I have a candidate in mind for Republican nominee for president in 2024. His name is Ron DeSantis, and he’s doing an amazing job as governor of purple-state Florida.  I thought it might be a good idea for us all to learn a little something about him. His policies are quite tough, but he has a more mature attitude than Trump.

He was in the news this week for these comments about Joe Biden:

“So I think the question is, we can either have a free society, or we can have a biomedical security state,” DeSantis said. “And I can tell you, Florida, we’re a free state, people are going to be free to choose, to make their own decisions about themselves, about their families, about their kid’s education, and about putting food on the table.”

“And Joe Biden suggests that if you don’t do lockdown policies, then you should quote, ‘get out of the way,’” DeSantis continued. “But let me tell you this, if you’re coming after the rights of parents in Florida, I’m standing in your way, I’m not going to let you get away with it.”

“If you’re trying to deny kids a proper in person education, I’m gonna stand in your way and I’m gonna stand up for the kids in Florida,” DeSantis continued. “If you’re trying to restrict people, impose mandates, if you’re trying to ruin their jobs and their livelihoods and their small business, if you are trying to lock people down, I am standing in your way and I’m standing for the people of Florida.”

“So why don’t you do your job? Why don’t you get this border secure?” DeSantis added. “And until you do that, I don’t want to hear a blip about COVID from you. Thank you.”

Video:

He was in the news for taking on the education bureaucrats, too:

Broward County Public Schools has changed its masking policy after Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis released an executive order giving parents the power to decide whether their children should wear masks at school.

[…]As The Daily Wire previously reported, “Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) signed an executive order late this week that allows parents to make the choice of whether they want to have their children wear masks in school, which comes in response to the Biden administration making new recommendations through the CDC about wearing masks in school.”

The executive order makes sure that local school boards “do not violate Floridians’ constitutional freedoms,” “do not violate parents’ right under Florida law to make health care decisions for their minor children,” and ensures that “children with disabilities or health conditions who would be harmed by certain protocols such as face masking requirements” are protected.

I don’t like words. I like actions.

Here’s Governor DeSantis’ biography:

Governor Ron DeSantis is the former U.S. Representative for Florida’s Sixth District.

A native Floridian with blue-collar roots, Ron worked his way through Yale University, where he graduated with honors and was the captain of the varsity baseball team. He also graduated with honors from Harvard Law School. While at Harvard, he earned a commission in the U.S. Navy as a JAG officer. During his active-duty service, he supported operations at the terrorist detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and deployed to Iraq as an adviser to a U.S. Navy SEAL commander in support of the SEAL mission in Fallujah, Ramadi and the rest of Al Anbar province.  His military decorations include the Bronze Star Medal for Meritorious Service and the Iraq Campaign Medal.

After active-duty service, Ron served as a federal prosecutor, where he targeted and convicted child predators.  He was first elected to Congress in 2012, where he fought for term limits, the No Budget/No Pay Act, and to cut taxes.  While serving in Congress, Ron refused his Congressional pension and health insurance plan because he is against special deals for politicians.  He also sponsored legislation to make it easier for the military to prosecute sexual assault and authored the bill to end the secret taxpayer-funded slush fund for members of Congress to make hush payoffs for sexual harassment.

Ron is married to Casey DeSantis, an Emmy Award winning television host. Together, they’re the proud parents of their daughters, Madison and Mamie, and their son, Mason.

Look for him in 2024. I really hope that conservative parents are making more like him.

Should women be allowed to have jobs without being sexually assaulted or raped by male bosses? Democrat voters seem to think that it’s fine for male supervisors to sexually harass, sexually assault, and even rape their female subordinates – judging from their voting. This has been a problem as far back as Bill Clinton, but it just keeps happening over and over. Now it’s New York’s governor.

Daily Wire reports:

A New York Attorney General report released Tuesday chronicles complaints against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo from 11 women including a sheriff’s deputy who served on Cuomo’s own security detail.

The AG’s report… found that “Cuomo harassed multiple women, many of whom were young women, by engaging in unwanted groping, kisses, hugging, and by making inappropriate comments,” according to Attorney General Leticia James. The behavior showed a “pattern,” the investigators said, they “found all 11 women to be credible.”

[…]Most of the accusers chose to remain anonymous but the nine individuals employed by the State of New York are identified by their position within the administration, including one “executive assistant” who accused Cuomo of “aggressive” groping.

That portion of the report verifies a claim made to the Albany Times-Union back in March.

[…]“The direct contact with intimate body parts—including the touching of Executive Assistant #1’s breast, the grabbing and touching of the butts of various women…—unquestionably amounted to sexual harassment,” the Attorney General’s report noted.

A state trooper assigned to Cuomo’s detail described being asked by the governor to help him find a new girlfriend who “can handle pain.”

[…]The trooper also reported that Cuomo touched her inappropriately.

The accusers were silenced:

The women who complained also said that Cuomo’s workplace “culture” fostered the governor’s behavior and ultimately silenced his accusers.

“The complainants also described how the culture within the Executive Chamber—rife with fear and intimidation and accompanied by a consistent overlooking of inappropriate flirtations and other sexually suggestive and gender-based comments by the Governor—enabled the above-described instances of harassment to occur and created a hostile work environment overall,” the report said.

What would happen if I asked a young, unmarried Democrat voter in New York to explain her support for Cuomo? I guess she would say “rape is OK if it’s a rapist who supports abortion rights”, or something. I don’t really understand how Democrat voters reason, or if they reason. Here, we have credible accusations from many women who were willing to come forward, but it doesn’t mean anything (apparently) to young female Democrats.

Cuomo also retaliated against one of the women, and used his power to cover up the scandal.

The New York Post reports:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his team tried to cover up the sex-harassment allegations against him by ignoring reporting procedures — while he personally plotted to “discredit and disparage” an accuser, probers said Tuesday.

[…]The trio of aides had screened Bennett’s initial complaint, which was that Cuomo’s flirtatious behavior toward her made her uncomfortable — and that he was “grooming” her for sex, the document said. The staffers then had her transferred to another position, where she would no longer have to interact with the governor.

[…]Meanwhile Cuomo himself was involved in the dirty work of a smear campaign against Lindsey Boylan, a former top aide in the state’s Economic Development Office, according to the official report.

“Governor Cuomo, himself, and the Executive Chamber engaged in ‘retaliatory behavior’ by ‘intend[ing] to discredit and disparage’ a former employee that came forward with her story of harassment,” the report said.

Earlier this year, Boylan, 37, published an online essay in which she accused Cuomo, 63, of repeatedly harassing her, leading to a flood of similar allegations from current and former aides. She previously tweeted that Cuomo sexually harassed her.

Cover-up and retaliation.

When Bill Clinton was accused of rape and sexual assault by female subordinates, a female journalist famous said that she didn’t care, and would happily give him oral sex if he would keep abortion legal. I guess she speaks for all young, unmarried Democrat women voters. Maybe they actually find men like this attractive? They certainly keep voting for these men.

I really enjoyed this interview of Dr. Stratton from the Apologetics 315 podcast. I’ve had non-Christians in previous workplaces raise the problem of free will vs divine sovereignty. After all, they say, how can humans be responsible for their choices if God is all-powerful? If God is all-powerful, then surely he must control everything, and there’s no space for free will. Right?

The episode can be heard here.

Here is the show description:

In this episode, Brian Auten and Chad Gross interview Tim Stratton of Free Thinking Ministries. They discuss the topic of Molinism as it relates to God’s sovereignty, human free will, and why it matters. Tim’s book on the subject is Human Freedom, Divine Knowledge, and Mere Molinism: A Biblical, Historical, Theological, and Philosophical Analysis.

1:03 – Intro to Tim Stratton
1:41 – Why Molinism on the podcast?
3:20 – Welcome to Tim Stratton
3:54 – How Tim became a Christian
9:37 – God as a maximally great being
10:43 – Tim’s dissertation
11:18 – What does Tim find compelling about Molinism?
12:42 – The Mere Molinism Facebook group
16:14 – What is the problem that Molinism is trying to solve?
22:47 – How to briefly summarize Molinism?
23:41 – Defining terms: Middle knowledge and counterfactuals
31:39 – Scriptures that affirm counterfactuals / middle knowledge
41:53 – Why us the term “mere” Molinism?
46:22 – Can Molinism be applied to salvation?
48:21 – Does this chess analogy work?
52:10 – Objection: Molinism is not derived from scripture
58:23 – Objection: Who cares? That’s just for scholars and theologians
1:02:45 – How Molinism saved Tim’s marriage
1:06:20 – Where to find Tim’s resources

Tim Stratton’s reconciliation of divine sovereignty and free will is interesting to me. He keeps God as the sole initiator of salvation. And that’s good. But it also makes sure that human who resist God’s leading are responsible for their choice to resist God, and that’s also good. We want salvation to be 100% by faith alone in Christ alone. But we don’t want God to be the cause of people not being saved. On Stratton’s view, God wants everyone to be saved. If anyone is saved, it’s because God did ALL THE WORK to lead them and secure their salvation with the death of Jesus on the cross. But, on Stratton’s view, humans do get a choice – the choice to trust God or not. And so, if a person is not saved, then it’s their fault – not God’s.

If you hear this challenge from non-Christians, be sure to listen to the podcast. You can find a written version of his argument on his web site, Free Thinking Ministries.