Seeing Red: Florida's governor boldly takes on a nonexistent communist threat.

• Date: 01 August 2022
• Author: Foresta, Mathew
• Published date: 01 August 2022
• Author: Foresta, Mathew

Sea levels are rising, the poor are struggling, and an epidemic of mass shootings continues to claim lives across the country. But rather than making any of these issues a top priority, Florida officials have decided to open up yet another front in the culture wars. This time they're playing an old card: the Red Scare.

On May 9, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed House Bill 395, which requires public schools to observe "Victims of Communism Day" each year on November 9. It also mandates that high school students learn about the abuses of leftwing dictators for at least forty-five minutes every year.

It would be a mistake to see this simply as an effort to educate young people about historical figures. Instead, it is an attempt to indoctrinate students into viewing all forms of socialism as inherendy totalitarian and dangerous. "[B]ased on the economic philosophies of Karl Marx," the law declares, "communism has proven incompatible with the ideals of...