When did the Florida GOP become the party of self-righteous prigs (SRPs)?
At what point in the GOP’s decades of state political dominance were policy makers supplanted by village scolds?
It’s clear that our Great DeSanitizer has appointed himself Village Scold in Chief (VSIC). And he has installed a great supporting cast of apprentice scolds in the offices of Attorney General, CFO, Education…even the Department of Tranportation.
“We will not allow our state roads to be commandeered for political purposes,” declared our self-righteous VSIC after he sent his DOT minions to Orlando – in the dead of night – to paint over a rainbow crosswalks memorial to the 49 victims of the Pulse nightclub murders.
Now cities all over Florida are being forced to remove – not just rainbows – but all manner of street murals that studies have shown to have a traffic calming effect. Gainesville has even been told to remove green bicycle lane markings.
All this ostensibly in the name of traffic safety. But it’s really just the usual gang of SRPs raging against something called “Woke.”
Sleep walking through life being a much desirable civic virtue.
Thus the SRP in the Department of Education tells Alachua County School Board members that they created a “toxic culture” for threatening to evict – but not actually evicting – a disruptive speaker at a board meeting.
The DOE’s SRP threatens board members with sanctions for allegedly (but not really) violating the First Amendment Rights of a parent.
Even as he crapped on the First Amendment Rights of a school board member for posting something unflattering about a dead wrestler/MAGA icon on social media.
Freedom of speech being reserved exclusively for those who espouse views deemed politically correct in this here Free State Of Floriduh.
These are the same SRPs who just got their hands slapped for indulging in an orgy of school book banning – tossing out titles like The Color Purple, Slaughterhouse Five, The Dairy of Anne Frank and The Handmaiden’s Tale – in the name of stamping out “inappropriate content.”
“Many non-obscene books have been removed from public school libraries to the dismay of students that deeply identify with these books,” Federal Judge Carlos Mendoza ruled in a 50-page order.
These days the village scolds seem to have their fingers in every pie. Even before his phony-baloney DOGE ‘audits’ could uncover any supporting evidence whatsoever our CFO SRP was condemning cities and counties for obscene spending and “scrubbing data.” All this on the basis of ginned up numbers and vague rumors.
Makes you wonder why he even bothered to conduct his pretend audits in the first place. Call it political show business.
There may have been a time when duly elected local officials – you know, the electeds who live and work closest to the people they serve – were entitled to some modicum of deference if not respect.
No longer. Now local electeds are presumed to be errant children in need of scolding and punishment.
And it’s not just local officials that need oversight and correction.
Our Attorney General SRP issued a subpoena demanding the identies of people who attended – gasp! – a drag show at a Vero Beach restaurant.
“A restaurant owner (who also happens to be the town’s vice mayor) is being dragged into a state investigation,” Rindala Alajaji, of the digital privacy and free speech nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, wrote. “Guests who thought they were attending a fun community event are now caught up in a legal probe.”
Serves ‘em right, say the SRPs. If they want privacy – their state constitutionally guaranteed right to be let alone by their government – they shouldn’t be caught dead anywhere near men who dress up like women.
All of this reminds me of a political cartoon I saw many years ago. It depicted a newly elected Ronald Reagan, hand in hand with his evangelistic supporters, vowing to get on with the “real business” of government.
Making us be good.
But, honestly, Ronnie was a libertine compared to Floriduh’s new crop of Village Scolds and SRPs.
FreeGNV 