Florida governor’s idea for personal army has authoritarian undertones

When Florida joined several states in establishing defense forces known as state guards during World War II, there was a justifiable reason for it. The National Guard had been called up to defend the nation, and states needed new forces that could be mobilized quickly to perform the services of the guard units they had lost, such as responding to natural disasters.

Today, though, there’s no legitimate purpose behind Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ attempt to resurrect the Florida State Guard, which Florida disbanded after the war when the National Guard returned from deployments.

DeSantis’ move prompted justifiable concerns that his intent was to form his own hand-picked army, which would exist independently of the federal government. The state guard, unlike the National Guard, would be controlled solely by the governor.

State Sen. Annette Taddeo wrote on Twitter that DeSantis was a “wannabe dictator trying to make his move for his own vigilante militia like we’ve seen in Cuba.”

Indeed, these kinds of efforts can quickly transform into dangerous quasi-legal thuggery by officials — something DeSantis has already proved willing to do by using state law enforcement authorities to persecute COVID-19 whistleblower Rebekah Jones and by advocating for a Florida law making it legal to drive a car into protesters.

The revival of the state guard evokes an image in which any critic of DeSantis and his brutish viewpoints lives in fear of a knock on the door in the middle of the night.

In his budget, he proposed spending $3.5 million to create a paramilitary force of 200 volunteers “not encumbered by the federal government.” The guard, he said, would give him “the flexibility and the ability needed to respond to events in our state in the most effective way possible.”

But why would Florida need such a force when its National Guard stands at the ready with 12,000 troops, and with the recent withdrawal of the U.S. from Afghanistan having significantly reduced America’s involvement in foreign wars?

And why does DeSantis want such a force to be explicitly outside of any control other than his?

It’s alarming, too, to think of the type of individuals who might sign up for DeSantis’ goon squad, or the types he would choose. With the Republican Party increasingly aligning with violent alt-right groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, it wouldn’t be surprising to see DeSantis use his army as a way to sanction these thugs.

DeSantis’ defenders will point out that 21 other states have state guards today, and they aren’t used for political purposes. (Nevada, by the way, doesn’t have a state defense force, but instead relies on the Nevada National Guard.)

But this is an era in which the Republican governors of several states sent National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in what they falsely claimed was a response to a national defense crisis over an influx of immigrants, but what in reality was a racist show of force against people trying to escape poverty, crime and unrest in their home countries.

In this climate, the idea of DeSantis or another extremist GOP leader having a private gang of armed thugs to use at their whim is disturbing.

This is a party whose leadership is working at the federal level and in states across the nation to undermine democracy through voter suppression laws, gerrymandering and the dismantling of fair election oversight structures. In polls conducted over the past several months, nearly half of Republicans said they believed the time was approaching when “patriotic Americans” would have to take the law into their own hands, and more than a quarter qualify as having right-wing authoritarian political beliefs.

The Florida State Guard plays on the worst authoritarian fantasies of the GOP’s leadership and a disturbingly large percentage of the party’s followers.

But the people who are applauding him should remember one thing: History is filled with instances when people who were considered loyal to a regime one day were deemed enemies of the state the next, and were rounded up by squads that look an awful lot like DeSantis’ guard would.

DeSantis, through his opposition to pandemic safety guidelines, has already shown how much he truly values the well being of Floridians, which is to say not at all. Last summer, as the state was enduring a lengthy stretch of leading the nation in COVID infections, hospitalizations and deaths, he was railing against mask and vaccine mandates.

This is not a man who should be in a leadership position — not in Florida, and especially not in the White House.