Chris Hayes is on what can only be described as a dishonest tear, claiming that Florida has gone full authoritarian:
MSNBC’s @chrislhayes: “Telling parents how they can or cannot raise their children is among the most authoritarian things a government can do. And now that is exactly what Ron DeSantis and the Republican Party in Florida…are doing.” pic.twitter.com/uIIwwXPVEV
— Ari Drennen (@AriDrennen) May 19, 2023
Unfortunately, he goes on:
Hayes: “there are parents and families in Florida who have decided as a family, as parents, along with their doctors, that this healthcare – gender affirming care – is the best care for their kids. You may not like it, but you know what? It’s none of your…goddamned business.” pic.twitter.com/8Dqvey7Dec
— Ari Drennen (@AriDrennen) May 19, 2023
And he goes on from there, but we’ve heard enough. Let’s break that down.
First, he complains about the state choosing what your kids can read in public school libraries. But until about five minutes ago, every person in America thought it was perfectly fine and normal for schools to make sure their libraries had age-appropriate materials. Were we authoritarians up until then?
Second, he complains about abortion laws. Apart from blatantly lying about the actual law (we are aware of no state that has a total ban on abortions or even a total ban that kicks in after a certain amount of time), the fact is even under Roe, states were allowed to regulate and even ban abortion. So, were we an authoritarian nation back then, too?
Third, he claimed that all drag shows were banned. In fact, the bill (now signed into law), S.B. 1438 doesn’t even mention drag at all. It simply aimed at live adult performances in front of children, drag, straight or whatever, using language taken straight from the Supreme Court on obscenity—which is a category of speech the Supreme Court has traditionally allowed the government to limit. In other words, once again, there is nothing new here.
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Finally, he gets to the real whopper. First, he falsely says that Florida has banned ‘all gender-affirming care’—which you know by now is code for transitioning a child from one gender to another. But the claim that all of it is banned is simply false. What it has done is prohibit medical procedures such as sex-change surgery or puberty blockers. But if, for instance, a father decided to buy a dress for a young boy who claims he is a girl in his heart, the law doesn’t care.
But then he goes further and doubles down on the stupid, claiming somehow this is a matter of parental rights.
Now, first, parental rights are important. For instance, the Supreme Court has long recognized that parents basically have a Constitutional right to raise their kids according to their values. From Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57 (2000):
The liberty interest at issue in this case—the interest of parents in the care, custody, and control of their children— is perhaps the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests recognized by this Court. More than 75 years ago, in Meyer v. Nebraska … (1923), we held that the ‘liberty’ protected by the Due Process Clause includes the right of parents to ‘establish a home and bring up children’ and ‘to control the education of their own.’ Two years later, in Pierce v. Society of Sisters … (1925), we again held that the ‘liberty of parents and guardians’ includes the right ‘to direct the upbringing and education of children under their control.’ We explained in Pierce that ‘[t]he child is not the mere creature of the State; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations.’ … We returned to the subject in Prince v. Massachusetts … (1944), and again confirmed that there is a constitutional dimension to the right of parents to direct the upbringing of their children. ‘It is cardinal with us that the custody, care and nurture of the child reside first in the parents, whose primary function and freedom include preparation for obligations the state can neither supply nor hinder.’ …
In subsequent cases also, we have recognized the fundamental right of parents to make decisions concerning the care, custody, and control of their children.
But there was always a limiting principle. You can teach your children what you want, you can decide what school they go to, you can punish them (we think that includes a right to some corporal punishment) but you’re not allowed to commit physical abuse—to name one such limitation. If a father got angry at his daughter and deliberately broke her arm to punish her, no rational person would say that is a matter of parental rights. If a mother decided to ritualistically chop off her son’s penis for some cult, no one would say that was her right. We don’t know of a single parents’ rights advocate who would say otherwise.
But if the mother wants to cut off that penis because a minor boy has declared he is a girl, that’s perfectly fine in Mr. Hayes’ book and it is authoritarian to stop such mutilation.
Of course, this didn’t stop the ‘know nothing’ left from clapping like seals:
.@ChrisLHayes is at breaking point. I feel his pain. https://t.co/LW8dZmpCvD
— ToutdeSuiteLaSinner (@ToutSuiteSinner) May 19, 2023
This man cannot become president. I don’t know what will save Florida. https://t.co/y8vy6ybeXE
— Marcia Martin (@MarciaChapter2) May 19, 2023
GQP is ALL ABOUT CONTROL! https://t.co/rXkwju3f29
— chriscatmom🇺🇦🌻🌊💙🏳️🌈🌞🐈🐈⬛😻 (@chriscatmom) May 19, 2023
Yes, it’s terrible the way that the GOP believes in controlling public school libraries. /sarcasm
I thought Right wingers wanted to reduce the power of the government over the lives of Americans. https://t.co/8PVcLPImU3
— Diana Manister (@DianaCialino) May 19, 2023
Because if you think maybe the government is too big, that means you have to be fine with child mutilation, or something.
It’s always “parents rights” until the parents make a decision the state doesn’t like https://t.co/XlH3ipfpt1
— Based and Moonpilled (@MoonHowler98) May 19, 2023
It’s almost like Chris Hayes killed a straw man.
And a special callout needs to go to Chris Geidner. Most of these people, Hayes included, could simply be morons who can’t read a law and don’t know that the principle of parental rights does not include physical abuse. But Mr. Geidner is a lawyer and we have no doubt that he knows better. So, his support for this nonsense can only be called dishonest and we have lost a great deal of respect for him because of this:
Tonight, @chrislhayes does exactly what I said reporting on DeSantis needs to do. https://t.co/bHaMt7DrX1 … Good on him. https://t.co/uN0qjhNZ7d
— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) May 19, 2023
Hopefully, this madness will end soon.
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