If there’s one thing the United States desperately needs more of these days, it’s militarization with less centralized accountability. That, at least, seems to be the thinking behind Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’s newly announced plans to re-institute a World War II-era “civilian” military program answerable solely to him. The idea, he claimed, is to augment the existing National Guard, without any of that pesky federal oversight.
Flanked by members of the Florida National Guard during a press conference Thursday, DeSantis insisted his $3.5 million proposal for a 200-person volunteer force would “allow civilians from all over the state to be trained in the best emergency response techniques and have the ability to mobilize very, very quickly.” And while DeSantis stressed in a press release accompanying the announcement that “Florida will become the 23rd state with a state guard recognized by the federal government,” he also was quick to note during his remarks on Thursday that the unit would “not [be] encumbered by the federal government.”
