When you take democracy to the extreme, you can find yourself surprisingly close to an authoritarian system.
Extreme features have been seen recently, especially on the east coast of the United States in the state of Florida, where the presidential candidate Ron DeSantis waging a confusing culture war.
In the culture war, conservative values are pitted against each other and the enemies that threaten them: nudity, menstruation, immigrants and transgenders.
These are the things DeSantis is now waging a fierce war against
However, the debate about whether transgender people can participate in sports events hides the real problems of the state.
This story tells what Florida’s seemingly nonsensical reforms are actually about.
A visiting professor at the University of Turku has been interviewed for the story Sam Abrams. He has done research on the privatization of education at Columbia University. In addition, a political expert has been asked about the story Bill Doyle’s and a doctor of education and a writer Pasi Sahlberg’s views.
Is it a traditional conservative versus liberal setup?
Florida state’s educational reforms are driven by the polarization of American society and the general escalation of the social climate.
US political confrontation has increased in recent years. This is evident both in the struggle within the US administration and at the state level.
Florida’s population is very diverse. Tensions between different cultural and social groups have increased in recent years.
In Florida, polarization has been caused, for example, by disputes over coronavirus restrictions, immigration policy, environmental protection and election legislation.
In the last six months, several reforms have been made in Republican-led Florida, which have global attention (you switch to another service) and have caused concern among many Floridians.
Republicans partially got what DeSantis proposed in 2022 Stop woke (you switch to another service) -through the legislative initiative. Originally, the aim of the law amendment was to prohibit employees of public higher education institutions from using concepts related to race.
However, the curricula of publicly funded schools have been changed recently. For example, DeSantis rejected by the administration (you move to another service)a high school course that would have dealt with the sensitive Black lives matter movement in the United States and critical race theory (you move to another service).
Women’s issues have also been addressed.
Florida State House of Representatives Legislators are considering law (you move to another service)which would prohibit talking about the menstrual cycle in elementary schools.
According to DeSantis and Republicans, race theory and sexuality are too political and ideological topics, and addressing them in schools would only create more tensions and divisions.
Why does DeSantis need a culture war?
DeSantis needs a culture war to distract the public from the real problems in Florida, like a program that is driving public education down.
Public discussion of DeSantis’ policies highlights the culture war, but it overshadows everything else that’s happened in the state during DeSantis’ tenure.
Statistically, Florida lags behind when comparing US states in almost every measurement relevant to the lives of its citizens, such as healthcare (you switch to another service) and training (you move to another service) in quality.
DeSantis Florida teachers salaries (you move to another service) are the lowest in the country.
Taxation of the rich is instead remained at a low level (you switch to another service). Florida’s corporate tax rate is 5.5 percent, one of the lowest in the country.
Among Republican-led states, Florida fares worse than average when evaluated life expectancy (you switch to another service), cancer deaths (you switch to another service), drug deaths (you move to another service), teenage births (you move to another service) and infant mortality (you move to another service).
In 2018-2019, Florida reduced per-pupil public education spending by about 12 percent.
At the same time, Florida’s subsidies for private education increased by 313 percent.
The phenomenon is not explained by Florida’s economic situation.
The annual growth of GDP per capita in the state exceeds the national average.
So it seems that under the guise of a culture war, Florida’s Republican leadership is about to dismantle the state’s public education once and for all.
In March, Florida approved a program that makes all students eligible for a grant of about $8,000. Support is given to both the rich and the poor. The support encourages the transition to private education.
As a result, it is feared that the tuition fees of private schools will be beyond the reach of ordinary families.
DeSantis’ reform will primarily affect the already disadvantaged, as private schools have a lot of power over what kind of young people they choose as students.
The decision has a significant impact on the funding of public schools, because the support can be used for example to organize a home school.
Florida still funds public schools, but in practice subsidizing private education takes “extra” money from public schools that could be used to improve the quality of instruction, reduce class sizes, and update learning materials.
How does the term woke relate to the situation in Florida?
DeSantis is fighting against a liberal, enlightened worldview. The term woke has become a weapon used by some Republican politicians to attack liberal politicians.
Florida Governor DeSantis has said (you are switching to another service)that he is waging war against woke culture.
The rapid rise of “Wokenism” as a powerhouse in American politics began with valid questions raised by parents of school children.
Many people were really worried about how and at what age it is appropriate for children to talk about phenomena related to gender, sexuality and race.
In Republican-led states, such as Florida, however, things quickly went from ditch to well.
In Florida, the discussion turned to whether it is possible to talk about inequality, discrimination and sexuality in school at all.
The history of the state still affects the background: inequality based on skin color and painful memories of slavery.
The problem in the partly Republican-led state is that many still deny America’s history of oppression and refuse to recognize deep-rooted racist practices.
Questions about racism challenge the prevailing way of speaking and specifically threaten the white, male-majority Republican Party.
In a recent one in research (you switch to another service) it was found that white representatives of the liberal trend cherished anti-racist concepts and identities, although they did little work for anti-racist goals.
Thus, the Republican culture war against anti-racist concepts, books, or policies is really a war against movements led by white liberals, not against minorities themselves.
Has Florida gone too far?
When democracy is taken too far, a situation where the tyranny of the majority prevails will inevitably arise. In such a system, the threat can be violations of human rights, deprivation of freedoms and censorship.
Florida’s increasingly long list of banned books is starting to resemble authoritarian China and Russia in a way.
In late January, hundreds of Florida schools emptied their bookshelves in panic as new rules governing school literature were about to take effect.
According to the new rules, the school’s media specialist must go through all the books available to children and check whether they comply with the Ministry of Education’s rules.
In Martin County, Florida, on the other hand, at least 84 books were pulled from libraries in March at the initiative of concerned mothers.
Most of the books dealt with identity, sexuality or social issues such as political oppression, social injustice, feminism and human rights.
The politics practiced by the Republicans in Florida therefore strongly resembles the extreme right or extreme conservatism.
DeSantis has acted exactly as is typical of extremist movements.
He has sought to silence anyone who disagrees with his ideology or values.
DeSantis has been compared to the ex-president of the United States to Donald Trumpwho distinguished himself during his presidency with his racist and sexist comments.
DeSantis himself denies being like Trump.
However, under the leadership of Ron DeSantis, Republican groupthink has intensified. The effort to reach a consensus has led to many legal initiatives being pushed through.
In that sense, DeSantis is no different from Hungary from Viktor Orbán or about Trump.
Florida’s governor defends himself by saying he doesn’t cause drama, unlike Trump.
Nevertheless, the governor of Florida has provided the people with circus entertainment under Trump’s law.
He has shelved (you are moving to another service) at least one judge who did not want to prosecute abortion-related charges and tried to disconnect (you switch to another service) because of the entire Disney theme park board controversy surrounding the Pride flags.