Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.
— Monty Python
Governor Ron DeSantis is bucking for Inquisitor in Chief. His target: wokeism.
Labeled an "oppressive mind-virus" by right-wingers, wokeism threatens to infect more Floridians than Omicron, DeSantis believes.
And so he has proposed a new state law, "the strongest legislation of its kind in the nation."
The WOKE Act will let citizens sue schools and companies for promoting critical race theory.
"We won't allow Florida tax dollars to be spent teaching kids to hate our country," DeSantis said in a news release.
Eyeing the White House in 2024, DeSantis is clearly exploiting Whites' fears of wokeism, a tactic that put Republican Glenn Youngkin into the governor's seat in Virginia in November.
Were DeSantis of Irish descent, I'd say this is just warmed-over McCarthyism, and no one need worry: it's pure booze-fed Blarney.
But DeSantis is Italian and that's spells big trouble.
He's a right-wing Catholic without an alcohol problem.
That means, when it comes to purging wokeism, he'll be zealous, ruthless, and cruel.
His closest historical forebear is Tomás de Torquemada, also known as "The Grand Inquisitor," who for Catholicism's sake murdered 2,000 Spaniards in the 15th century.
He spied on them in their homes; traced them through informants; had them arrested by his secret police; humiliated them; and put them on trial before judges just as fanatical he was. He waterboarded, garroted, and racked those found guilty, before burning them at the stake.
What will DeSantis do to rid America of wokeism?
It's anyone's guess, but I predict it will be brutal.
Above: Torquemada, Grand Inquisitor by Jean-Paul Laurens
