When it comes to governing the climate-doomed state of Florida, Republicans are nothing if not consistent: Do Only Harm. It’s almost uncanny how focused the state party is on finding anything in Florida that works so that they can break it good and hard. Gov. Ron DeSantis’ installation of an anti-vaxx pandemic conspiracy crank in the state’s topmost public health office may be the most prominent example of the fervor Republicans have for their task, but the day-to-day grind of wrecking decent government wherever they find it can’t always be that showy.
One of the latest examples comes from Orange County, which has been battling a housing crisis and responded earlier this year with new ordinances meant to protect renters from abusive gamesmanship by landlords. The county barred landlords from raising rents more than 5% without giving renters 60 days of written notice, and from discriminating against renters who use housing vouchers to help make their payments. That was the plan, anyway—until state Republican lawmakers got wind of it and wrote up a new state law wiping out the new ordinances along with similar locally passed renter protections throughout the state.
Why? The usual reason, of course: Florida Republicans are tight as ticks with real estate developers and with landlords, so all it took was a few whines in Republican ears for state lawmakers to jump in and put a stop to it.