"Florida’s move to censor academics employed by its state university makes clear that, for many, the arguments about free speech that have dominated the political conversation over the past few years have never truly been about the right to speak. They have, instead, been about providing a predicate for conservatives to use the power of the state to settle political arguments. The campaigns of censorship and disenfranchisement must thus be understood as two halves of the same whole. The former erases the historical memory of the effect such restrictions have had in the past, and the latter prevents the public from acting on the knowledge of the discriminatory past that GOP leadership is attempting to erase."-- Adam Serwer, The Atlantic, on the University of Florida's censorship of professors wishing to testify in a lawsuit fighting Florida Republicans' voter disenfranchisement measures.
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"There isn’t going to be anything resembling a normal election in 2024, because the right wing in this country is now completely committed to living their truth, which is that Democrats don’t win elections legitimately. This started out as a paranoid delusion, but now it’s an Article of Faith, that can’t be abandoned, because it’s become so intimately connected to their tribal identity.
"They won’t accept defeat, period, and we need to be ready for that." -- Paul Campos, LGM, re- stating what has become increasingly clear over the past several election cycles. Maintaining power by any means necessary is existential for Republicans, whose disdain for democracy and pluralism has become a menace to us all.
