LABORATORY OF AUTOCRACY

Ron DeSantis' Florida is where democracy goes to die.

- Pema Levy

"OUR GOVERNMENT IS a government of laws, not a government of men," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared last August, standing at a podium in Tampa with a phalanx of armed officers behind him. "That means that we govern ourselves based on a constitutional system." The occasion was a triumphant press conference announcing his suspension of Andrew Warren, an elected county prosecutor who, DeSantis alleged, had put himself above the law after the Supreme Court rolled back abortion rights by signing a pledge not to prosecute related cases. That evening, DeSantis appeared on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show to squeeze every ounce of publicity out of the affair. "There's a lot of line prosecutors in that office that are very happy that this was done," DeSantis boasted. "We took it seriously, we did a thorough review, and we pulled the trigger today."

DeSantis, in his telling, had removed a tyrant to benefit the less powerful. But what happened is a stark example of the opposite: an autocratic governor overturning the will of the people to punish his enemies for political gain. It was DeSantis who had placed himself above the law.