Joy Reid torches 'vulgar' Ron DeSantis for co-opting this 'term' for his 'bigoted MAGA road show'

Since Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis was forced to end his failing 2024 presidential campaign in February, the GOP leader has remained persistent in his "hostile takeover" across the Sunshine State.

MSNBC's Joy Reid issued a scathing rebuke of the governor use of the historic term "Freedom Summer" for his latest "bigoted" and "performative" move.

"On June 15, 1964, a group of Black and white civil rights activists led by Bob Moses and about 300 mostly northern volunteers poured into Mississippi, the hardest state to register black voters, and the lynchingest state in the union," Reid said. "They called it 'Freedom Summer.'"

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"The push, built on the 1961 freedom rides that took mostly college students on integrated buses through the south," she continued, "from Washington, DC, through Alabama and Mississippi, to their ultimate destination in New Orleans." During those early rides, young activists like John Lewis and Joan Trumpauer Mulholland met violence resistance from the [Ku Klux] Klan and from white segregationist governors and sheriffs, beatings and fire bombings that encompassed the full weight of the South's massive resistance against the Brown v. Board Supreme Court decision, and other rulings mandating the end of segregation in public accommodations in the US."

Reid emphasized, "Freedom Summer in 1964, a year after the assassination of Medgar Evers, marked a turning point on the way to the passage of the landmark civil rights act of 1964 and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which finally made real the promises of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Reconstruction amendments to the Constitution. So the term Freedom Summer has a meaning, or at least it should to any American with a passive knowledge of history."

"Enter Ron Desantis — America's most boldly racist governor," the MSNBC host emphasizes, "whose presidential campaign ended in rank humiliation as he wound up groveling to Trump and agreeing to fundraise for him after torching his state, sinking Florida with a pointless war with Disney, a six-week abortion ban he signed in the middle of the night, and a performative war against Covid vaccinations and masking to protect children and the elderly. All while Florida led the nation in banning books, banning drag shows, banning diversity, equity, and inclusion, and turning itself into a white nationalist hide-out for every crook, criminal, and Trump in America."

"Now, Ron has decided to steal the term 'Freedom Summer' to apply it to something vulgar, because he is vulgar," Reid said. "According to The Washington Post, as part of what DeSantis is calling 'Freedom Summer,' his transportation department has told cities across the state that if they want to light up their bridges at night, they can only use the colors red, white, and blue. The order, which was shared by the Florida transportation secretary on social media, means that bridges across the state that normally illuminate in colorful arrays of light to mark holidays or awareness events won't be able to use any other colors from May 27 through September 2.

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The ReidOut host added, "The goal of Ron's order is clearly to shut down any celebration of pride month, which begins June 1. It's his attempt to strip the bright colors off Florida and turn the state into Alabama, which its panhandle was originally supposed to be. Mostly it's a message to Florida's large and vibrant LGBTQ population that your governor hates you, just as much as he loathes the Black and migrant populations in your state."

"Well, Ron, those of us who actually read books, rather than banning them know what 'Freedom Summer' was, and you can't have that term for your sorry, bigoted performative MAGA road show. It belongs to history, to John Lewis and Joan Mulholland and Bob Moses and Diane Nash and [Andrew] Goodman and [James] Chaney, who were lynched during that long hot summer, and all of the heroes, Black and white, Jewish and gentile, free men and free women who fought for the right of Black people to vote, to be served at a lunch counter, and for every American to live in dignity. Dignity. You should look it up, Ron. Maybe if you had some, you could be president one day."

Watch the video below or at this link.

Joy Reid destroys DeSantis for co-opting this 'term' for his 'bigoted performative MAGA road show' www.youtube.com

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