Ron DeSantis and the Politics of Ugly Freedoms

Freedom in the current historical moment has turned ugly. The dark side of freedom as a call to domination and repression is with us once again; it no longer hides in the shadows; nor is it relegated to the margins of society. Americans live in an age when the summons to freedom is being falsely appropriated by the far-right to dominate, suppress, and exclude those considered unworthy, disposable, and excess. It is also being weaponized as a political tool to eliminate those institutions which provide support for those individuals considered either enemies, or dehumanized because of their color, identity, politics, and ethnicity.  The poisoning of freedom is particularly obvious in the ideologically-driven politics and policies of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has used freedom front and center as a calling card and political theater to both promote his presidential aspirations and destroy those values and institutions that are foundational to a substantive democracy. More

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