Florida Rising Fights Back, With Dwight Bullard

[00:00:00] Sound on Tape: This podcast is presented by Convergence, a magazine for radical insights. 

[00:00:07] Dwight Bullard: You’re now saying that we’re going to take people who have really no ties to higher education and place them in these spaces to intentionally break down student morale. Faculty morale, put people in a position to want to quit and leave start breaking down programs, restructuring things like diversity, equity, inclusion, and that is like the playbook 3.

[00:00:35] 0. After the revolution, we’ll have a better life. There’ll be a better husband, 

[00:00:44] Scot Nakagawa: I’ll be a better wife. Welcome to the anti racist movement. Authoritarian Podcast, a project of the 22nd Century Initiative. I’m Scott Nakagawa, one of your hosts. 

[00:01:00] Sue Hyde: Hello friends, I’m co host Sue Hyde. Scott and I first joined forces about 30 years ago to help defeat anti LGBTQ ballot measures proposed by Christian authoritarian groups.

[00:01:13] Scot Nakagawa: It was as true then as it is now that those of us who believe in democracy make up a super majority of people in this country. The challenge is How do we go from being the majority to acting like the majority? 

[00:01:25] Sue Hyde: We dig into strategy questions like these and prescriptions for change. We talk with expert guests and commentators whose scholarship, political activism, and organizing Define the cutting edge of anti authoritarian resistance.

[00:01:41] Thank you for joining us

[00:01:47] Scot Nakagawa: The theme of the anti authoritarian podcast second season is ready set go Here’s why. Two symptoms of extreme polarization in the U. S. are, one, that government repression of protests is growing dramatically across the country in both blue and red states, justified in part by extreme polarization, which is widely understood to be an invitation to political violence.

[00:02:09] And two, Putting a point in this, political threats and violence has, in fact, been rising. These aren’t the kinds of challenges we typically are prepared for in campaign school nor in college political science classes, I’m told. In order to win an equitable, multiracial democracy in these conditions, we will need to do the job of getting ready to be the leaders we need ourselves.

[00:02:32] But we also need to be ready to take the offensive. There will be opportunities we need to be able to see and reach for as conditions change around us, and there will be opportunities. This season will include guests from communities that are already ruled by authoritarians to learn from their experiences in what four authoritarians are serving as experimental stations.

[00:02:54] They will share their wisdom and help us grapple with what might be coming for the rest of us and what we can do about it. Florida is one of those states. It is ruled by an authoritarian trifecta and has been for quite some time now. We are fortunate to be joined today by former Florida State Senator, I just learned, and movement leader Dwight Bullard, who has been fighting the good fight there in the belly of the beast.

[00:03:18] Sue Hyde: Welcome Dwight, and thank you for joining us. Dwight. Bullard is the senior political advisor of Florida Rising, leading the organization to bring political education and awareness to underserved and often marginalized communities. He uplifts people in a way that helps them determine their own destinies.

[00:03:41] In 2008, he was sworn into office as state representative of District 118 and was re elected subsequently. In 2012, Dwight was elected to the Florida Senate, where he served as Vice Chair of the Transportation and Agricultural Committees. He maintains his memberships in the Democrats of South Dade Club, the Ron Brown Democratic Caucus, 100 Black Men of South Florida, And many more organizations.

[00:04:11] Welcome, Dwight. 

[00:04:13] Dwight Bullard: Thank you for having me, Scott 

[00:04:15] Scot Nakagawa: and Sue. Okay. Dwight I’m just going to jump in with a question. So given your deep background in Florida politics, what can you share with us about what has been going on in the state for the last 20 plus years? And how do you see communities organizing to free Floridians of authoritarian rule?

[00:04:34] Dwight Bullard: There’s a relatively long arc short in the spans of human history, of course, but, for folks who’ve had to endure authoritarian rule it feels like a long time. Florida for a long time, like many Southern states had been represented by the Democratic Party as it transitioned.

[00:04:58] Over years, but has been in this kind of trifecta rule really since 1998 where you have right wing control of the executive branch and the legislative branch. And now by default, the judicial branch as well with our Supreme court having all appointees that are from these.

[00:05:23] Republican governors that we’ve had for quite some time. So, it’s a cautionary tale to anyone to be mindful of any extreme lengthy one party rule system. But what I would also lift up is that the journey for Florida is also one that people have to keep an eye on because when you start naming the names of all these individuals that have permeated the really the American political conversation, you start to see that there’s a through line of people who are.

[00:06:05] zealots in many cases of a right wing authoritarian mindset, but also eager and very much ambitious. I say that because the first governor that kind of pops up on the scene for us has a very familiar right wing last name, right? Jeb Bush was elected in 1998 and came into power with this real kind of intention around consolidation of government.

[00:06:34] And that’s where we really ran into our first batch of trouble. He had his own ideas about what he wanted to do but very quickly chose to shrink the size of our executive cabinet. From eight members down to four. So you saw this mass shrinking of elected positions, but he was very intentional around the shrinking of those positions to only be inclusive of those who were tied to financial institutions the attorney general and our agriculture commissional along with the governor and lieutenant governor.

[00:07:12] So we got rid of. Our elected commissioner of education, or then secretary of education, we got rid of our insurance commissioner. So these were all positions where, you know, you might. Find somebody who has a an inclination around a broader political mindset. Fast forward, you see a continuum of right wing governors with high corporate interest some very seedy past in the case of former governor rick scott who for californians, you may know used to run or be the head of the health care system was also sued And lost one of The largest cases in American history around wrongdoing the mistreatment of veterans and families, but somehow found a place in Florida to run for governor.

[00:08:10] And now we find ourselves under the governance of Ron DeSantis, who You know, was very much unfamiliar to a lot of people as a right wing member of Congress, but has instituted a number of terrible policies here in the state of Florida. Long story long we as an organization. In some iterations been around for the last 10 years, combating or at least attempting to combat right wing authoritarianism in a number of different ways.

[00:08:43] But we find that the most effective is local level engagement, local level organizing, getting back to grassroots movement. Small p politics and really trying to inform the masses about these significant changes that have been taking place. That is probably the most empowering, but also the most difficult part of trying to combat authoritarianism is that people are oftentimes unaware of the reach and the depth of authoritarianism.

[00:09:26] In their everyday lives because they’re just, moving through life as they normally would generally unaware of these significant policy changes until. They find themselves 

[00:09:39] Scot Nakagawa: So Dwight Florida appeared to be moving in a more liberal direction for some time, right? And how did that get derailed?

[00:09:47] Dwight Bullard: We oftentimes reflect on the notion that Florida is really a blue state with red leadership. And the reason I say that is because, when people think about Florida, Beyond this politics, they think about beaches. They think about the environment. They think about, access to these unique water bodies, the Gulf on our West Coast, the Atlantic Ocean on our East Coast, theme parks, vacation, these very liberating things for when you think about the notion of families this idea of here’s a place that I go to spend time, Enjoying life.

[00:10:26] And so that is really has been reflective in the kind of people who live here. Florida is a very diverse state. We have just in Miami where I live, you’re talking about almost 300 different language groups and ethnicities that live in the greater South Florida area. You factor into that central Florida and so many others.

[00:10:50] We just have this You know, of different cultural ideas, um, that, that come to make up Florida. But to answer your question, a lot of what has been damaging over the last several years has been the way maps have been drawn, gerrymandering has been done. The rule of law has been weaponized by leadership in the state to take real action.

[00:11:19] Hold of the governing power of the state as I mentioned before, the consolidation of government was intentional. The idea of someone choosing this to be an idea, and then weaponizing the electorate and the systems and voting to shrink government fast forward to where we are now, and we’re starting to see consistent regression around voting rights.

[00:11:46] Access to the ballot 1 of the. More recent moves towards being more progressive was the passage of Amendment 4 in 2018, which was the largest expansion of voting rights since the Voting Rights Act of 1965 ultimately would have granted 1. 4 million, returning citizens the opportunity to participate in the ballot, but was almost immediately thwarted by an active government in terms of, who would be able to participate in the franchise from that 1.

[00:12:20] 4 million people. So just in a matter of political efforts, what would have been 1. 4 million people who would have immediately got their right to vote back. Because 65 percent of our voters chose to do so was shrunk to about 600, 000 people who are only able to get their rights to vote back. And then, so you’re still dealing with this huge chunk.

[00:12:46] Of individuals who are still fighting to get their full reenfranchisement back because the state moved to say that fines and fees would be a determining factor on whether or not you’d be able to participate in voting, which we call a poll tax and for all intents and purposes is a poll tax on folks who should otherwise have their rights restored.

[00:13:09] So it’s those kinds of. Death by a thousand cuts incremental steps that right wing authoritarians in within the state government have chosen to partake in. That’s really kept us from progressing as far as we’d like to. 

[00:13:28] Sound on Tape: Hello, I’m Marci Ryan and I’m the print editor for Convergence. If you’re enjoying this show like I am, I hope you’ll consider subscribing to Convergence.

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[00:14:27] Sue Hyde: So Dwight, I’m. Especially interested in your thoughts about this right word lurch. This is particularly, I think, in the DeSantis administration. You are a former public school teacher. And a great deal of governmental energy has been wasted on attacking public education. Can you talk to us a bit about that and what you’ve seen and how folks have resisted that?

[00:15:03] Dwight Bullard: Yeah, I’m always reminded of the quote by Booker T. Washington that public schools or education is the great equalizer. As a public school teacher, a former public school teacher, I always viewed my work in that space in reflection of that. This idea that when people are given the ability to critically think, given access to information, that they can Ultimately set their own trajectory when presented with that information.

[00:15:35] And so that’s really where, especially the census administration has made their mission to attack education, especially public education within the state, because, that is where people will begin their journey into understanding what democracy is meant to be, what freedoms are should look like being able to access the public domain, public discourse, having in depth conversations about, all the things that, that the world has to offer.

[00:16:11] But the DeSense’s administration has made it, again, their mission to attack things like identity, attacking identity within the realm of education. It started off. actually predating Ron DeSantis with notions of what it means to who gets bathroom access. Do trans youth, can they be allowed to go or have bathrooms of their choice or choose to go to the gender Of their choosing in terms of those facilities, and then it just it’s almost like a snowball effect.

[00:16:47] It just kept growing larger and larger. These tax on identity attacks on the curriculum themselves. Most recently. Basically saying that African American history could not or should not be taught in schools in the traditional sense, going as far to going even as far as to change the curriculum to reflect that slavery itself may have been a good thing for those who are enslaved, which, seems Idiotic when in the grand scheme of things, but the idea of how meticulous the right is about rewriting history, rewriting the role that individuals play in history, rewriting who’s allowed to has have access to information and what information they’re allowed to have access to, of course, the book banning that has become so true.

[00:17:49] Prevalent in the public discourse over the last couple of years begins in Florida, really, with the idea of allowing parents the ability to remove books from the libraries within their schools, or have particular writers or particular books removed from the curriculum of those schools creates a dumbing down of the citizenry.

[00:18:16] And that is what allows the festering. Of right wing authoritarianism to grow because an ignorant citizenry as we’ve seen throughout the history of mankind lends itself to the rise of authoritarianism. 

[00:18:33] Sue Hyde: Thank you. Thank you for speaking about what’s going on with the education system and we don’t need to dive deeply into it, but it’s worth mentioning that the attacks have also been on higher education, particularly new college.

[00:18:47] I believe that’s what that school is called in Sarasota. Yep. Yeah. New College of Florida, among other places. And so it’s been really were bottom of the education system all the way to the top of the education system. And. Sadly, I’m sorry that your state is the petri dish for these attacks.

[00:19:08] Dwight Bullard: Interestingly enough, and I’m glad you brought up higher education Sue, because, Californians know that when the California State University system offered free education to their to the student population there that it was Ronald Reagan during his governorship that started breaking that system down.

[00:19:28] What I would remind folks is that this playbook isn’t a new playbook, this authoritarian playbook. It is a revised playbook. It is a playbook that goes through consistent and deliberate revision. So you take what Ronald Reagan did, and now you add on that the elemental effect of hand picking. Who are your presidents?

[00:19:52] At these universities will be because that’s what’s happening in florida. You’re now saying that we’re going to Take people who have really no ties to higher education and place them in these spaces to intentionally break down student morale, faculty morale, put people in a position to want to quit and leave, start breaking down programs, restructuring things like diversity, equity, inclusion.

[00:20:22] And that is the playbook 3. 0 or 2. 0, 3. 0 that we see being implemented in Florida. But I don’t want people to think that this is some sort of out of the blue exercise. This is something that we’ve seen play out during different moments of authoritarianism rise within the United States, where they’ve experimented with these elemental components.

[00:20:49] That then other authoritarians come in and implement on higher and higher levels. 

[00:20:55] Scot Nakagawa: That’s absolutely right. I remember in the 80s, the attacks on multicultural education, particularly in colleges and universities, and attacks on women’s studies, sexual education, sex education a lot of things because, higher learning is a source of liberal ideas and critical thinking, and K 12 education, which is really critical here, is not just a, a vehicle for it.

[00:21:20] Teaching basic skills. It is also a way to build a kind of shared identity, right? And shared cause among people and undermining that seems to be a key to the authoritarian playbook. But Dwight, both you and your parents have served in public office in Florida. And now you’re, you’re the political advisor to Florida Rising, which is an important organization there.

[00:21:43] Thinking about your own experience as an elected official, how do you help everyday Floridians secure policy and legislative wins in this kind of environment? 

[00:21:54] Dwight Bullard: When I think about it, I think about my own trajectory. I think about the saying that we too often times see on placards at like the airport, the train station, and that is if you see something, say something, right?

[00:22:07] What I would remind people is that if you’re seeing things out there that feel uncomfortable, that feel divisive, that feel as though someone’s trying to restructure or reorganize something. Don’t make the assumption that they’re doing it with the best of intentions. Don’t make the assumption that you as a individual in whatever station that you find yourself in, don’t have some sort of responsibility to engage, to bring about Of course, correction of some of the bad things that you’re seeing play out, we just talked about the attacks on education, the weaponization of parents in this moment is something that people have to realize because for instance, 60 percent of the book bands that happened in Florida happened with 11 people.

[00:23:04] Raising those book bands. That’s not 11 people in each county 11 people in the school district. That is 11 people total are responsible for 60 percent of all the book bands in Florida because those 11 parents. Made it their responsibility to want to remove those books, the burden that then is put on those other parents is How are you stepping up in this moment to counter that, if 11 people are out here, you know Taking the bluest eye and the color purple And the works of James Baldwin and all these other things out of these public schools You have every right and responsibility as a parent to course correct for those negative actions And the same rules apply For these attacks on dei, they’re trying to do it.

[00:23:56] Not only in education, but in business. I remember speaking to a group of a chamber of commerce small business owners And I said you know the thing that was so exhausting About Jim Crow for black people was in the private sector. It didn’t have to be this way. There was no requirement that businesses could not serve black people during Jim Crow.

[00:24:25] They chose to do so because of Laziness because of apathy because the complacency and so here we are in this modern moment having these folks present Jim Crow like legislation and the question for those private sector folks is, are you going to fall victim to the removal of these things that, are.

[00:24:50] Are essential to your profit margin. Even if you just want to be the raging capitalist, right? The idea of more people spending money at your store should be your goal. So the idea of this mass restriction or this Unenlightened or uninformed notion of not letting certain people because of their gender or because of their orientation or because of their race, not be a full participant in that seems asinine, but people are like actively allowing themselves to just.

[00:25:29] Be rolled over by these authoritarian Rules that are being made and not pushing back So I would say is like that is the simple piece of it push back. You don’t have to be a senator To do it. You don’t have to be a president of the united states. You don’t have to be a ceo It’s simply how you move with your own actions.

[00:25:53] Are you going to? Use your money at a store that is actively discriminating against other people because the state government said that’s what they’re allowed to do. Are you going to, again, be a parent that allows your children’s library to be robbed of the Bernstein Bears or Dr. Seuss because somebody has said that these books are harmful to children?

[00:26:19] You could choose not to do it. That’s really the one of the easiest things that folks can do to combat some of this stuff. And of course, deeper organizing, we always welcome folks into the fold in organizations like Florida Rising. But I also want to remind people of the power of the individual.

[00:26:39] Scot Nakagawa: This podcast is presented by the 22nd Century Initiative, a hub for strategy and action for frontline activists, national leaders, and people like you. 

[00:26:49] Sue Hyde: At 22ci. org, you can sign up for our newsletter. You can learn from our anti authoritarian playbook, which includes resources on how to block rising authoritarianism, bridge across the multi racial majority, and build an inclusive pro democracy movement in your community.

[00:27:09] Things are pretty fraught in your state, and things are pretty fraught in some other states as well. Could you talk a little bit about the work of Florida Rising? Which part of the states do you have some strength on the ground? What are you able to, mobilize folks to do? Not just individuals, everyday people but Organizing tell us about organizing.

[00:27:31] Dwight Bullard: Absolutely. Florida rising firmly believes in the power of the collective. We are the state’s largest independent political organization. We. Thrive in the space of community organizing, but also electoral and political organizing, and we work around 5 buckets of work. Democracy. Expansion voting rights is 1 bucket reproductive rights is another climate justice is another housing rights is another.

[00:28:02] And then. Trying to combat criminal systems reform. We also work with a number of partner organizations around the state in a coalition called Florida for all because we realize again, the power of the collective is necessary. So we work with our immigrant rights folks over at Florida immigrant coalition.

[00:28:22] We work with the dream defenders. We work with our union partners and SAIU and other spaces. We even work with the faith community through our partnership. With faith in Florida. So we’re trying to, attack this authoritarianism in all its shapes and forms. And we want people to understand that.

[00:28:44] You tapping into the organizing effort doesn’t mean that you have to be a purist, you know We’re not expecting you to show up to the space with this kind of deeper robust political education around everything But we do want you to know that we do need your help And in combating the rise of authoritarianism, I’ll even invoke our executive director, Andrea Mercado.

[00:29:12] She loves to tell the story about here she is as a well seasoned organizer coming from the domestic workers alliance and the immigrant rights movement herself, but how her dad. Comes to her and says I didn’t know they were trying to ban the kite runner And that for him that was his moment where he was like upset or driven So I was like even though she’d been doing all this great work for the entirety of her life even in that moment her father is triggered by the fact that one of his favorite books is now being taken off the shelves of public schools.

[00:29:50] And so for those moments when people become enraged, it can’t just stop there. You can’t just be mad in the moment you really have to activate. And with Florida rising, we’re hope to. Take the anger the hostility of the moment that folks have around these attacks that are happening and turn that into real organizing energy.

[00:30:13] That’s what we’re hoping that folks Find themselves wanting to do more and we hope that If it’s not us that it’s, one of our brother sister organizations around the state that are doing great work that you decide to jump in on because, like I said, we’re seeing these attacks on multiple fronts, copycat laws around immigrants.

[00:30:36] Like the idea and I always have to share this story because florida is a peninsula For those who do not study geography, which means it’s surrounded by water on three sides Yet our governor is engaged in a battle at the southern border that doesn’t exist geographically in the state of florida But he always talks about, these border politics and sending our national guard To the texas border which again, this is the kind of stuff that authoritarians are talking about taking florida citizens Shipping them into another state to combat this so called crisis and then the level of evil goes even further because you’re talking about then putting people who are undocumented on buses and shipping them to other states but that actually backfired and we were actually able to sue the governor for human trafficking and And actually one, because by the nature of his own efforts, he was actually trafficking people outside the state.

[00:31:43] And so those folks were given temporary asylum back in Florida because of the actions of the governor shipping those folks out of the state to places like Washington, D. C. Martha’s Vineyard.

[00:32:00] Scot Nakagawa: So do I If you had just one word of advice for people who are listening, what would it be? Fight 

[00:32:08] Dwight Bullard: back. Two words. I think too often times people are overwhelmed. I get it. You’re seeing things, social media can be overwhelming. The news can be overwhelming. Life can be overwhelming. We’re living in, in, in some Strange times for a lot of folks who haven’t experienced this generationally, but I would definitely say fight back.

[00:32:29] And I would also say fight back in the concepts of our ancestors. I think oftentimes because we live in a age where we’ve seen rapid techno technological growth, that we oftentimes don’t reflect On what our ancestors had to endure, whether they were first generation immigrants, whether they were folks who were enslaved coming into this country in order to get to abolition in order to get to civil rights in order to get to these things, it took the power of the collective fighting back against the then rise of authoritarianism.

[00:33:10] And so I’ll remind folks that this isn’t our first time experiencing these types of things, but we have to be able to fight back.

[00:33:19] Sue Hyde: Terrific. Thank you. Thank you, Dwight. It’s been a great conversation. Love your work in Florida. 

[00:33:25] Dwight Bullard: Thank you all so much. We appreciate it.

[00:33:36] Sue Hyde: Hey, thanks again for listening. Find more episodes of the anti authoritarian podcast on all of your favorite platforms and also at 22ci. org and convergencemag. org. Direct links to these and other resources referenced in this episode are in the show notes.

[00:34:02] Sound on Tape: The Antiauthoritarian Podcast is created by the 22nd Century Initiative and published by Conversions Magazine. Our theme music is After the Revolution by Carsey Blanton and is licensed under Creative Commons. The show is hosted by Scott Nakagawa and Sue Hyde. Executive producers are James, mom and Tony Esberg.

[00:34:21] Our producer is Josh Stro and Yong Chan Miller is our production assistant.