Not Ready For Prime Time

Ron DeSantis’ press secretary accused Florida’s first openly gay Latino legislator of wanting to molest children today.

It’s extraordinary how quickly the state’s Republican Party is shifting toward the position that all gay people are presumptive child predators. https://t.co/MySMnkYmRl

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) March 7, 2022

I get that Abbott has gone after transitioning children and their parents in a way that caused Houston Children’s Hospital to stop treating such children. Even though Harris County would not prosecute. (It doesn’t mean CFPS won’t investigate and even start action for removal of the child.) So until the Austin court rules on the injunction (which is now pending because of appeals), the situation in Texas is fraught. But I also think Paxton’s opinion doesn’t withstand scrutiny, which means I expect the whole thing to blow up. I’m sure Abbott does, too. It’s about politics, not the law. He is that cynical, and craven.

Florida has a law, passed by the legislature. And a gubernatorial press secretary who is as crude as an oil field roughneck.

WOW

The chief spokesperson for @GovRonDeSantis, @ChristinaPushaw, says anyone who opposes Florida's "Don't Say Gay" bill is "probably" a pedophile seeking to "groom" 4-8 year old children.

(via @CarlosGSmith) pic.twitter.com/LJqpB5bi3v

— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) March 6, 2022

Obviously she reflects her boss.

Texas just had a primary in which Abbott’s opponents went as hard right-wing as they could, and yet even they weren’t as LGBTQ-phobic (and hateful) as De Santis. But they lost to Abbott so badly one of them conceded before midnight on Election Day. Paxton, on the other hand, is in a run-off with George P. Bush, who wishes he had Karl Rove to help him seem even more right wing than his famous uncle’s VP. Abbott’s camp think this issue is a winner for them, but it wasn’t for Dan Patrick just a few years ago, and nothing has really changed since then.

Even Texas, in short, is not this phobic about LGBTQ people.

Maybe this plays well in Florida; but I don’t see it carrying DeSantis north of the Florida panhandle. In fact, I see it anchoring him there. The country’s had enough of angry white men. Angry white men who pick on kids has never been a political winner.

Besides:

Putin instructs teachers not to call his war a war https://t.co/QlINFYnoTc

— Raw Story (@RawStory) March 7, 2022

Same energy, as the kids say.