De Santis's plan to turn America into Florida
De Santis veut construire une Amérique à l'image de la Floride
Ron DeSantis, gouverneur de Floride depuis 2018, est une des personnalités les plus médiatisées actuellement aux États-Unis. Et pour cause : son programme politique ultra-conservateur qu’il souhaite appliquer au pays tout entier est très controversé. Avec son slogan « Make America Florida » DeSantis a la volonté de faire de la Floride un vrai laboratoire de la nouvelle droite américaine. Même si sa candidature n’est pas encore officielle, on peut dire que le gouverneur a entamé depuis plusieurs mois déjà sa campagne pour les élections présidentielles de 2024.
The title of Governor Ron DeSantis’s book is less important than the subtitle. The Courage to Be Free is a forgettable title shared by a volume by actor and gun rights activist, Charlton Heston. But the subtitle, Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival, unlocks DeSantis’s national ambitions.
2. While former American President Donald Trump labours under the frayed slogan of “Make America Great Again”, DeSantis is building a case to “Make America Florida” – a phrase that appears on caps, flags and other merchandise. The governor
1. gun rights autorisation de détenir des armes à feu / activist militant (pro-) / blueprint projet, plan / revival renaissance, renouveau / to unlock ici, révéler.
2. former ancien / to labour travailler, peiner, trimer / frayed élimé, ici fragilisé / to build, built, built a case monter un dossier / cap casquette / flag drapeau /
SUR LE BOUT DE LA LANGUE
argues that he has made glorious summer in the Sunshine state. If and when he announces a run for US president in 2024, he will claim that he can repeat the formula in state after state across the nation. Florida, his theory goes, is an incubator of conservative ideas that work.
A shaky popularity ?
3. He dangles a carrot to Republicans who, weary of Trump’s losing streak, are seeking a saviour. DeSantis writes that when he was elected in 2018, there were nearly 300,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans in Florida; by October 2022, there were more than 300,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats.
4. But the governor’s critics question whether his fixation on culture wars (“Florida is where woke goes to die!”) is quite as popular as it seems. They also contend that, with numerous climatic, economic and social problems, Florida is not quite the paradise that DeSantis likes to portray. 5. DeSantis, 44, as governor of the third most populous state has imposed limits on how race and sexuality can be taught in schools, forcing some teachers to remove books from their libraries. He has also banned transgender girls from school sports, redrawn the state’s political maps to favour Republicans, attacked Disney and other businesses that disagree with his ideology, and cracked down on Black Lives Matter protests.
6. Then there was the coronavirus pandemic. The governor mostly followed guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the early months, closing Florida’s beaches, bars and schools. But he pivoted in early 2021, reopening schools before other states and banning face mask and vaccine mandates in businesses and
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