A flood of anti-Black and anti-LGBTQ+ bills in Florida have caused the NAACP to issue a travel warning for Black and POC people considering a visit to the Sunshine State. According to CNN, the NAACP has deemed the state “openly hostile towards African Americans” and said that the political actions of its governor, Ron DeSantis, are an attempt to “use race as a tool to weaponize against people.”
Rather than do anything to refute that, Republican Senator Rick Scott decided to go the opposite route entirely and proudly follow up with a “Yes and …”
The Senator recently took to Twitter to publish a “travel advisory for socialists visiting Florida” saying the the state’s citizens are “openly hostile to socialists, communists, and those that enable them.” The mock advisory went on to say that Florida “devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by Socialists and others who work in the Biden administration.” The advisory concludes with a warning saying that visiting “socialists” will be met with “laughter and mockery” by the residents of northern Florida, and something “far more dangerous” by the residents of southern Florida who have experienced the “horrors of socialism” firsthand.
Disproving the false comparison between modern American leftism and oppressive Socialist regimes that have existed elsewhere would require a separate article entirely, but it should be apparent that equating the Biden administration’s policies and the actions of despotic Communist leaders is nothing short of hyperbole. (Not to mention the absurdity of equating the Biden administration to anything actually resembling far-left politics.)
Rather, it isn’t hard to infer that Rick Scott’s travel advisory defines “socialists” as any “left-wing” group that Republicans rail against. If one simply replaces “socialists” with “trans people” or any other group hated by the right, Scott’s travel advisory begins to make an eerie sort of sense. Florida Republicans are openly hostile to marginalized groups in America, and their recent political shenanigans only prove that point.
Florida is a dangerous place for drag queens. Florida is a dangerous place for trans people. Florida is a dangerous place for Black people. Florida is a dangerous place for anti-racists, feminists, and anyone who wishes to challenge the state’s conservative status quo. Rick Scott would like to keep it that way, and he’s proud to double down on that hate with “jokes” like this.
While it is easy to become numb to the culture of malice that was normalized and popularized in the Republican party by Donald Trump, it is important to remember that Rick Scott is an elected official who is actively threatening those who do not share his political point of view. This is especially disturbing considering this country’s history of carrying out politically motivated retaliation in the form of mass arrests and lynchings.
While a vast amount of political violence in America has been unsanctioned by the government, federal institutions such as the FBI have had a long history of abuse towards political dissidents. It would seem that Rick Scott himself remembers these Bad Old Days and is happy to admit that he’s actively working towards their return.
(featured image: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
