In a historically rare move, believe it or not,
Republican legislators in the state of Florida have helped governor
Ron DeSantis further solidify his power and force his will on voters in the state.
They're giving him the power to draft a new congressional district map in
the state of Florida.
So how is this all going down?
Well, the decision announced jointly by Senate President Wilton Simpson and
House speaker Chris Sprowls comes two weeks after DeSantis vetoed
a congressional map approved by the legislature and called state lawmakers
back into a special session to create a new plan that would be to his liking.
And so in a memo to state lawmakers, Sprowls and
Simpson said that the legislative staff are not drafting or
producing a new map to introduce next week.
Instead they're going to do something else,
they're just going to empower the governor to draw up the map of his liking.
And as you can imagine, there are a lot of fears about that.
And I think those fears are certainly warranted.
DeSantis redistricting would more than likely result in black and brown
communities having their power diminished by essentially diluting their vote.
The way that these district maps are often drawn, it's intentionally made
to disempower communities that are predominantly black and brown.
And we have some honestly for shadowing signs here.
So while DeSantis has not produced a new congressional map since
the legislature made its final version his general counsel Ryan Newman had
earlier earlier offered a map that experts say would have reduced black and
Hispanic voting strength in congressional districts.
And that raised new questions about DeSantis' commitment to the fair
districts standards of the Florida constitution.
Really it doesn't raise questions, are questions raised.
Yeah, it definitely, I mean obviously he didn't like the previous congressional
map as it was drawn by state legislators and now he gets to do what he wants.
And it's a problem, especially since if it gets challenged, what's likely to happen?
It might work its way through federal courts,
it might end up in the Supreme Court and with conservatives dominating the highest
court in this country things are not looking good for
anyone who wants to preserve whatever is left of our democratic process.
DeSantis also provided a seven page analysis, making it clear that he
thought majority black congressional district five should be eliminated.
So Francesca, it's raising questions.
Questions have been raised.
Yeah, it's a little too early to tell just eliminate a predominantly
black congressional district.
But who knows, you may be able to be better.
Like it's incredible to me the power that governors have received over the last,
I don't know, even just under Trump, just seeing all the ways.
I mean I'm thinking even back to Scott Walker, like the ways that they have
been empowered and emboldened to just run roughshod over their own legislatures.
And so even when there is,
they already have a GOP dominated legislature, what more do you want?
That was an agreed upon bipartisan map.
And it shows to me that obviously we understand that republicans know they
can't win without cheating and without gerrymandering,
they can't win elections anymore.
They certainly can't win the popular vote on a presidential level, but
on a congressional level, they resulted in gerrymandering.
The problem is the 2020 census just came down,
remember how we thought it was gonna be like doomsday terrible,
they were just gonna like Trump and was just gonna add a bunch of like
white people that didn't exist and undocumented people.
Turns out it's it seems like that census wasn't as bad as expected and
in fact took some districts away from predominantly Republican
leaning counties and so what do they have to do?
They gotta make it up by on a state level just gerrymandering and going back.
>> That's right. Yeah, that's really important context.
And I think you're right about that.
And it also shows you how little these politicians really
believe in our system of government.
Because this is obviously on a state level, but even within a state,
you have a system of checks and balances, you have the governor who's
effectively the executive in that state and then you have the legislature.
And you're supposed to have that system of checks and balances to ensure that
too much power isn't solidified in one branch of the government or the other.
And in this case, the state lawmakers have decided to
give Rhonda Santis even more power to make a decision,
make decisions that have an impact on the outcome of elections and
that is a disaster.
Again, it is so clear that they don't believe in our system of government.
They don't believe in checks and balances and
they certainly do not believe in small government.
The only context in which they do want small government is when it comes
to corporate regulations, when it comes to taxes, when it comes to anything
that has to do with our economic system benefiting people at the very top.
This lopsided capitalistic system that they fight so
hard to protect and the way that they fight
to protect it is to prevent any real regulation from going through.
Now DeSantis is already receiving outside pressure on how to draft a new
congressional map which should not be surprising to anybody.
Those affiliated with Trump's make America great again movement like
radio host Steven Bannon put pressure onto Santa's to demand a map that gave
republicans additional seats in Congress at a time when the balance of power
hinges on outcomes in just a handful of districts.
And Francesca final thing I want to say about this is you
don't even have to question, they just tell you what they're doing.
Yeah, it's so brazen and they know that there will be no consequences.
And then democrats are like, well, I don't know what we should do.
Should we give Joe Manchin another coal mine,
should we let him have more tax writers?
I don't know, like it's just so
sad because they have their machiavellian plans,
the right knows exactly how they're going to further entrench minority rule, right?
Like as if the Senate didn't already do that,
then you get gerrymandering in the house and
like just to remember Florida is diverse, 26% Latino, 17% African American.
It's a diverse state.
You got to do a lot of work to silence a lot of voices, right?
And then of course progressives and leftists and
grassroots organizations are the one footing the bill on like we have to
overcome all kinds of voter suppression and these new districts that are being
drawn in order to have a fighting chance and yet that fight is still worth it.
But man, it's just like we're not getting help at the top, right?
There is no plan of defense.
Last thing I'm gonna say, this is how you appease and you pander to trump and
mitch McConnell, they're gonna love you.
I don't know if the santas and Trump are like heading off for a grand duel on who's
gonna be inherit the Maga movement, but honestly this is something mitch can
get behind and this is something, all the Maga folks can get behind.
Because no matter what pro insurrection is, Republican or,
you know, a Liz Cheney, Liz Cheney loves redistricting in in republicans favor.
Totally, Liz Cheney to her credit is a respectable member of the right
wing that's trying to like completely dissolve our democratic process.
She does it in covert ways, not overt ways she's not a big fan of trying to
overturn an election through a, you know, storming of the capitol or rioting.
Certainly in favor of rigging elections to her party's favor by redistricting.
And I think that's an important thing to bring up, because while she, you know,
has really tried to brand herself, represent herself as someone
who's above the fray of the Republican Party, she's very much within the fray.
She's just another flavor of antidemocratic garbage in this country.
And we shouldn't we shouldn't ever help her rebrand herself because she doesn't
deserve it.