How hard is it to condemn Nazis? Really, how hard is it? The weekend of Jan. 28, the entire country saw Florida’s shame - a Nazi rally in Orlando. Nazis waved large flags replete with swastikas, screamed antisemitic, racist, and “white power” slogans, did the Hitler salute, harassed passersby, and hung large banners with the same hateful phrases over a bridge crossing a very busy highway.
This is action that is easy for anyone – even a politician in the USA to quickly condemn, right? Kudos to Sen. Rick Scott, Florida House Speaker Chris Sprowls, and many other Florida elected officials, Republican and Democrat, for doing just that – condemning the hate-filled actions of these anti-American fascists.
But what have we heard from our “freedom” governor, Ron DeSantis? For the first several days, crickets.
Then Monday, Jan. 31, two days after the infamous events, Gov. DeSantis finally spoke about the happening at a press conference. Did he condemn these hate-filled actions? Loudly proclaim that Nazis have no home in Florida? Stand tall on the side of U.S. values?
No, he went on a politically-driven diatribe against members of the U.S. Congress.
That’s where our governor stands on fascism – deflect and complain about something, or someone, else. Sound familiar? It should. It seems to be his fallback to avoid offending those he considers his base for his presidential run. Imagine seeing Nazis as your voting base.
There are 31,000 World War II veterans still alive in Florida. Many of our other residents are the sons and daughters of World War II vets. These brave veterans fought Nazis and fascists so that our country could remain a free democratic republic. What must they think of our cowardly governor, who can’t even utter a peep of criticism against these anti-American swine.
Perhaps Gov. DeSantis will come out in the next few days to finally address the issue with a show of respect and support for our veterans and all who love this country. If he does, it seems to me it’ll only be to stem the tide of criticism he’s faced – in other words, his comments will, again, be only political.
All veterans and those who love this country should remember DeSantis’ gross inaction when it comes time to vote this year. When confronted with the reality of Nazis in our state, he did not lead, he hid and deflected. Shame.
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