Two Lawless Parties

Two law professors warn that insofar as Donald Trump found ways to ignore or work around the law (they call it "law avoision"), Ron DeSantis may be better at doing it.

That is to say, DeSantis may combine a similar contempt for the law with being more methodical than Trump and better at getting away with it.

This contention parallels my own concern that, while DeSantis often seems like he could be better as a President than Trump (while managing to appeal to his base), he could be worse than Trump, if it turns out he is just a more organized and effective authoritarian.

Their concerns about his abuses of power, below, are just a part of their case:

Image by Elena Mozhvilo, via Unsplash, license.

Even more worrisome is how DeSantis uses the law to attack his enemies. We are concerned by his retaliation against Disney for exercising its First Amendment rights -- and even more alarmed by his undermining law enforcement by suspending prosecutors he doesn't like. They're the very prosecutors who might investigate him or his administration for breaking the law. We should all remember that firing prosecutors was similarly Trump's first line of defense against criminal investigations of himself and his campaign -- even though the use of presidential power to remove a prosecutor and corruptly obstruct investigations is itself criminal. [bold added]

Much of the rest concerns flouting campaign finance laws, which are a mixed bag. That said, it is the job of a chief executive to enforce the law until it can be changed (and then not merely, as they argue DeSantis has done, for mere political expediency).

Just because someone points to the Defund the Police mob and states the obvious about them does not mean they aren't essentially the same thing or worse in different packaging.

-- CAV