The Desantis Jim Crow 2.0 redistricting map is struck down!

The Hump Day Hot Topic

Once again, Florida Gov. Ron Desantis, a master of right wing talking points in the court of public opinion, has been dealt a setback in a court of law regarding the congressional redistricting map that he championed this past legislative session.

Gov. Ron Desantis

As the Hobbservation Point noted last month, Desantis strong-armed his Republican legislative colleagues into drawing a map that would increase Republican congressional seats by four—while totally eliminating the seats of two of the most high profile Black Democrats in Florida: Rep. Al Lawson, whose district runs from Tallahassee to Jacksonville, and Rep. Val Demings of Orlando, the veteran congresswoman who is in a heated U.S. Senate race against Republican Marco Rubio.

Ironically, it was Leon County Circuit Judge J. Layne Smith, a jurist appointed to the county bench by former Republican Gov. Rick Scott in 2015, and tapped for the circuit bench by Desantis in 2020, who ruled against his appointer, holding “I do find persuasive the arguments that were made about the diminishment of African-American votes….to the other districts where they’re now spreading."

Indeed, Judge Smith, indeed!

What makes little sense to me is when Desantis, a lawyer, appeals to his base with legislation that excites the right wing pundit class on tv and radio (and the blissfully ignorant rank-and-file), but is constitutionally suspect, like last year's attempts to criminalize Black Lives Matter protests in his so-dubbed “Anti-Riot” act that was struck down by U.S. District Judge Mark Walker. Or, this year's congressional map—one that doesn't even try to mask the clear-cut racial impact!

I have watched in horror since my days at the University of Florida Levin College of Law as far-right lawyers and think-tank fellows have tried to hijack anti-Black discrimination by claiming that whites were being victimized by "reverse-discrimination.” Never mind that affirmative action, quotas, set-asides, and even “minority access congressional districts” were designed to ameliorate the effects of 256 years of slavery and nearly 100 years of Jim Crow laws that impacted Black lives, Black educational attainment, Black economic growth, and Black voting power. Nope, Desantis and his fellow sophists argue that the very fact that Reps. Lawson and Demings's districts were drawn to increase Black representation is proof of racial bias on behalf of Blacks against whites. 😠

Desantis and crew, in their sophistry, overlook the vestiges of the Jim Crow era and Florida's horrific legacy of poll taxes, literacy tests, and other shenanigans that kept Black voters largely disenfranchised from the 1890's until 1965, when the Voting Rights Act was signed by then President Lyndon B. Johnson. And let's not act like the racists all up and sang kumbaya with Black voters in '65; the old Dixiecrat segregationists of yore switched party affiliation from Democrat to Republican and to varying degrees, have been trying to frustrate, dilute, or thwart the Black vote ever since! (See Southern Strategy)

While Judge Smith's ruling today was a positive for progressives, the fight is far from over as Desantis will surely file an appeal. To be frank, an appeal poses problems for progressives because over the last 25 years, Florida's unbroken line of Republican governors has filled both the intermediate District Courts of Appeal (and the Florida Supreme Court) with ardent conservatives whose politics align with Mr. Desantis and his predecessors, Rick Scott and Jeb Bush. To this point, following today's ruling, Desantis spokeswoman Taryn Fenske noted, “As Judge Smith implied, these complex constitutional matters of law were always going to be decided in the appellate courts." 

And so they shall…

In the meantime, it is important for Ol’ Hobbs to remind that every single election matters because once again, if Andrew Gillum had secured the scant 30,000 or so votes that separated him from Desantis in 2018, Florida is not looking at a Jim Crow 2.0 congressional map right now that will dilute Black representation in Congress.

Such is why Democrats must be relentless in educating voters and mobilizing get out the vote efforts, especially since Desantis has some vulnerabilities due to his work to eliminate these Black congressional districts; his highly publicized spat with Disney over the "Don't Say Gay" Bill; his condemning the teaching of real American history under his "Critical Race Theory" foolishness and, yes, his anti-abortion plank just as Roe vs. Wade is set to be overturned. 

To conclude, while my native Florida has some bona fide Dixieland roots, the state is still filled with transients and transplants from many backgrounds, and the split among Republican and Democrats is almost even (with a growing number of "Non-Party Affiliated" registrants as well). I state these facts to provide hope for those who have heard what Desantis has said, or have seen what Desantis has done, and remind that he is VERY capable of being beaten this Fall if we faint not along our collective course!

Thank you for subscribing to the Hobbservation Point—have a wonderful Wednesday!