Ron DeSantis blames ‘left-wing group’ for backlash against state park plans

DeSantis called the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s proposal “half-baked” and said he had “never seen” the plans before news of them spread like wildfire last week, sparking a bipartisan backlash. But he also acknowledged — as has been reported — that he had been suggested by an outside nonprofit, Folds of Honor, the possibility of adding a golf course to a state park, an idea strikingly similar to the DEP’s now-abandoned plan, cobbled together at the request of a mysterious foundation affiliated with Folds of Honor, to add three golf courses to Jonathan Dickinson State Park.

It was a clumsy and strained defense of his administration. For example, the conspiracy-theory bent of his explanation—that documents were leaked to a “left-wing group” he did not identify—is at odds with the simple fact that the DEP had originally scheduled hearings for this week to ostensibly get public feedback on the toxic plans, not to mention the fact that government documents public records by nature, notwithstanding DeSantis’ Nixon-like fixation on executive secrecy, and therefore cannot really leaked in every meaningful sense.

This claim also seems to imply that the plans should remain secret. Otherwise, what difference would it make if people were informed of DEP’s elaborate plans, on which their views should be sought before any action is taken?