And, at my alma mater, also this.

I never get tired of all the winning. https://t.co/fifBJFljJj

— Florida Dad (@FloridadadD) March 1, 2024

Similarly, there was this.

Florida House passes anti-DEI teacher training bill after heated debatehttps://t.co/qojg8MxYsp

— Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) March 1, 2024

All of which was preceded, Thursday, by this.

Yesterday, I was joined in Palm Beach by some of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims as I signed legislation authorizing the release of grand jury material from the Epstein case. Justice has never been served in this case and the public has a right to know what happened. pic.twitter.com/ey5SFqkvnz

— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) March 1, 2024

So, by pretty much any center-right yardstick, it’s already been a couple of pretty good, even memorable, days in the Sunshine State.

To recap: Governor who gets a ton of sensible, conservative (but I repeat myself) stuff done turns down a built-in raise. DEI programming in academia gets pummeled. And, through the combined efforts of the Legislature and a governor who was waiting to sign the bill like Mona Lisa Vito, the veil is scheduled to come off a Florida grand jury’s probe of convicted child sex trafficker to well-known elitists.

Individually, each of these events represents important pebbles splashing in a pond, sending ripples that could wash up who knows where. Red states, at minimum, should pay attention. Conservatives in purple states, as Florida was not so very long ago, may find further guidance on their shores.

Writ large, the Free State of Florida™ remains open for doing business where wokeness can find no handholds. Not in schools and universities. Not in the halls of justice.

One upshot: Republicans, who required 176 years to become Florida’s majority party, have built a 779,000 voter registration lead since surging ahead in 2021. The GOP holds every statewide office, and dominates both houses of the Legislature.

Stipulated: Florida still has troubles, particularly on the property insurance front, where rates continue to rise and policyholders who’ve never filed a claim in 20 years nonetheless see their coverage fail double-secret renewal hurdles. The aforementioned governor, Ron DeSantis — not currently a candidate for president, as far as we know — has some thoughts on that, and expressed them on CNBC’s Fast Money Tuesday.

.@GovRonDeSantis provides an update on the insurance market.

With major reforms enacted about a year ago, there’s been a change in the market’s dynamics, and new companies are moving into the state.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, but the market is heading in the right direction. pic.twitter.com/5xpTua7FRL

— Jeremy Redfern (@JeremyRedfernFL) February 28, 2024

Of more pressing concern as the Legislature barrels toward next week’s close of its annual 60-day session is a proposal to protect the state’s youngsters from social media’s imbedded harms. Lawmakers already passed, in numbers sufficiently lopsided to overturn DeSantis’ expected veto, a measure designed to keep minors under at 16 from creating accounts on certain platforms.

Then DeSantis growled his displeasure about some of the bill’s nuances — Where was the provision for parental oversight? — and backtracking, even among legislators who huffed that Mom and Dad couldn’t be trusted to do the right thing, commenced.

And they said DeSantis’ pursuit of the GOP presidential nomination had cost him his iron grip on state governance. Who negotiates with a political cripple when you have a veto-proof majority?

Never mind the sausage-making. By invoking a procedural maneuver to reconsider, the Senate has provided the opportunity. Now House Speaker Paul Renner, who represents Florida’s East Coast between St. Augustine and Ormond Beach, and DeSantis are hammering on some sort of compromise.

Perfunctorily and without rancor, DeSantis vetoed the original Friday afternoon.

"I have vetoed HB 1 because the Legislature is about to produce a different, superior bill," DeSantis said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. "Protecting children from harms associated with social media is important, as is supporting parents’ rights and maintaining the ability of adults to engage in anonymous speech. I anticipate the new bill will recognize these priorities and will be signed into law soon."

The governor has been negotiating with House Speaker Paul Renner in recent days, and lawmakers are already pushing forward another proposal with a big concession to DeSantis’ parental rights concerns.

Renner was among those vehemently opposed to carving out parental permission exceptions. These were “impractical,” he said in the face of the “irreparable harm” caused by social media.

Now here comes the resolute DeSantis, once again getting his way from the legislative branch. The revised bill provides for a parental permission exception for Floridians 14 and 15 years old.

Most social media companies already bar those younger than 13 from registering on their platforms, in response to a federal children’s privacy law, COPPA. DeSantis has said he favors state enforcement of the restriction. But for older kids, if Mom and Dad want to sign off, that’s their business.

It’s the right thing to do, of course. That said, we do not envy the households where parents and 15-year-olds will have yet another rite of passage to argue about.

Nobody said freedom was easy.