Florida governor Ron DeSantis has finally won, and the state legislature agreed this week to allow him to have absolute control over the state by giving him the authority to redraw Congressional districts. This power is reserved only for the state legislature, but after a lengthy battle with the authoritarian DeSantis, the legislature gave up and let him have his way. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains how this is going to reshape the future of politics in the state of Florida.

Link - https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/04/12/dangerous-and-unprecedented-florida-gop-gives-desantis-power-draw-congressional-map

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

The Republican controlled Florida legislature decided this week that they do in fact, want Ron DeSantis, our Republican governor down here, to be an authoritarian dictator with absolute power that even the legislature itself cannot challenge and they made that clear when they said, all right, DeSantis, we give up, you, you personally get to redraw the congressional districts here in the state of Florida, based on the most recent census. Now this is a fight that has been brewing for many months down here in the state of Florida. Republicans, you know, in accordance with state law had drone, drawn several maps that DeSantis had rejected because DeSantis says these maps left Florida's fifth congressional district between Tallahassee and Jacksonville, left it a little too black, left it a little too Latino.

So I want this redrawn to dilute the voting power of the blacks and Hispanics in this district. Now he didn't specifically use those words, right? I'm kind of paraphrasing what happened. So DeSantis said, I want these districts redrawn and the, the Republicans actually said, well, we, we kind of can't do that. You know, we, we've done the best we can. Trust me. These maps we've got, are really favorable to Republicans, but DeSantis said, it's not enough. I want it all. So gerrymander the hell out of it basically was the advice and Republicans refused to do that. The courts here in the state of Florida refused to it, citing against DeSantis and then finally the legislature this week, as I said, just gave up and they said, all right, fine. You can do it. Even though it's our legal job to redraw these districts, we are giving you that power.

An unprecedented move by this Republican controlled legislature, which of course gives DeSantis absolute power now over all of these districts. So once he finally gets around to it and he actually goes out there and redraws these districts, there is little doubt that this isn't going to end up in court, right? The ACLU has pretty much already made it clear that they're keeping a very close eye on this. They're gonna watch what happens. And of course, with the recent court ruling saying that Florida, you know, has to go through pre-clearance now, which of course could include these congressional districts. It's probably not gonna fly whatever it DeSantis wants to do, but that's beside the point. The point is these Republicans capitulated to this little wannabe dictator that we've got down here in the state of Florida, giving him absolute power. They refuse to fight against him.

This is the man they have chosen is going to run this state into the ground and that is, by the way, exactly what he's doing. Florida ranks among the worst in the country for housing costs, for healthcare, for education, this state is going to hell, but nobody focuses on those part. Nobody focuses on the horrible economic conditions down here in the state of Florida, because Ron DeSantis has launched these culture wars, has become a national face for most of that, with the don't say gay bill and, and other things. He's passed other horrible legislation, limiting our rights to free speech down here, ridiculous voter suppression laws, all of it to distract the country from how horrible things truly are down here in the state of Florida. And he wants to make sure that even.