DeSantis, drama free? What a joke. Ask Florida, where he has inflicted Trumpian chaos | Opinion
From its megaphones in Tallahassee to pop-up appearances in Middle America, the DeSantis camp is dropping hints and silently screaming: “He’s running, he’s running!”
Surely, Florida’s governor will take the plunge, no matter how many polls show him lagging his political mentor and fellow state resident for the GOP’s presidential nomination.
It only makes sense, given Donald Trump’s salacious record of malfeasance and the myriad of legal cases and investigations. If one doesn’t land him in prison, at least his attempts to undermine democracy should make him ineligible for the nation’s top job.
On May 16, a Miami Herald headline on a Bloomberg story said that DeSantis was courting donors at secret dinners with this one-liner: “I’m the drama-free Trump.”
And an analysis of his candidacy in the New York Times, focused on why DeSantis is “limping along,” noted that his central campaign “electability pitch” is “MAGA without the mess.”
He’s neither, not by a long shot.
Trump vs. DeSantis
In the process of making comparisons with Trump, let’s not normalize Ron DeSantis — not after the havoc he has wreaked on Florida during the last two legislative sessions and five years as state leader.
In a state with no shortage of law enforcement who want to live and work in year-round sunshine, DeSantis installed his own police force, an act reminiscent of paramilitary Third World stuff.
He has arrested and messed up the lives of innocent people. He persecutes minorities and enshrines token ones to deflect from his racist impulses, on full display when he’s catering to the MAGA crowd. He uses, like Trump, exceptional cases of immigrant crimes, to demonize undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers as “illegal aliens.”
He is a clone of Trump — and brings to the table plenty of drama of his own.
He’s cruel and unrelentingly vengeful, as corporate Disney World and employees losing jobs to his threats of financial ruin are learning.
But, for the next year, the nation’s media will generate headlines and stories about DeSantis’ presidential bid that will try to make sense of his track record and miscast or minimize the harm he has done.
His pitch can be confusing to Florida outsiders.
He touts his “Florida blueprint” as the road map for America’s future under his leadership. That may sound good to Americans thinking of Jimmy Buffet and Margaritaville. But we’re at each other’s throats.
Do you know that when we walk on the beach, when we sit at a restaurant counter, we’re now afraid of being assaulted with the politics of the person near us, the one with the smile striking up a chat?
What motivation lurks behind the friendly gesture, we ask ourselves.
And what’s truly sad, is that, once the connection is established, our worst fears are confirmed. Yes, it’s another MAGA cult specialist recruiting you. And you’re so sick of it you make the sign of the cross with your fingers at them and say, “Not here.”
Not when being Republican these days means that Florida has become a human prison where women who don’t know they’re pregnant are now forced to give birth. Medical quackery is official. Academic cowardice reigns because brave teachers pay for speaking up with the loss of their jobs.
Florida blueprint
Shamelessly, DeSantis brays that he has brought freedom to Florida governance when, in truth, he’s the ultimate autocrat usurping local powers. If he becomes president, he’ll micro-manage California, his dream come true.
His people are working hard to crown DeSantis as the alternative to uncontrollable, unhinged Trump. But the governor is no better and, perhaps, even worse.
He’s a danger to American society as we know it — diverse, inclusive, and striving to be more equitable. To DeSantis, these are words and concepts to strike out of a textbook.
To him, they aren’t basic human decency behaviors, whether they’re in college texts or part of the training in the workplace. Concepts that help us get along and understand each other are evil in his eyes.
No, DeSantis hasn’t simply sought to mold education in Florida. He has sought to destroy it and reinvent it in a way that only serves the GOP.
Bill by bill, legislative session after legislative session and from kindergarten to college, DeSantis has chipped away at integral parts of our public education system.
He’s not the kind of leader with vision who dreams of more and bigger for Americans.
He’s reductive.
Under DeSantis, an ethical stance about how we treat others has become a civil war-starter in Florida, where neo-Nazis proudly hold a blue flag that says: “DeSantis Country.”
This Florida is no blueprint for America, only hate on steroids.
The governor’s silence on this has helped rot Florida from the inside, as much as Trump’s presidency has.
Trump is a star in the theater of lies.
DeSantis turns them into signed legislation that ruins American lives.
This story was originally published May 16, 2023 at 4:33 PM.
