Last year, after Disney exercised its constitutionally guaranteed right to free expression and publicly criticized the GOP’s legislative assault on LGBTQ Floridians, DeSantis, and the Florida Legislature, struck back by revoking the company’s self-governing status. Now the Legislature has granted DeSantis the power to appoint a five-person board to oversee the theme park in an effort that he said would “force Disney to stop ‘trying to inject woke ideology’ on children.” It’s hard to come up with a clearer example of a political leader using the instruments of state power to punish a company for expressing opinions he doesn’t like — and using that power to influence their business decisions.

In recent weeks, DeSantis has widened his war on the First Amendment. He’s spoken of his desire to weaken libel laws, which would make it easier to sue media organizations for defamation. This direct assault on the freedom of the press was picked up by at least one Florida legislator, who introduced legislation last week that would require bloggers who write about the state government and its leaders to register with the state.

When not violating bedrock constitutional principles, DeSantis and his Republican cronies are force-feeding Florida’s students their take on American history. While DeSantis claims that he’s trying to stop “woke indoctrination” in the Sunshine State, he is seeking to warp their minds with his own form of indoctrination. ,,,,,

DeSantis’ moves are a transparently cynical ploy to win over Republican voters who enjoy nothing more than angering liberals with culture war divisiveness. But that doesn’t make it any less deplorable (and what else can one say of voters who take such pleasure in legislation purposely aimed at enraging, enflaming and endangering their political opponents).