The American voter will be voting in three weeks in an increasingly divided country. Joe Biden’s Democrats are in power in Washington, but the Trump revolution continues in conservative states. Voters see Biden primarily struggling with inflation and hard-to-get laws. Meanwhile, local Republican politicians win victories in the Kulturkampf.

One such Republican is in power in Florida: The whole country watches as Governor Ron DeSantis tirelessly unrolls the Trump agenda. He thought lockdowns during the pandemic were largely nonsense, meaning Florida’s economy is doing relatively well now. Meanwhile, he went on the offensive against “the harmful waking ideology in schools and corporations,” the media, institutions, and “the progressive elite.”

Diary of Anne Frank forbidden

For example, it is now banned from teaching in schools about issues such as gender, sexuality and racial inequality. Company training courses on these topics have also been restricted. It does that in several places in Florida even The back house Anne Frank should no longer be read in school. At the same time, DeSantis calls his state “the freest in America”.

The fans think it’s wonderful, the opponents are tough. And that contrast works well in the media, allowing DeSantis to be constantly in the news and celebrating his accomplishments.

Teacher Adam Tritt stands among dozens of stacks of books on display in his living room. Boxes are also full in the hall and in the guest room. It’s the “banned books,” says Tritt, and that’s not an exaggerated term. “I get emails from the school board with titles of books I need to remove from the classroom. I am no longer allowed to share them with my students.”

The titles vary widely, but there is a common thread: “Out of the top 10 banned books, four are about gender and LGBTI and six are about black American stories,” says Tritt. “It’s clear which groups they want to make invisible.”

The new laws in Florida, one of them literally de stop wake act hot, give parents and school boards the power to place books with “objectionable content” on a banned list. Teachers can disagree book ban, but the parents can then sue the teacher. At the signing of the law, Governor DeSantis announced that the state will reimburse parents for legal costs in these cases.

self-censorship

As a result, many teachers leave it at that to avoid problems. “We see self-censorship or dismissals from colleagues,” says Tritt. He himself, in a fit of activism, decided to counterattack; hence all the books in his house. They should be distributed at events to keep the banned books in circulation as much as possible.

Governor DeSantis is described in the US media as “Trump with brains”. He is intelligent, has iron discipline and communicates loud and clear. “Woke is a form of cultural Marxism, they want to tear our society and culture apart,” he explained of his “Stop Woke” law. “We must protect our children from harmful ideologies that are forced upon them.”

Testing ground for legislation

For example, Florida is becoming a testing ground for how far legislation can be stretched in a “red” state, with Republican DeSantis fully committed to cultural issues. “They function like a piece of red meat, they stand out the most,” said James Judge, a DeSantis member who is running for a seat in Congress in this election. “It’s a conscious strategy of his to stay in the media all the time and also to attract national attention.”

This leads to a trend, which has accelerated in recent years, that the “blue” and “red” states of America are increasingly diverging in their legislation. For example, progressive California has declared itself an “abortion sanctuary,” while the practice is outlawed in a growing list of conservative states. The same division can be seen in gun laws, LGBT rights and election laws. And so the book ban.

“Appropriate Age”

Gov. DeSantis defends the law, emphasizing that the ban on books applies to children under the age of nine. “It should be normal that you don’t teach these kids about sex,” Judge said. “Actually, it’s crazy that a law is needed for this.” But for children over the age of nine, the law dictates that education is “age appropriate.”

“And that is deliberately a very vague wording in the law,” says teacher Adam Tritt. Because it has an effect, he says. “So every teacher wants to stay as far away from these topics as possible. For fear that you will say something that is not considered ‘age appropriate’. You no longer discuss them, you no longer address them, you just keep away from them remote.”

The Kite Runner and the Secret Annex

This also shakes the overall understanding of history, Tritt sees. Lying on his dining table The back housethe diary of Anne Frank, and the international bestseller kite runner by Khaled Hosseini. “In this edition of the book, Anne Frank talks about her sexual feelings and in kite runner There’s a rape scene,” Tritt says. “So these books should be removed from the classroom altogether.”

He takes a book about civil rights activist Rosa Parks from the stack of forbidden literature. “They’re afraid of these books. They’re afraid that white people will think badly of themselves when they read about the struggles that black Americans have gone through,” says the teacher. “So let’s stop learning about each other’s history.”

On November 8th, Americans will elect a new House of Representatives and a new Senate. It’s the first nationwide election since the 2020 presidential election — so there’s a lot more at stake than seats in Congress.