Opinion | Surprise, surprise: Florida leads the nation in Jan. 6 defendants

“All roads result in Mar-a-Lago,” Laura Loomer, a right-wing activist and fellow Floridian, informed Self-importance Truthful final fall. “That is the place the political energy inside the appropriate wing or the America First motion is centralized.”

However high-profile Republicans are hardly the one Floridians gaga over MAGA. The state additionally has loads of Trumpian floor troops. Of the greater than 800 individuals criminally charged for collaborating within the Jan. 6 rebel, Floridians take the highest spot. Within the newest tally, 72 individuals have been arrested and charged in Florida. Texans are available in a detailed second, with 71. Of these arrested in Florida, just a few are state or nationwide leaders of hard-right extremist organizations such because the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.

I want I might say I used to be shocked to see what number of Floridians fell into the MAGA Jan. 6 vortex. However this can be a state that has been within the grips of a Republican legislature and Republican governors since 1999. For many years, Florida has been a hotbed of gun-rights advocacy, a hot-button challenge for MAGA extremists.

In 2000, with Jeb Bush as governor, Florida was baptized into high-stakes politics, changing into floor zero for the deadlocked presidential election between the governor’s brother, George W. Bush, and his Democratic rival, Al Gore. That contentious five-week battle included a “Cease the Recount” rally of Brooks Brothers-clad Republican operatives in Miami, in what now appears like a dry run for the “Cease the Steal” marketing campaign to throw a monkey wrench into the 2020 election outcomes.

By 2010, the tea occasion, a populist conservative/libertarian precursor to MAGA that decried taxes, authorities spending and regulation, had discovered fertile floor in Florida. The tea occasion motion’s operatives used the state as a launchpad for nationwide grass-roots organizing and fundraising.

That yr, the tea occasion helped put then-Sen. Rick Scott within the Florida governor’s mansion and Marco Rubio, a former state lawmaker, within the U.S. Senate. Gov. Ron DeSantis, a tea occasion favourite, received his U.S. Home seat in 2012.

“The tea occasion motion actually helped educate and educate different residents about these points,” Deana A. Rohlinger, director of analysis for the Institute of Politics at Florida State College, informed me. “You had of us who had created a political group, they usually had been energized.”

The tea occasion was the costume rehearsal for hard-right MAGA political mobilization, which was turbocharged by the covid-19 rise up and the unfold of misinformation, fearmongering and crackpot conspiracies by way of social media. In Florida, that mobilization has paid dividends. Activists have successfully focused college boards, county fee conferences and LGBTQ college students, typically beneath the guise of parental rights.

Of states with conservative activism, “Florida is unquestionably on the prime,” Rachel Carroll Rivas, a senior analysis analyst with the Southern Poverty Regulation Heart, informed me. “The on-the-ground sport may be very accessible in Florida. You possibly can transfer the dial fairly efficiently.”

The motion has been stoked by leaders who jack up anger and endorse conspiracies (whether or not about vaccines, 2020 electoral fraud or homosexual indoctrination in colleges), which occurs to translate into marketing campaign committee treasure. DeSantis has raised a mind-boggling $105 million for his 2022 gubernatorial race and has shortly turn into a formidable nationwide model.

The governor is unlikely to agonize by Florida’s distinction as the highest provider of Jan. 6 defendants. On the primary anniversary, DeSantis dismissed the Capitol riot as “Christmas” for “D.C.-New York media,” which use it to “smear anybody whoever supported Donald Trump.” He additionally stated, “It’s an insult to individuals if you say it’s an ‘rebel’ after which a yr later, no person has been charged with that.”

True sufficient — however the Jan. 6 federal costs in opposition to Floridians alone embrace obstruction of regulation enforcement throughout civil dysfunction; assaulting, resisting or impeding sure officers utilizing a harmful weapon and inflicting bodily harm on sure officers; and destruction of presidency property and aiding and abetting.

DeSantis did say he’s “all about” holding to account anybody who riots or obstructs authorities proceedings. If solely that had been true. He’s “about” many different issues too, and it’s working for him. The governor’s reputation within the state is rising, as is concept about whether or not he would problem Trump in 2024 if the previous president decides to run.

I can consider a minimum of 72 Floridians who could be torn about which candidate to assist.