DeSantis and power

Bye limited government? | March 22

You can beat up on Gov. Ron DeSantis all you want, but at the end of the day Floridians accept DeSantis taking on more power. Not only that, the thousands and thousands of non-Floridians streaming into this state are mostly refugees from the woke world. Are Floridians flooding California? If not, why not?

Eric Goodwin, Wesley Chapel

Changing values

No more limited-government ideals? DeSantis pitches GOP voters on the power of the state. | March 22

For as far back as I can remember — and I am 99 years old — the Republican mantra has been, “Get the government off my back.” Now Gov. Ron DeSantis wants Republican governments to be on my back and in my head.

Mortimer Brown, Lutz

A hidden point?

Swans are ‘Best Buds’ | March 22

The beautiful photo of swans, Fred and Barney, on Wednesday’s front page was quite an unusual “news” placement, unless one considers if it was intentional to reflect on the other two photo placements on the page — Gov. Ron DeSantis on top right and former President Donald Trump on bottom left. I wonder if the three photos may be related. Are swans Fred and Barney reflections of Trump and DeSantis (or vice versa)? Are the “clipped” wings a reference to neither can fly and are doomed to live the rest of their lives in some swamp or pond in Florida? Or is there an editor with a good sense of humor in all this? Whatever the answer, I enjoyed the page.

Steve J. Sarang, Clearwater

Not buying it

Payoff to Stormy Daniels could get Trump indicted | Column, March 23

Without suggesting a viable alternative to reliance upon the judiciary to settle what he terms political disputes, columnist Jonah Goldberg cites a fear prompted in him by the writings of Alexis de Tocqueville when: The “spirit” of legalism “infiltrates all of society” until “the entire people” acquire “the habits and tastes of the magistrate.” Such a fear can hardly be ascribed to the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, to cite the most salient example of when a majority of the population, especially of female voters, did not acquire the habits and tastes of the magistrate, especially when those tastes egregiously nullified a long-held right.

Fred Kalhammer, Sun City Center