The Miami Herald Editorial Board Warns of DeSantis's Screwing Floridians and Ultimately, America

[ancianita]

DeSantis gets executive privilege. Floridians (and public records laws) get the shaft | Opinion

Gov. Ron DeSantis has opened yet another front in his endless war to remake Florida in his image. This time, it’s an attack on the public’s right to know and a claim of “executive privilege” that could result in a new level of unfettered power for the governor.

The latest effort to control our state goes to the heart of what government is supposed to do: Represent the people.

Governors are not kings. They cannot do whatever they like. Their work is our work. Their records are our records. We paid for them with our taxes — just like we pay for all the work that is done in Tallahassee, work done in our name and to which we should have almost complete access, except for rare situations in which the government can prove the reason for a (narrow) exception.

...now we have a ruling in a lawsuit, John Doe v. Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Executive Office of the Governor, that runs counter to all of those well-defined concepts of government-by-the-people. As the Miami Herald reported, an anonymous person filed suit last year asking for documents showing any communication between the governor’s office and “six or seven pretty big legal conservative heavyweights” that DeSantis revealed on a podcast that he’d consulted when making judicial picks for the Florida Supreme Court. DeSantis’ legal team (which we are no doubt paying for) argued in court that he shouldn’t have to hand over the documents because such things should be kept secret. The governor needs to be able to talk to anyone and everyone in private if it helps him make good decisions for the rest of us, or so the argument went...

One more word on this, to the rest of the country: A governor whose actions won’t be subject to the sunshine of public scrutiny is a danger to Floridians. A president who does that would be a danger to us all.

Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article271924982.html#storylink=cpy

[Baitball Blogger]

1. We need to read more editorials like that one, all across Florida.

[ancianita]

2. Seriously. I'm loving the Miami Herald.

Other newspapers across the state would do well to tell the country more about this authoritarian governor.

[Baitball Blogger]

3. We lost a great newspapaer when the St. Pete Times went under.

They were ahead of their time.

[ancianita]

4. Right? Well, St. Pete's pretty Democratic, as are most of FL's cities.

We've still got David Jolly around. I really admire his savvy and insights about rethug politics.

I wish he'd run against DeSantis. He's a much better public speaker with a command of Florida issues. But the state's billionaires would really try to crush him like they did Crist.

[Skittles]

5. like Trump, DeFascist does not hide who he is

yet plenty of people voted for him

it is very disturbing indeed

[dalton99a]

6. Kick

[Karadeniz]

7. If DeSantis brought up the advisors in public, he lost the right to go private about them.