Liberal Newspaper Claims Florida Under DeSantis Is Like Communist Cuba

This week, the Miami Herald published a piece comparing the similarities between Florida under popular Republican Governor Ron DeSantis and… Communist Cuba.

Yes, really. 

Author Fabiola Santiago’s justification? Governor DeSantis signed House Bill 395, designating November 7th as Victims of Communism Day and mandating, starting next year, 45 minutes of instruction in middle schools on the dangers of communism. 

Because educating children about the dangers of communism is so very… communist?

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Book Banning and Moms for Liberty

Santiago uses comparisons to Cuba in the form of book banning, censorship, and indoctrination. But, first, let’s discuss the book banning.

In Santiago’s piece, she says:

“Math textbooks and literary books are being banned because some comité a la Cuba — aka “Moms for Liberty,” made up of citizens jazzed and empowered by Republicans into a state of hysteria — deemed them inappropriate and sounded the alarm.” 

Part of what she is poorly referring to is the Florida State Department of Education rejected 41% of math textbooks this year.

To see why, we need only look at what is being pushed in textbooks.

One example was a question on polynomials. The question discussed that two million people test their racial prejudice using an online version of the implicit association test. 

Moms for Liberty Hillsborough County Chapter member Jessica Graham succinctly stated :

“For me, just teach math, just teach math. Why does racial prejudice have anything to do with math, at all? It doesn’t. It doesn’t.”

So Graham doesn’t want left-wing post-modern racialized propaganda in math textbooks – just like the Cuban Communist Party!

You can read more about that in one of my previous articles here.

Comparing parents to Communist Cuban comité surely won’t incense parents who have been demonized and disregarded for the last two years. That’s been working out great for the left; keep doing that, please.

Is DeSantis Censoring Teachers?

When Santiago refers to censorship, she’s referencing both the alleged “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which you can read more about here, and House Bill 7.

House Bill 7 prohibits any teaching that could make students feel they are responsible for historic wrongs based on their race, color, sex, etc. The “Stop Woke Act” also blocks businesses from using similar diversity training.

Santiago states that educators are being censored, going further to say:

“Nothing that makes whites uncomfortable. Nothing about being gay or trans in kindergarten through third grade when kids are full of questions about fellow classmates and themselves.”

I have a Kindergartener. She asks questions like the ones below:

“Why do alligators have teeth?”

“Why do you drink coffee? It smells bad.”

“Why is 2 + 2 = 4, and 2 times 2 = 4”

Unless I were to put it into her head to ask, she wouldn’t be curious about homosexuality, transgender issues, or anything of that nature. 

The inaccurately monikered “Don’t Say Gay” bill doesn’t even have the word ‘gay’ in it.

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Teach About Slavery But Not Communism?

Governor DeSantis wants Florida middle schoolers to learn about Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Fidel Castro’s evils. Let’s explore why.

The Governor stated:

“You can see at a college campus students flying the hammer and sickle from the old Soviet Union flag, you will see students that will have t-shirts with Che Guevara, you will see students that will idolize people like Mao Zedong. To me this speaks of a tremendous ignorance about what those individuals represented and the evils that communism inflicted on people throughout the world. While it’s fashionable in some circles to whitewash the history of communism.”

His Lieutenant Governor Jeannette Nunez doubled down with the following:

“Throughout this country, we are seeing communism and socialism being romanticized.”

These aren’t just empty talking points meant to enrage rabid parents concerned about what the public education system is pouring into their children’s minds. 

According to a study done by the Victims of Communism group, 70% of Millennials say they are likely to vote for a socialist, while one in three view communism favorably. Additionally, 22% of Millennials believe:

“Society would be better if all private property was abolished.”

You know what, maybe Ms. Santiago is right. Perhaps it is more important to discuss gender ideology with little children than spending 45 minutes one day a year to educate kids on how communism is terrible. But, wait for a minute… no, that’s not right at all.

Even our elected officials in this country point out a deficit in understanding what these principles are. Take Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who famously whispered this past March:

“Let me tell you a secret. Most people don’t really know what capitalism is. Most people don’t even know what socialism is.”

She’s not wrong; she is included in this group of some people. So it’s good that she’s self-aware.

Maybe she can take another vacation to Florida like she’s known to do. But next year, do it say around November 7th to get a 45-minute lesson on what communism is and why it’s terrible. That would be taxpayer money well spent.