Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has built his national profile by voraciously exploiting the politics of white grievance with authoritarian glee, seizing on the paranoid reactionary complaints broadcast over talk radio and Fox News and making a show of strong-arming legislators into turning vicious bigotry and flagrant cruelty into the Florida legal code.
The right-wing base, having long since surrendered any qualms about cheering on objectively dorky men in ill-fitting pants, all lap up his snarling cockiness and vindictiveness which provides DeSantis with the veneer of mass popularity. A vast amount of uncritical media coverage that focuses only on horse race politics doesn’t help.
But on the ground in Florida, beyond the narrow focus of parachuting Washington Post reporters, the story is very different. The state has become the most unaffordable in the nation, in large part due to the corrupt mechanizations of state Republicans and DeSantis himself. And not only are conditions bad, but people across the state are rising up to take collective action.
I reported and produced and produced the news report below because this issue is not getting the attention deserves in a mainstream political media. It represents DeSantis’s big Achilles heel, the populist issue that could take him down this fall if someone would campaign on it.
These uprisings are happening in cities and counties all across the state, and while they also target local elected officials, they’re also very clear that DeSantis and the Republican government in Tallahassee is most to blame. The numbers and facts are damning, if anyone cared enough to look at them.
Florida last year experienced the highest increase of any state in the nation, driven by five cities featuring on the list of top 10 steepest price hikes. The trend has only gotten worse this year, with Miami and Orlando experiencing the highest rent spikes in the country thus far in 2022. Some reports have the number in Miami as high as 50%, and 60% in some parts of Orlando. Not coincidentally, corporations and private equity bought 25% of houses sold in Tampa this past fall.
At the same time, evictions have been rising in Florida, where the eviction moratorium expired in the fall. This has created a heavy burden on working families, seniors, veterans, and low-income workers, who are increasingly finding themselves without places to go.
Further complicating matters are the pre-emption laws passed by Republicans that make it exceedingly difficult for municipalities to enact rent control measures or make decisions that could cause a significant burden on businesses (according to those businesses).
Florida has also continually raided the affordable housing trust fund, which has officially been cut in half. The GOP’s promise to leave that half lasted all of a month before they proposed sending $100 million to a slush fund for developers.
This is an issue that he can’t cover up or blame on immigrants or Critical Race Theory or trans people. He’ll say that prices are rising all because people want to move to Florida, but it’s not going to convince anyone that’s struggling with their rent.
Homeowner insurance is also spiraling out of control, as are energy costs, which can be directly tied to the $1 billion in rate hikes that DeSantis’s commission green-lit last fall. As inflation increases, this will only get worse, and if Democrats are competent, they’ll be able to highlight DeSantis’s corruption and his refusal to tackle the issue in a special session this spring.
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