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Governor Ron DeSantis at the University of Miami, June 2020.YES Market Media/Shutterstock

CONTACT YOUR STATE LEGISLATORS: Ask them to take a page from the Florida playbook! Click to contact your State Legislators now.

(LifeSiteNews) – Let’s face reality:  Joe Biden is no centrist.

Whether he’s teaming up with big tech oligarchs to actively hunt down and censor dissenters, or issuing authoritarian-tinged ultimatums to the public as a means to achieve mass medical compliance, it’s never been more clear that the guy at the center of it all, for all his bluster about “unity” and “bipartisanship,” never really planned to govern from there.

And if record-breaking inflation and illegal border crossings, organized door-to-door vaccination coercion efforts, and – lest we forget – the overnight collapse of Afghanistan to the Taliban after twenty years of American occupation aren’t enough to convince you, allow me to confirm your suspicions: The radical left is in complete control of our government and institutions, and with their septuagenarian shadow-puppet at the helm, they’re going to throw everything they possibly can at the wall to latch onto their newfound power for good.

So while the feds fumble around with hairbrained, often unconstitutional ideas ranging from court-packing to DC statehood, Americans would be best served to look beyond the swampy confines of Washington, DC for any sign of hope before at least 2022. Perhaps now more than at any other point in our nation’s young history, the importance of individual state autonomy cannot possibly be overstated.

And since the beginning of this year, one state in particular has set an aspirational standard for what can and must be done to not only resist the Biden Agenda, but to take a proactive sledgehammer to it before Washington does the same to us.

Florida, under the anomalous leadership of Governor Ron DeSantis and a workaholic State Legislature, has cemented its rightful status as standard-bearer and policy paragon for the rest of the country as it wrestles with how to handle the country’s recent leap to Leninist leftism. Rather than grant submissive legitimacy to head-shrinking groupthink that can cause once rational individuals to hyperventilate over things like “diversity” quotas and the use of pronouns, the approach taken by elected officials in the Sunshine State has disregarded the absurdities peddled as gospel by unhinged radicals, and instead narrowed its focus to the meat and potatoes of legislating: codified reaffirmation of Floridians’ preexisting rights and sensical reforms of the systems that need it most.

For a glimpse of that strategy in action, look no further than the persisting issue of election integrity.

While Washington spent the first half of 2021 toying with the concept of fully federalizing America’s elections with the omnibus H.R. 1 (also amusingly referred to as the “For the People” Act), the Florida Legislature managed instead to tackle head-on the widespread mistrust that arose from the flawed administration of the 2020 election.

Whereas Democrats in Congress sought to amplify those concerns with public funding of candidates and a ban on voter ID requirements, Florida’s legislators took action to directly address and remedy many of them with Senate Bill (SB) 90, a major crack-down on the potential for fraud and irregularities in future state elections. Among its notable provisions are a ban on the mass mailing of ballots, so that only those who formally request to vote by mail will receive one, and a strengthening of the preexisting voter ID requirement to apply for one. The bill also secures candidates, party officials, and designated poll watchers the ability to observe signature verification of ballots, and outright bars both ballot harvesting and private funding of election administration efforts.

Governor DeSantis signed SB 90 into law on May 6.

In terms of COVID response, Florida never followed down the unsustainable path of panic that’s been championed by the DC ruling class and its interstate allies, instead opting for a proactive defense of its residents’ basic constitutional rights in the face of unprecedented infringement with SB 2006. The bill, which became law on May 3, institutes a formal ban on vaccine passports, barring all businesses and government entities operating within the Florida from requiring proof of vaccination status as a condition for individuals to be granted entry, or provided services. It also prohibits local governments from shutting down schools and businesses at their own whim, with a reasonable exemption carved out for imminent hurricane emergencies.

In addition, Governor DeSantis recently took executive action prohibiting Florida schools from requiring students to wear masks in order to resume in-person learning for the 2021-2022 academic year – the basis for that order being another bill he signed back in June.

House Bill (HB) 241 established a Bill of Rights for Florida parents, reaffirming under state law the basic expectation that all decisions pertaining to a minor’s education, health, and general well-being are to be made – first and foremost – by their parents or legal guardian(s). These protections apply to healthcare providers, who, for instance, will be expressly forbidden from prescribing drugs to a child without parental consent, and also educational institutions, which will be required to share certain course materials with parents for the purpose of review prior to their presentation in the classroom.

In fact, schools and education proved a top-tier priority for the Legislature throughout the 2021 session. Another trio of new laws seeks to improve civics education for Florida students, both in schools and at the college/university level. Emphasizing the importance of teaching children and young adults how to think rather than what to think, these provisions introduce curriculum requirements that cover the rights guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution and historical realities of Communism (HB 5); a civic literacy course and assessment requirement to graduate from a Florida college or university (SB 1108); and annual viewpoint diversity and intellectual freedom evaluations to be conducted by all publicly-funded institutions of higher education as a tool to ensure that students are regularly exposed to a variety of differing viewpoints (HB 233).

Florida even managed to get the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which restricts biological males from participating in women’s and girls’ sports teams and requires membership on any publicly-sponsored non-coed team to be determined by an individual’s biological sex as listed on their birth certificate, across the finish line earlier this summer.

It wasn’t luck that made these victories possible, and reactionary legislating certainly wasn’t the determining factor in their success. Nor was a single one of these bills-turned-laws exempt from undergoing the rigors of the political moment – stark opposition from identity-obsessed leftists, deep-pocketed special interest intervention, and a media that’s almost entirely predisposed to actively opposing any policy offered by a lawmaker with an ‘R’ at the end of their name, and then calling it journalism.

Some have even faced significant hurdles in the time since becoming law (i.e. SB 7072, Gov. DeSantis’ big tech regulatory bill, which was blocked by a U.S. District Court Judge by way of a preliminary injunction in June).

But the reality remains that Florida, even while sporting the trifecta of a conservative governor and corresponding Republican majorities in both chambers of its Legislature, is still a purple state. Regardless of its recent crimson trend, the Sunshine State remains one of the most electorally contested in the nation, and will most certainly find itself in at the center of the political universe once again during the midterms, boasting watershed Senate and gubernatorial races that could ultimately determine the balance of power in America not only in 2022, but also 2024.

That’s what makes Florida’s achievements in legislating during the past several months so remarkable. For a state as highly populated and politically polarized as Florida to enact such a deep bench of significant policy reforms – virtually all of which are inconsistent with those prescribed by the current administration – over the course of just one legislative session is a feat worthy of not only recognition, but also replication.

If it can be done in a massive swing state, it can be done anywhere.

By drowning out the noise and remaining laser-focused on the mission, Florida’s lawmakers have not only gotten a leg up on the Washington establishment, but have beaten the powers that be at their own game, employing an offensive legislating strategy that grants equal importance to blocking bad policies and offering stronger, more coherent ones in their place.

The standard for both fighting back and charting an alternative course has been set, and legislative bodies across the country would be wise to take note of how Florida’s lawmakers have managed to identify most every pressing matter that has plagued our national dialogue since the outset of the Biden Administration, and present a different path forward that preserves the very freedoms and principles that find themselves caught in the cultural crosshairs of the moment.

The laws signed by Governor DeSantis over this summer, along with the work of its Legislature in this year’s session, have helped establish Florida as a perfect foil for Joe Biden’s decaying America. Other states should take some inspiration, and let the Sunshine in before the chance for a new morning in America passes us by for good.

CONTACT YOUR STATE LEGISLATORS: Ask them to take a page from the Florida playbook! Click to contact your State Legislators now.