Earlier today, Florida’s state senate voted to end Disney’s ‘special privileges’ - notably self-governing status and special tax concessions. This comes on the heels of Disney throwing themselves into the political fray surrounding Florida’s HB 1557, which sets rules surrounding teaching of sexual materials to kids in kindergarten through third grade.
The bill rescinding Disney’s privileges still has to go through the Florida House and be signed by the governor, but both those things are expected to be formalities unless Disney changes its stance quickly.
Personally, I find the entire debacle to be fascinating. The text of the actual bill is fairly uncontroversial, but if you read ANY media surrounding the story, they ALL call it the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill. Somehow they are never made to answer why we should be teaching small children these things to begin with, and CERTAINLY can’t explain why teachers are keeping such ‘lessons’ from parents. The fact that the left is SO insistent on attacking DeSantis on this makes me think they realize he’s a leading contender for the GOP nomination in 2024 and must be destroyed. After all, Attacks against DeSantis certainly aren’t new.
However, there is still a worrying trend here of government specifically cracking down against entities that oppose them. Of course, it would have been best if Disney had never gotten special considerations in the first place, but singling out a corporation that’s run afoul of the government is not a freedom-loving move. We can’t fight the weaponization of government with more weaponization of government.
Hmmmm which companies have gotten special government treatments? Innumerable but a few come to mind. Google, Twitter, Tesla, Amazon, Facebook.
Imagine the hubris of being wealthy enough to buy a rebate subsidized $100k Tesla, and get a grant or rebate for your home charger and, even better, getting to charge it for free at a convenience store which is close enough to your $2M waterfront home to make it convenient.
This war began years ago, with episodes like the IRS being unleashed against the Tea Party orgs, the Canadian truckers having their bank accounts frozen, and other such partisan targeting.
We don't get to a universal agreement not to weaponize gov't by laying down and taking it.
We get there by punching back twice as hard and going scorched-earth on the tyranny and perversion crowd until they mend their ways, cry uncle, and stop using the levers of power against us.