@jbf1755 we need to have a lot of conversations about basic civics. We can have these conversations by asking questions to start a dialogue. DeSantis' first book states that there is no room for dialogue, but we do need dialogue. #SHEAR2023 #S39

Lindsay Chervinsky encourages everyone to try and open dialogues with small c conservatives and get to know their viewpoints better.

@jbf1755 states again that a lot of people don't know what democracy is. She encourages us to have discussion with people about democracy. #SHEAR2023 #S39

Connie Schultz notes that at the founding of SHEAR and embedded into the organization is the need to have discussions with small c conservatives. Jim Broussard was a small c conservative and thought dialogue between people with different political ideas was important. #SHEAR2023 #S39

@sethcotlar notes there is a lot of religion in DeSantis' first book, but intellectually with religion is very thin. He argues that Obama is not really a Christian. You would never know from reading DeSantis' book that he's Catholic. It reads like the U.S. is a Christian Nation and Obama is not a Christian. #SHEAR2023 #S39

Richard John notes that religion was not a topic that was brought up in reference to DeSantis' books. Is there an intellectual basis for bringing up natural order or natural law, which is a Catholic orthodoxy? #SHEAR2023 #S39

Time for Q&A. #SHEAR2023 #S39

Adams: The second strategy that they see at UF is that there was a $30 million investment in a Hamilton Center which should be about civics education. The new Director is from the LBJ Center in Texas. They’ve hired a slew of historians without any input from the UF History Department. They are hiring high intellectual historians. The Hamilton Center is already talking about being a separate college for Civic Engagement majors. Parallel Institutions is likely the future. #SHEAR 2023 #S39

Adams: There is a hostile takeover by DeSantis of New College in Florida. Chris Ruffo is on the Board of Trustees and he described the hostile takeover of a left-leaning institution. They are branding it the Hillsdale of the South.
#SHEAR2023 #S39

Adams has taught at CFU to University of Florida throughout his career. What happens in Florida is you get an idea of bad legislation coming down the pike and then representatives find a way to water down the legislation or killing it. This has not happened under DeSantis. He has been getting this legislation passed. #SHEAR2023 #S39

Zimmer: DeSantis’ second book shows a radicalization but not a clear break from the ideas in the 2011 book. There is line between DeSantis’ 2011 book to the 1776 Commission Report to DeSantis’ new book. #SHEAR2023 #S39

Zimmer: The 1776 Report says that leftist identity politics are equivalent of fascism. If the stakes are so high that the other side is going to tear the moral fabric of the nation apart, what the report argues is that you need a reactionary response—like storming the capital. #SHEAR2026 #S39

ZImmer: He is going to put DeSantis in context. He read both of DeSantis’ books. We should expect 2011 DeSantis to have a problem with 2023 DeSantis. DeSantis’ path since the 2011 book mirrors the recent trajectory of the right more broadly from free-market libertarianism to rolling back the powers of the state to get rid of social and civil rights. #SHEAR2023 #S39

Now Speaking: Thomas Zimmer (Georgetown). #SHEAR2023 #S39

Chervinsky: There is a way to read the Founders and make a small C conservative argument.

There have been people along the way to make a good faith argument for a small C conservative government. DeSantis’ book does not make this case. #SHEAR2023 #S39

Now Speaking Lindsay Chervinsky. DeSantis’ book is really hard to find. It’s hard to tell why. It could have been the publisher stopped publishing it because it didn’t sell. It could be DeSantis doesn’t want the book out there because Tea Party DeSantis is a different DeSantis than today.

We should consider why we can’t get the book. #SHEAR2023 #S39

@jbf1755: She wants historians to think about how they will intervene in 2026 to talk about how the Revolution wasn't always about glory. There are ideas we should think about. #shear2023 #s39

@jbf1755: We have 2026 looming. There are a lot of things that would be useful to discuss in 2026. A lot of people fundamentally don’t understand what democracy is. Although democracy and the Revolution don’t go hand-in-hand all of the time, but this will be a moment to make important points about how Americans think about the past and the present. #SHEAR2023 #S39

@jbf1755: DeSantis wrote that Washington was a good, humble leader as presiding officer of the Constitutional Convention. If Obama had presided over the Constitutional Convention, he would not have been humble, he is not like the Founders.

DeSantis also claimed Hamilton did not want a “Nanny State” He was a proponent of limited government.... #SHEAR2023 #S39

@jbf1755: The goodness of the founders and the goodness of their character is talked about a lot to make Obama look bad. He writes James Madison was a widely read man, in many different fields, but Obama hasn’t read anything at all. #SHEAR2023 #S39

@jbf1755: Argument of DeSantis’ 2010 book: If you like the Founders, and of course you love the founders, then you agree with the Tea Party. If you like what the left has to say, you hate the Founders. #SHEAR2023 #s39