Which Republican presidential candidate is the bigger bully – ex-president Donald Trump or Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis? Flip a coin.
They are trying to out-do each other in their spiteful rants against minorities. It’s homophobia, bigotry, racism and exclusivity run rampant. Desantis especially seems to find two words toxic: inclusivity, diversity.
He has all but declared war on gay and/or trans people with his “Don’t Say Gay” decree and his nasty efforts to get laws on the books that try to erase or muzzle civic rights or visibility for the LGBTQ community. He has demonized immigrants and is purging classrooms of many aspects of Black studies, thus white-washing American history. His latest crazy, disgusting pronouncement is that slavery was in some ways “good” for Black people because it gave them skills they might not have otherwise attained!
DeSantis’s LGBTQ phobia and his fear-mongering assaults against the phantom “Critical Race Theory” resulted in the banning of books in Florida schools, efforts that have been eagerly copy-catted elsewhere in this nation, including right here close to home.
In a bizarre campaign ad, DeSantis attacked Trump for making sympathetic comments about LGBTQ people after the mass shooting in a Florida nightclub that catered to gay customers. Forty-three people were killed. At that time, 2016, Trump vowed to ensure full protections for LGBTQ people if he were to become president.
How he’s changed his tune! Not to be outdone by upstart Desantis, the thrice-indicted Trump said if elected again, he will cut federal spending for any schools that “push transgender insanity” and “to cease (through federal agencies) the promotion of sex or gender transition at any age.”
Meantime, the Supreme Court ruled last month that some businesses, such as wedding websites, do not have to accommodate the needs of same-sex couples if the business owners’ religious beliefs are offended. That decision was pushed by a group called Alliance Defending Freedom. Its defense of freedom, sad to say, does not extend to the rights and freedoms of many minorities.
There is a slew of laws being passed or proposed in many state legislatures that ban or limit gender-affirming care. Those laws are aimed at trans (T) people, but in a wider context they are clearly anti-LGBQ in their intent.
The American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics have both expressed support for “age-appropriate, gender-affirming care for transgender and non-binary people.” The Equal Protection Clause in the U.S. Constitution says a state cannot deny “any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
But what the Equal Protection Clause states and what some loud-mouthed lawmakers claim just don’t jibe in these divisive days.
What’s so dangerous about this blatant fear-mongering is that it can – and does – encourage and incite some to lash out verbally and/or physically against anybody perceived as “different” from themselves – “others” whom they view as threats to their self-proclaimed “right” to control, to dominate, to exclude, to persecute. Many candidates’ bullying bluster has already triggered hate crimes against so many Americans.
That is what Hitler and his thugs did. In propaganda campaigns, they villainized Jews, gypsies, homosexuals and any other minorities who didn’t happen to resemble them, who didn’t fit the profile of the White Aryan “master race.” We must never forget what happened. Those people were dehumanized, demonized, ostracized, stripped of their rights. And killed.
DeSantis, Trump and their imitators are dehumanizing just about anybody who does not fit into their mold of Right-Wing Christian (so-called!) White Nationalism.
There may be hope. Some federal judges have pushed back on laws passed, including in some “red” states where judges’ decisions have temporarily blocked anti-LGBTQ laws from taking effect. Those judges (some Trump-appointed) ruled the laws infringe on the Equal Protection Clause.
As political campaigns intensify, so too will the vile rhetoric. We should tell those federal, state and local candidates (sandbox bullies) they should be ashamed. They should grow up and start talking and acting like decent human beings who protect and defend all good Americans, not just some.
