Ron DeSantis is a bigot. While it’s been overshadowed by his homophobic and other so-called “anti-woke” legislation, his recent law discriminating against Chinese residents of Florida is a particularly disgraceful example of his bigotry. The law places severe restrictions on Chinese nationals buying property in Florida. These are people who have come to live in our country legally. They hold work and student visas. Earning those prized visas is not easy. The HB-1 Visa program for workers requires companies to show a specific need to hire a foreign national who holds a college degree or the equivalent. In other words, exactly the type of legal immigrants our country should want.
May 26, 2023·edited May 26, 2023Liked by david roberts
If it's "motivated by pure political theater", why call him a bigot? It seems, rather, that he's a cynical political huckster willing to pass bigoted laws in exchange for votes.
That's a different thing, and if we are trying to predict his behavior (what all such analysis is) we should recognize his true motivations.
Gross dangerous overreactions, everywhere, on all sides, born of anger and fear, mongered by those who are in a position to take full advantage of that anger and fear and will take full advantage of that anger and fear until we say "enough" or until inevitably, “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold”. But in the end, it's our anger and fear. No one else's. Ours. We can check ourselves, moderate ourselves. Make ourselves better! As has been said before, the thing about democracy is that we tend to get the leaders we deserve.
I like how you included the complaint and Mr. Wu's story. It makes me think - and similar to how the media has started to center the victims of gun shootings instead of the shooters - that all news should be focused on the impact to the victims vs giving the bigots of this world more oxygen.
Thank you for sharing, David! I posted on FB when I first read about DeSantis' anti-Chinese real estate law, and you're right that while it seems like small fry in relation to his other offenses, race-based laws are discriminatory; if you let one stand, a slew of them against other groups will follow. Plus it hits close to home for me as an Asian, a silent and often-overlooked group. Even before the 1850's Gold Rush/railroad era, states enacted anti-Chinese laws that prevented them from testifying in court (which already banned Black and Native Americans from doing so), owning business within certain city limits, created race-based income tax (Chinese Miners Taxes), and culminated in the federal Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which, even when it ended, was effectually renewed under different act names; and though exclusion acts were repealed when they became WWII allies, immigration was still limited by race-based quotas. Congress didn't overhaul the quota system for undesirable immigrants until 1990, and didn't condemn the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 until 2011-2012.
If it's "motivated by pure political theater", why call him a bigot? It seems, rather, that he's a cynical political huckster willing to pass bigoted laws in exchange for votes.
That's a different thing, and if we are trying to predict his behavior (what all such analysis is) we should recognize his true motivations.
Gross dangerous overreactions, everywhere, on all sides, born of anger and fear, mongered by those who are in a position to take full advantage of that anger and fear and will take full advantage of that anger and fear until we say "enough" or until inevitably, “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold”. But in the end, it's our anger and fear. No one else's. Ours. We can check ourselves, moderate ourselves. Make ourselves better! As has been said before, the thing about democracy is that we tend to get the leaders we deserve.
Agree plus your comment made me look up origin of "monger." Now I understand why brokerage firms don't call themselves "securities-mongers."
I like how you included the complaint and Mr. Wu's story. It makes me think - and similar to how the media has started to center the victims of gun shootings instead of the shooters - that all news should be focused on the impact to the victims vs giving the bigots of this world more oxygen.
Thank you for sharing, David! I posted on FB when I first read about DeSantis' anti-Chinese real estate law, and you're right that while it seems like small fry in relation to his other offenses, race-based laws are discriminatory; if you let one stand, a slew of them against other groups will follow. Plus it hits close to home for me as an Asian, a silent and often-overlooked group. Even before the 1850's Gold Rush/railroad era, states enacted anti-Chinese laws that prevented them from testifying in court (which already banned Black and Native Americans from doing so), owning business within certain city limits, created race-based income tax (Chinese Miners Taxes), and culminated in the federal Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which, even when it ended, was effectually renewed under different act names; and though exclusion acts were repealed when they became WWII allies, immigration was still limited by race-based quotas. Congress didn't overhaul the quota system for undesirable immigrants until 1990, and didn't condemn the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 until 2011-2012.