After Governor DeSantis comments on Fort Bragg which we discussed earlier in the week, the conversation about the Governor’s constitutional originalism and fetish for the confederacy is a real talking point.

It reminds us that DeSantis embraced a former state flag that was created by Governor William Moseley with a specific purpose – to defend Florida’s plantation-based slavery against the Federal Government. In December 2021 he appeared at a press conference with the flag and began using a revised version of the flag as an official statement as to Florida’s “freedom” as contrasted with other states.

Moseley, a Democrat was a slaveholder who defeated the more seasoned, moderate and respectable Richard Keith Call, a Whig at the time to become Florida’s first Governor after statehood. Call has been a Governor during Florida’s territorial period. Moseley’s victory over Call was unfortunate for the new state and set Florida on a course to be a radicalized bastion of slavery, secession and violent racism for the next hundred years and change.

FLORIDA HISTORY PODCAST: GOVERNOR WILLIAM MOSELEY

Moseley’s ideology was a combination of state’s rights, pacification of the Seminoles and hoping to extend slavery into the territories or new areas that would be conquered by the US. His flag’s slogan “leave us alone” was a clear message to the Federal Government and northern Abolitionists, to stay out of Florida’s business and allow slavery to continue to thrive in the new state.

Governor DeSantis in late 2021, began using the above motto “Let Us Alone” in his campaign and public rhetoric. He lifted the motto from the flag directly – a motto from a pro-slavery Governor’s desire to keep the Federal Government away from the peculiar institution. I’m someone who often gets into spats with my fellow liberals because I dislike the assumption that today’s Republicans are the same as the segregationist Democrats or slave-holding elites of yesteryear. But this by any objective standard raised questions. And DeSantis continued embrace of confederate symbols and divisive historical narratives fits nicely with this theme – and it’s something quite frankly Donald Trump WOULD NOT get away with as easily.

It’s time the national media focus on DeSantis use of this rhetoric and these symbols.