Is the anti-'woke' fever breaking? Don't count on it | Editorial

From Gov. Ron DeSantis on down, the Florida GOP has spent the past couple of years using its Republican supermajority to press anti-'woke' extremism, from anti-LGBTQ measures to anti-unpleasant history, anti-Black voting and anti-women's rights.

But as documented this week by USA Florida Network reporter John Kennedy, some in Tallahassee, particularly in the Senate, now recognize the formula isn't working ― or is working against them. Anti-'woke' lawmaking didn't benefit DeSantis' presidential aspirations, to be sure, despite all the attention it garnered. And as this year's session pulls toward a close, most of the Florida GOP's priority list is falling by the wayside.

Dead in the Senate are bills that would: ban cities from removing Confederate monuments or putting up Pride flags; enact new workplace restrictions on the use of personal pronouns; impose term limits for county commissioners; let 18-year-olds acquire rifles, shotguns and AR-15s; and require driver licenses to display a person’s gender at birth, not how they identify; and, oddly, declare support for gold and silver currency.

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To be sure, there's been no backing off from far-right standards like abortion bans, but that one's clearly also a political bog for the good ol' boys who want to make up women's minds for them. We're not aware of a poll in the country that shows abortion restrictions benefitting the GOP. In fact, a poll this week by Mainstreet Research and Florida Atlantic University shows that if the presidential election were held today, Biden would edge out Trump by a negligible 46% to 44% overall but with women favoring Biden 51% to 41%.

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"If the party does not start reforming itself from within, the voters are going to make that conversion for us,” Rep. Spencer Roach, R-North Fort Myers was quoted by Kennedy.

Meanwhile, though, the Governor is still sending Florida troops to the Texas border to win the Mexican standoff. On our northern border, near Georgia, he's still pressing his Congressional redistricting plan in the courts, to diminish Black voting power. He's doing his best to turn Florida kindergartens and universities into right-wing reeducation camps. And he has Florida lawmakers trying to legislate internment camps to keep homeless people from sleeping on park benches.

So, is the anti-'woke' agenda dying, or just taking a nap? Either way, rest in peace if not on principle.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Did Ron DeSantis stop ‘woke’? Hardly.