Florida’s mean streak grew a mile wide in 2022. We can do better in the new year | Opinion

In 2022, Florida’s meanness came into full and ugly bloom. With Gov. Ron DeSantis channeling the grievances of the GOP into increasingly draconian laws, we saw Black students, gay people, college students, librarians, teachers, migrants, drag queens and even Disney targeted.

Knowing the Legislature would slavishly follow his every lead, DeSantis mounted a culture war that was little more than an airing of long-nursed grudges — much of it in service to his reelection campaign and then, most likely, his run for the White House.

It’s a cynical thing to do, to fan the flames of anger for your own political gain and use the power of the state to tighten your grip on public office. It’s an abuse of power, and it encourages the worst in people. And yet that’s what happened over and over in the past year.

There was the parental rights bill, nicknamed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, banning districts from encouraging conversations about sexuality or gender identity in primary schools. When Disney stood up for gay people and opposed the bill, the Legislature went a step further and passed a bill to punish Disney.

There was the Stop WOKE Act, the law that went after critical race theory. The law prohibited K-12 teachers and college professors from engaging in classroom instruction that could be seen as making white and straight people and men feel guilt. A judge who struck down the law in November called it “positively dystopian.”

Then there was the time the state went after drag-queen shows on the ostensible grounds that children were being sexualized. Parental choice went right out the window with that one, it seems.

There were the efforts to ban books, curb gender-related healthcare and relocate Texas migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, a strange episode that now includes a top DeSantis aide using a private email address with the alias “Clarice Starling” — a reference to the Hannibal Lecter serial-killer novels — to set up the state contract.

Courts have stalled or thrown out some of the laws, as taxpayers, of course, foot the bill. That’s added up to about $17 million so far, as we pay for the governor’s attacks.

DeSantis likes to call this the Free State of Florida or “where woke goes to die.” But we think, under his administration, it has earned a new nickname: the Mean State.

Who can forget the governor during a University of South Florida appearance in March mocking high school students for wearing masks, calling it “COVID theater”? “If you want to wear it, fine,” he scolded, “but this is ridiculous.”

It was mean-spirited and it was angry and it sadly epitomized so much of the discussion in Florida today. We talk past each other and are quick to take offense. Whatever happened to giving people the benefit of the doubt? Of listening before jumping to conclusions? Of trying to be open-minded instead of defensive?

We think most people, if they were confronted with the flesh-and-blood Floridians bearing the impacts of these laws, might think twice about backing them or, at the very least, might consider a viewpoint they didn’t appreciate before. So here’s what we think needs to happen in 2023: Let’s try to listen more.

We can’t rely on our state government to do it, that’s obvious. We can do this one all on our own. Maybe we all will learn a thing or two, even if our so-called leaders don’t.

We’re in, if you are.

This story was originally published December 31, 2022 at 10:52 AM.