Ultimately, what DeSantis is dangling is less like a carrot and more like a ticking bomb. Pardoning domestic terrorists is setting up the nation for decades of pain that ought to be put behind us. How do we know? Because it’s been done before.

After the Civil War, President Andrew Johnson pardoned Confederate soldiers, and you know what happened? Let’s just say the spirit of the rebellion lived on. Or rather, lives on. There was a veteran of the Confederacy serving in the Senate as late as 1921, the same year as the Tulsa race massacre. A century later, on Jan. 6, 2021, a Confederate battle flag was carried into the Capitol — a place that flag had not reached during the actual war. Johnson’s pardon did not bring healing or justice. It brought Jim Crow laws. Not that Johnson cared. He vetoed a bill guaranteeing the citizenship of Black people immediately after the Civil War. Congress had to override him. That’s not “critical race theory,” by they way. That’s just what happened.

Source: Granderson: DeSantis reckless to dangle pardons for Trump, rioters – Los Angeles Times