Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, has been in the news many times as of late, but most recently for his proposed redistricting map. While it is not uncommon for the majority party to redraw districts to favor their party in upcoming elections, Ron DeSantis vetoed the Florida state House and Senate’s proposed redistricting map and provided his own. Instead of having a few more Republican-leaning districts, DeSantis’s map would favor Republicans in 20 of Florida’s 28 districts. This 20 to 8 seat ratio has caused Democrat lawmakers to call the redistricting map unconstitutional and an attack on Black voters, since the map disrupts majority Black districts. However, despite the outcries against DeSantis’s map, it passed in the state’s Senate on Wednesday with a party line vote.
Florida’s current situation points to the problem of partisanship and polarization within the state’s government. While Republicans use their majority to pass legislation to benefit their party, Democrats fight their efforts and call them unfair. This has exposed a legislative body divided into two groups distrustful of each other and their policies, leading to things like party-line voting. While Florida’s partisan redistricting problem is troubling, it may point to a larger problem facing US democracy. Is Ron DeSantis an example of a one-off extreme right-wing governor, or is he more of a reflection of the country’s current state of division and polarization?
To better answer this question, we must first understand how polarization occurs and why it becomes divisive. An important piece of polarization is that it is a gradual process that happens over time. This can make polarization hard to notice until it is an urgent problem. One scholar who has studied polarization and its detrimental effects on democracy is Jennifer McCoy. In her article, Polarization and the Global Crisis of Democracy: Common Patterns, Dynamics, and Pernicious Consequences for Democratic Polities, she describes that polarization is a process where the normal plurality of differences in a democratic society begin to align on a binary. This binary then allows for these “cross-cutting differences” (McCoy, 2018) to become decisive. With the society’s pluralistic nature being aligned on binary, citizens begin to perceive those differences as something detrimental, which inhibits minority views from taking hold and boxes people into an “us” vs. “them” mentality. When citizens adopt an “us” vs. “them” way of thinking, polarization can cause them to surround themselves with like-minded people, making individuals’ views more extreme. When this happens, the growing polarized groups’ views become more extreme and, in turn, create a more polarized society. The polarization process becomes a type of positive feedback loop, exacerbating its dividing effects and increasing its threat to democracy.
Although polarization, in general, may not always be detrimental to democracy, the polarization that currently plagues the United States has helped create a volatile political climate. The country’s increasing partisanship has helped fuel a distrustful “us” vs. “them” way of thinking amongst Americans that populist politicians, like Ron DeSantis, have used to their advantage. DeSantis has been making headlines lately because he has used the polarized political atmosphere of Florida’s government to benefit the Republican party. Not only has he been able to pass a heavily Republican biased redistricting map through the state Senate because of party-line voting, but DeSantis has also recently signed the controversial “Parental Rights in Education” bill into law. This bill, which critics have called the “don’t say gay” bill, bans teachers from teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity from kindergarten to third grade or at any time that is not age-appropriate. With this bill, Florida’s citizens have been divided even further into “us” vs “them” ways of thinking and gained more animosity for the “other side.” The bill’s supporters say it gives parents the ability to determine when and how their children learn about LGBTQ+ topics, while critics claim that by not providing access through education, the bill can deeply harm LGBTQ+ children.
DeSantis’s success in implementing his right-leaning policies has inspired other Republican-controlled states to enact their own “don’t say gay” bills. Now, more than a dozen states have put forth their own versions of the bill. While the proposers of these bills say they are to help children “get an education, not an indoctrination,” these bills work to alienate a part of the population based on their sexuality. Adversaries of the bills argue that by banning these topics in school, it has a high possibility of producing a culture of transphobia and homophobia, which children, especially young LGBTQ+ children, are not equipped to handle. Yet, the increase in proposed “don’t say gay” bills shows that Florida was not an exception but rather a trendsetter. And while there has been significant backlash to the bills, there has also been support across the nation, helping exacerbate already strong divisions within the country. Only time will tell how divisive these bills will end up being, but one fact remains true: they are yet another example of the dangers of the polarization plaguing the United States.
Augustus Bayard
Ron DeSantis’ behavior certainly does say something about polarization in the US, but the takeaways are more complicated than the simple conclusion that his policies are divisive and supported along party lines in the legislature.
His push for redistricting, for example, is almost certainly doomed. Florida voters passed a ballot amendment ushering strong anti-gerrymandering rules, especially surrounding minority access, into law. The courts have historically came down harshly on gerrymandered maps, and the 2010 redistricting cycle led to years of litigation. For that reason, most of the legislature’s GOP members initially supported a much tamer map that wouldn’t have left them in legal limbo. However, DeSantis called a special session and strong-armed them into supporting his more extreme map. If this map is likely to be overruled by the courts, why has DeSantis pushed so hard for it? The most obvious reason to me is that he is playing towards the Republican primary base, which loves stories about Republican elected officials fighting tooth-and-nail against Democrats, and even against more moderate Republicans like in the legislature. The primary system, where often the most devoted party members show up, incentivizes polarization among ambitious elected officials.
The “Don’t Say Gay”/Parental Rights in Education bill is likewise a complicated story. It might not be cleanly exacerbating existing divisions. While the country is split fairly evenly between Republicans and Democrats, responses to the bill are not when poll respondents are read the language of the bill. According to a Politico poll, the provisions banning any instruction in grades K-3 and requiring “age-appropriate” education otherwise garner more support than opposition, by double-digit margins. A right-leaning pollster, Public Opinion Strategies, found Democrats supporting the language of the bill 55%-29%. I would argue that a more accurate characterization of DeSantis’ strategy around this bill is that he is trying to exploit cross-cutting cleavages to grow his support — the age-old strategy of wedge issues. One interesting dynamic to watch going forward is how public opinion changes as this law is implemented. People may interpret he incredible vagueness of this law in different ways. If its enforcement is harsher, and more oppressive for LGBTQ students and teachers, than Democrats expected, they may sour on the bill. In that case, which I think is not unlikely, it is possible that opinion on this law will become more sharply divided along traditional party lines. In that way, DeSantis’ gambit on the bill might not pay off.
Victoria Calandrino
I think you gave a great overview on the situation and used good sources with understandable explanations. However, I agree with the above comment that the conclusions of DeSantis’ actions are much more complicated than just voting based on party line and that DeSantis’ controversial bills are supported on party lines alone. It would be worth noting that many Republicans in the Florida Senate were opposed to DeSantis’ new congressional map, and the Florida Senate introduced 2 other maps before DeSantis vetoed them and called for a special session. DeSantis’ map passing was probably more a reflection of other Republican legislators realizing that DeSantis is a strong front-runner for the Republican 2024 Presidential bid, so it is better to not oppose him in the lead up to the 2022 election cycle. While Florida does have strong anti-gerrymandering laws, some Floridians worry that the court will not be able to rule on the map in time for the November 2022 elections which could drastically alter Florida’s political future. Whether or not DeSantis’ map gets struck down by the courts, his supporters will still see him as a Republican champion trying to fight for the ideals of his supporters.
While the “Don’t Say Gay” bill does have supporters across party lines, you did a good job noting its possible impacts on LGBTQ youth and highlighted how controversial the bill is. Even if the bill is not backed solely by one party, it does not make the bill any less polarizing. I also think you did a good job of noting that DeSantis seems to be more of a trend-setter in the new wave of anti-LGBTQ bills, or at least one of the more notable figures in the movement, and his actions may be indicative of rapidly rising polarization in the US.