Bad Intentions

Ron DeSantis, the left, and the Jacksonville massacre.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his wife attend a vigil to honor the victims of a deadly shooting took place in Jacksonville on August 27, 2023. (Photo by Saul Martinez for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

On Saturday, an attentive security team spotted a white man behaving suspiciously on the campus of an historically black university in Jacksonville, Florida. Having drawn their attention, the man left and ended up at a nearby Dollar General store. There, he murdered three African Americans in cold blood before killing himself at the scene.

Responding officers found a swastika painted on one of his weapons. When they searched his home afterward, they found racist argle-bargle on his computer.

On Monday, at the White House, a reporter for NPR was keen to know how much blame, precisely, the governor of Florida bore for the attack.

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  1. John

    Don't know if I really buy this. Thought experiment: if a racially motivated shooting identical in all particulars had happened in Massachusetts in 2006, what are the odds that Mitt Romney would have gotten pretty much the same reception from the same audience in the same circumstances?

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  2. Flashmark

    Read The Year That Broke Politics, a recent history of the 68 election that questions the established “southern strategy” narrative.

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    1. Roger.Chylla

      There is a context for the "Southern Strategy" that I rarely hear proclaimed. How about this one. Let's give the Republicans all the blame for courting the votes of the South after the passage of the civil rights legislation of the 60's and the end of Jim Crow if the New Dealers and Roosevelt get half the blame for keeping them in their coalition when Jim Crow was alive and well and Southern politicians were standing in the doors of classrooms. No this is not "what absolutism". It's the reality that Southerners will have representation by at least one of the parties and the period of GOP representation should be compared side by side to the period of Democratic representation when making a judgement.

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    Ben Connelly

    I find the attempts to blame DeSantis for this shooting profoundly dishonest

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  4. Dougrhon

    Lee Atwater has been dead for more than 30 years. Until Democrats stop making all policy disagreements the equivalent of Jim Crow nobody is going to take claims of dog whistling seriously.

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  5. ConProf

    LOL. Nick spends 500 words clearing his throat before he gets back to his usual topic: how much he doesn’t like Ron DeSantis.

    We got it Nick. You don’t like Ron DeSantis. Perhaps put a little more effort in and enjoin another topic. Don’t want to set the bar too high, so we’ll settle for two out of every five posts.

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  6. Halvor

    It's not clear from Nick's commentary that anyone really accused DeSantis of responsibility for the Jacksonville murders. Nick claims they did, but if that's true, Nick should put the accusation in quotes, so that readers can judge for themselves.

    In neighboring article on this site, Kevin Williamson accuses governments of "doing nothing" to stop mass murderers. He writes, "Beating up the responsible authorities for making the wrong call is easy—and, in some of these cases, there should be very uncomfortable questions asked about the apparent negligence involved in letting these future killers run around unsupervised." He casts shade on Chicago and Milwaukee. Employing the stylistic device of repetition, Kevin says, "doing—again—nothing" and "there’s that word again—nothing." Then he goes after Philadelphia.

    So, if Kevin can blame Democratic city governments for doing nothing about murder, I guess it would be ok for leftists to blame Gov. DeSantis for not stopping the carnage in a rather Red city in his own state -- if they actually did say that. Again, I'd like to see the quote.

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  7. John

    Looking at this I had the feeling that this is hyper analysis. I know most of this and I don’t see much of any undercurrent of political intent that had any lasting power. This is hyper political analysis to me

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    Ray Salemi

    This piece says Black people are right to distrust DeSantis. Shouldn’t that topic be the main thrust rather than arguing causality on a specific shooting?

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    1. Roger.Chylla

      No I don't think so. The mutual hatred and disrespect is a core issue of our broken political system. The Dems and GOP each have their set of false narratives to propel these hatreds. This is one from the Democrats playbook and calling it out is a first tier concern.

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    Ray Salemi

    “ kindly grandpa Joe Biden viciously warning an African American audience in 2012 that Mitt Romney (Mitt Romney!) wanted to “put y’all back in chains.””

    Yeah…that banking reform debate in which Romney said he’d unchain the banks … banking reform is tough business.

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      Chris Lynch

      Those sound like very different things, especially with Biden saying put YOU in chains, and adding “literally!” at the end.

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        Ray Salemi

        The conservative media lost their minds over a metaphor.

        I think it hit a little close to home, given the southern strategy and the defense of Confederate symbols.

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    Citizen60

    After Ron Declares slaves (Black without the word) learned useful skills while under the lash, and demanding—or firing— teachers teach only a very whitewashed and positive Black history in the US—Nick thinks liberals have bad intentions.

    No words

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      Chris Lynch

      Two things can be true

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      Martin Hernandez

      Citation needed…

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      JohnM.

      That line was also in the original syllabus. That's how you know that this was a smear.

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        Stephanie

        It should then have been removed when the syllabus was revised. No excuse.

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          JohnM.

          True.

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    4. Goatprairie

      Yes, I know....you're heartbroken that Florida won't be teaching BLM/woke history of the U.S. It's very sad.
      Hopefully, I X Kendi and others like him we be allowed to teach the woke i.e. false version of American history. So all students can feel miserable.

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        Stephanie

        Reading this, it is perfectly obvious to me why most blacks people think conservatives are racist and don’t vote Republican.

        I’m not saying YOU are racist. You are expressing your sincere opinion, but it could create an impression you’d rather not create.

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        1. Goatprairie

          Yes indeed....anybody who thinks differently than a liberal on racial matters is probably a racist....got it.
          But thanks for the advice.....unfortunately (and this is very sad to say) I don't rightly give a good gd what race-baiting liberals say about me. Not that I'm calling YOU one.












          race-baiting liberals thinks about me.

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            Stephanie

            I’m glad you’re not losing sleep over a comment 😄

            Maybe double-check the definition of the term “race-baiting.” You misused it.

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      2. Avatar photo
        Citizen60

        Wisdom
        Opportunity
        Knowledge
        Empowerment

        You, too, should be heartbroken at an uninformed electorate

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        1. Goatprairie

          I think the term WOKE is closely allied to the acronym for the Keepers Of Odd Knowledge Society.

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        2. Andrew Holmes

          I think one of you is speaking about indoctrination and the other education.

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            Citizen60

            I was providing the answer to the question: What does WOKE mean?

            Not sure what you're commenting on?

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