Governor DeSantis’ war on the arts

By Diane Roberts

Some people are ignorant and proud of it.

Ron DeSantis is one of those people.

The man just blocked nearly every pitiful penny of arts and culture funding in the state budget. Museums, music, youth programs, local treasures like the Young Actor’s Theater in Tallahassee — which trained stars like Alison Miller from “King,” Cheryl Hines from “Let It Go, Larry!” and Tony Hale from “Veep” — historic homes, black heritage centers, performing arts venues, dance companies, children’s music programs, even prestigious institutions like the Ringling Museum of Art, one of the few places in Florida where visitors can see works by old masters like Veronese, Rubens and Poussin.

With his characteristic eloquence, DeSantis growled, “I don’t think some of the things that were done were appropriate for the use of state taxpayer money.”

He did not elaborate.

(The man has few friends and words are not among them).

But this latest outburst of anger probably stems from his belief that art and culture are “stuff” that liberals like, “stuff” that he cannot understand.

Ergo, bad “stuff”.

The House budget for 2024 was worth $117.5 billion and included money for the arts. But DeSantis, eager to show what a tough fiscal expert he is, cut $1 billion that would have supported programs for the homeless, opioid prevention, free hygiene products for Florida schools and food banks, and wastewater treatment.

You would think that after the environmental disasters at Piney Point, the discharge of a huge amount of waste into Tampa Bay, and the recent severe flooding in Broward County, he would take our water problems seriously.

So-called crisis pregnancy centers – organizations that advocate for childbirth and pressure young women to have children they cannot and do not want to care for – received $25 million in public funds.

However, what educated people think of culture was vetoed: funding was cut by $32 million.

$1 : $9

That’s a lot of money to you and me, but spread across the third-largest state in the Union, it’s what professional economists call tiny, superficial change.

Some things survived DeSantis’s assault on intellectual enrichment: $5 million for a Holocaust museum in Orlando, $750,000 to preserve oral histories of Holocaust survivors, and $250,000 for the Civil Rights Museum in St. Augustine.

Good, but insultingly poor.

It’s also stupid from an economic perspective. The state’s own data shows that the arts bring in $5.8 billion annually.

Theaters, museums, orchestras and the like create jobs and pump money into the community: one dollar spent on the arts generates $9 for local businesses.

DeSantis doesn’t care. He is driven by malice, anger, and a MAGA-like determination to destroy. Have you ever heard the man talk about music he likes, or books he enjoys, or any kind of aesthetic experience at all?

Every summer, former President Barack Obama publishes lists of the books and songs he loves—a testament to an active, flexible intelligence that absorbs everything from serious sociology (“Poverty, by America” by Matthew Desmond) to Dennis Lehane thrillers to Bad Bunny’s bad-ass reggaeton.

It’s impossible to imagine Ron DeSantis doing such a thing. He seems to have no inner life, no curiosity, no desire to learn, no passion for anything other than power.

And maybe baseball.

Ronbo and Lady Macbeth flew to Omaha on a government-owned jet to watch some College World Series games. You, Florida taxpayers, footed the bill.

Hall of Fame

No governor in Florida’s history has chosen to destroy one of our most important industries. No other governor has been so aggressive in destroying what was built over generations.

Things used to be better in Florida.

In 1976, the legislature commissioned James Rosenquist, one of the country’s foremost artists, to create witty murals for the new Capitol. (Don’t tell DeSantis: He’ll probably want to whitewash them.)

Ten years later, lawmakers established the Florida Artists Hall of Fame, which honored playwright Tennessee Williams, master radio operator George Clinton, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich and filmmaker Victor Nunez, among others. Governor Bob Graham enjoyed meeting novelists such as Carl Hiaasen and Bob Shacochis and hanging out with Jimmy Buffet.

Even during Rick Scott’s late, unmourned term, the governor’s residence hosted the Florida Book Awards. Ann Scott, like many First Ladies before her, promoted reading as a positive thing.

The current title holder shows no interest in culture.

Dark project

DeSantis’ attack on arts funding is part of a larger, more sinister project: He aims to erase anything that might inspire us to question our assumptions, question our history, critique our society, or imagine what it’s like to be someone whose race, ethnicity, religion, or sexuality is different from our own.

Look at what he’s doing to our schools: he’s unleashing the stupid Moms for Liberty movement on them and calling for the banning of all books that don’t promote white supremacy.

Look at what he’s doing to our universities: The once highly regarded New College is now a smoking ruin that DeSantis has turned into a third-rate Bible college, stuffed with baseball scholarship students and whose faculty is rapidly disappearing.

The University of Florida Medical School was forced not only to hire Joseph Ladapo, Florida’s anti-vaccine quack and surgeon general, but to give him tenure and a six-figure salary even though he never lectures.

Now the state’s lawyers (again, you’re paying them) are trying to convince the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to lift the block on DeSantis’ Stop Woke Act. They argue (even with a straight face) that it would be OK for DeSantis’ education officials to give professors a script to read in class, on the grounds that they can only teach “viewpoints” approved by the state: “The professor’s speech is the government’s speech.”

Viktor Orbán himself could not have put it better.

fear

The incorrigibly petty DeSantis is afraid – afraid of scientists, artists and educators.

When authoritarians get scared, they lash out—in this case, the effect is a bit like that of a cornered and angry Chihuahua.

The situation was supposed to be comical, but the little bastard can bite you badly and may have rabies.

You cannot keep your serfs in the service sector numb and immune to rising insurance premiums, rising water levels, government secrecy, and restricted freedom (in the name of “freedom”) by subjecting them to plays or movies that tell a different story than the one in the government’s script.

If you actually think about the world you live in, a dissenting opinion is almost guaranteed.

Diane Roberts is an eighth-generation Floridian, born and raised in Tallahassee. She attended Florida State University and Oxford University in England and has been writing for newspapers since 1983, when she began writing columns about the Florida Legislature for the Florida Flambeau. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Times of London, the Guardian, the Washington Post, the Oxford American and Flamingo. She was a member of the editorial board of the St. Petersburg Times—then known as the Tampa Bay Times—and a longtime columnist for both editions of the paper. She was a commentator for NPR for 22 years and continues to write radio essays and opinion pieces for the BBC. Roberts is also the author of four books.