{"id":266351,"date":"2026-05-11T08:52:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T08:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/266351\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T08:52:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T08:52:14","slug":"florida-must-reject-the-growing-race-to-the-bottom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/266351\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida must reject the growing \u2018Race to the Bottom\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

May is Jewish American Heritage Month<\/a>. It could be the last.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not saying this for attention. I\u2019m saying it because it\u2019s important to raise the alarm.<\/p>\n

What began as a rise in antisemitism has now become a serious crisis, especially on Florida\u2019s college campuses. Some people are even working against the progress Florida has made as a leader in fighting extremism.<\/p>\n

Some people are calling this the Fishback-Sabatini \u201cRace to the Bottom.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Florida Legislature still has a chance to protect what\u2019s been built by funding the\u00a0Florida<\/a>\u00a0<\/a>Hillel Jewish Student Safety Initiative<\/a>, which is sponsored by Sen.\u00a0Alexis Calatayud\u00a0and Rep.\u00a0Allison Tant.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The proposal would expand a first-in-the-nation, research-backed pilot from three campuses to seven. It would include UF, FSU, and USF, where it started, and add FIU, FAU, UCF, and the University of Miami.<\/p>\n

The request is for $2.3 million for the 2026-27 fiscal year. The plan includes proven security upgrades and also focuses on creating campus environments where Jewish students are not singled out.<\/p>\n

Trickle-down hate \u2014 the blast radius of extremism touches us all<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t just a Jewish issue. People who fixate on Jews as villains rarely stop there. The same worldview that treats harassment as \u201cspeech\u201d eventually justifies something far worse. Those who buy into anti-Jewish conspiracies are more likely to hold anti-American, anti-social views that erode democratic norms.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s target will not be the last. If we want safer spaces for everyone, we have to refuse to tolerate extremism anywhere.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

To its credit, Florida has mostly done this.<\/p>\n

After Oct. 7, 2023, universities across the country struggled with moral confusion. Administrators responded slowly, rules were not applied fairly, and Jewish students were told to stay home and avoid provoking anyone.<\/p>\n

Florida took a different approach.<\/p>\n

The 2025 pilot was more than just funding. It was a data-driven, two-part plan that included security upgrades and real work on relationships, training, incident response, and campus life. The results show that action matters. After only one year, Florida is outperforming the national average for Jewish students, though there are still challenges.<\/p>\n

For example, 47% of Jewish college students surveyed on Florida campuses said they were targeted, excluded, or harassed in the past year, compared to 83% nationally. In a short time, Florida has also become a destination for Jewish students.<\/p>\n

From cosplay in kaffiyehs to larping with \u201cgoyim\u201d tropes<\/p>\n

This is not just about the usual left-wing campus activists. Some use phrases like \u201cfrom the river to the sea\u201d to show their views, even though it is a call for Jewish genocide. Gov.\u00a0Ron DeSantis may have the right policies, but these harmful ideas are also appearing on the other side.<\/p>\n

Gubernatorial candidate James Fishback, congressional candidate Anthony Sabatini, and their supporters run a playbook that\u2019s basically a copy of the same tactic, just with different slogans.<\/p>\n

Same poison, different dog whistles. The left cosplays in kaffiyehs, while the right larps with \u201cgoyim\u201d tropes.<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t been paying attention, here\u2019s the short version: a slice of the political right has decided it\u2019s more profitable to be provocative than responsible, more lucrative to be conspiratorial than conservative, and more rewarding to stoke resentment than to solve problems.<\/p>\n

Fishback and Sabatini lean on two main tactics, both lifted straight out of far-left playbooks:<\/p>\n

\u2014 Build a brand by flirting with the ugliest corners of online politics and call it \u201cspeech.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Convince people they\u2019ve been victimized and promise to \u201cscalp\u201d the scapegoat.<\/p>\n

The biggest danger isn\u2019t whether these men win their next election. The real threat is the audience they\u2019re building online and on campuses, where young people can easily spread propaganda. Friends in the state university system tell me young Republicans are no longer strongly behind MAGA or supporting gubernatorial front-runner Rep. Byron Donalds. They\u2019re drifting toward Fishback\u2019s camp.<\/p>\n

Antisemitism in America now comes from both political extremes, and both sides are targeting Jews \u2014 not just \u201cZionists\u201d or \u201cIsrael,\u201d but everyday American kids who feel more pressure than ever to hide their identity or risk punishment.<\/p>\n

If we want to stop the next wave of extremism, we need to give young people better information where they are most likely to see it. That is what this initiative is designed to do.<\/p>\n

A record Florida should protect<\/p>\n

Florida\u2019s political leaders have spent years showing up for the Jewish community \u2014 not with lip service, but with hard policy. DeSantis has done it. So have Attorney General James Uthmeier, Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson, and Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia.<\/p>\n

So have gubernatorial candidates Donalds, David Jolly, Jay Collins, and Paul Renner. And so has nearly every sitting member of Florida\u2019s congressional delegation.<\/p>\n

The Florida Legislature took responsible action by launching the nation\u2019s first initiative of its kind with the Florida Hillel Jewish Student Safety Initiative<\/a>. Now the Legislature must decide whether to protect that record or let it get chipped away by people who profit from stirring up outrage.<\/p>\n

If Florida wants to stay a leader in policy innovation, the answer is simple: expand what works. Fund the initiative and stop treating antisemitism as someone else\u2019s problem.<\/p>\n

To put it simply, Fishback, Sabatini, and their supporters have realized that antisemitism can be used the way other candidates use fundraising lists. The troubling truth is that this kind of talk spreads when people reward it.<\/p>\n

Without a strong response from institutions, there will be political consequences, or even worse outcomes, before some people realize there is a problem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"May is Jewish American Heritage Month. It could be the last. I\u2019m not saying this for attention. I\u2019m…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[22712,54790,28164,54487,41480,114594,2855,445,114595,114596,114597,1813,114598,3341,2845,28,30,114599,114600,100,29,4833,19175,3603,7290,28912,4260,5187,114601,98455,9850,62990,7381,114602,277,14124,412,7219,2511,9724,1537,9962],"class_list":["post-266351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-22712","tag-alexis-calatayud","tag-allison-tant","tag-anthony-sabatini","tag-antisemitism","tag-antisemitism-prevention","tag-blaise-ingoglia","tag-byron-donalds","tag-campus-protests","tag-campus-safety","tag-conservative-politics","tag-david-jolly","tag-extremism","tag-fau","tag-fiu","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-hillel","tag-florida-hillel-jewish-student-safety-initiative","tag-florida-legislature","tag-florida-news","tag-florida-politics","tag-florida-universities","tag-fsu","tag-higher-education","tag-james-fishback","tag-james-uthmeier","tag-jay-collins","tag-jewish-american-heritage-month","tag-jewish-students","tag-maga","tag-oct-7","tag-paul-renner","tag-political-extremism","tag-public-safety","tag-republican-politics","tag-ron-desantis","tag-ucf","tag-uf","tag-university-of-miami","tag-usf","tag-wilton-simpson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}