of white Ultra-Right-Wing lawmakers and their appointed judges do. U.S. children are more likely to die from being shot than either cancer or auto accidents. Even so, Republicans ban books - that never kill children - rather than pursue sensible gun control.

Remember, these folks cheat, lie, steal - whatever it takes to stay in power - all without any intention of governing for all Americans. The problem is, maybe you can live in New York or Massachusetts or Michigan or California or any other state where Democrats and Independents rule. Then what, wait for the racist, narrow-minded insurrectionists to move in?

So, leave Florida, for where?

No way. I’m going to fight this like the evil it is ’til my dying breath.

— Don Thompson, an American awaiting Canadian citizenship, lives in Vernon and in Florida. In a career that spans more than 40 years, Don has been a working journalist, a speechwriter and the CEO of an advertising and public relations firm. A passionate and compassionate man, he loves the written word as much as fine dinners with great wines.

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