Presidential candidates: Ron DeSantis – Authoritarian big government conservatism
Ron DeSantis represents something not seen in American politics in many years, if ever: a Pinochet-, Greek colonels-, Mussolini-style authoritarian, big government, reactionary politician. You know, the F-word. A real blow-your-political-opponents-up-in-Sheridan-Square strongman.
In many ways, he’s scarier than Trump. One difference is that his hyper-gerrymandered state gives him a degree of control over the legislature that Trump could only dream about. But he also has a hedgehog stubbornness about his agenda that Trump never could muster.
In some respects, he’s just another hypocritical “screw the blue states” conservative. The number one feeder at the federal disaster relief trough as governor of the State of Disaster Central, as a congressman he voted against Hurricane Sandy relief.
In other respects, he’s a leading voice in the brand new Republican party gestalt. One trend that’s sweeping the Republican party is a policy of official State retaliation against any business, institution, or individual who displeases the Party. City of Nashville sabotages the GOP’s hopes of hosting the National Convention? Shrink the city council and start chipping away at city authorities. One Disney official (who’s no longer with the company) speaks out against a single policy of the governor and this kicks off a massive over-retaliation, including abolition of the special taxing district that has allowed Disney to run its affairs.
Make no mistake, the revenge is the whole point of the retaliation. The DeSantis war against Disney has already cost the state thousands of jobs and ultimately will cost billions. The dollars and cents don’t matter.
Considering he heads a state whose agriculture and tourist sectors are highly dependent on an immigrant workforce, his policy toward immigrants is also incredibly short-sighted – and also particularly cruel and callous. And, like war with Disney, it’s going to wind up costing the state billions. There’s a bill that would require hospitals to check the immigration status before giving medical treatment, measure that would undoubtedly stop some people from seeking medical treatment.
Like Trump, he advocates a “cruelty IS the point” immigration policy, including indefinite detention of children (which would require a massive increase in detention facilities), use of deadly force at the border (which would be an international crime), building the Wall, and the immigration “policy” he’s best known for, kidnapping immigrants and transporting them somewhere where he can “own the libs.”
He also promises to “end birthright citizenship,” the policy enshrined in the 14th amendment originally to repeal the Dred Scott decision and guarantee that freed slaves would be treated as citizens. He hasn’t specified how he plans to do this, but people advocating this change AREN’T talking about the hard slog of a Constitutional amendment. Usually, they’re counting on the reactionary Supreme Court majority to take away yet another long-settled Constitutional right.
DeSantis promotes his “freedom agenda” and describes “the free state of Florida,” but he has a kind of Animal Farmish definition of “freedom.” A leading spokesman for individual liberty and parental rights when people were trying to save lives during the pandemic, he becomes an advocate of a domineering, intrusive Big Brother state when he disapproves of the behavior. He signed among the most restrictive abortion laws and has outlawed gender-affirming treatments and has repeatedly limited the scope of an education students can receive in schools or the types of shows children can attend. Maybe most ridiculous, he’s also banned corporate training that is too “woke” for his taste. “You’re perfectly free to do things that I agree with” is a type of freedom that Mussolini would have agreed with.
But he is probably best known for his “war on woke.” This collection of incoherent thoughts has resulted in massive State interference in public schools, college curricula, parenting, healthcare, and corporate decisions.
“Woke” is one of those terms, like last year’s “critical race theory,” where nobody who uses the term actually has any idea what the term means, they just know what they don’t like. DeSantis’s best try at what he means is
“It’s a form of cultural Marxism. It’s about putting merit and achievement behind identity politics, and it’s basically a war on the truth.”
Let’s let rest the thought that cultural Marxism has nothing whatever to do with identity politics
.One especially incoherent requirement is a provision that prohibits teaching anything that might make a student “feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress for actions in which he or she played no part, committed in the past by other members of the same race.” There is no logical reason to think teaching about Jim Crow or Massive Resistance would be likely to promote “anguish” or “guilt.” But no teacher will risk their career on such an eye of the beholder term.
Teachers can’t use classroom libraries – often assembled over years and at considerable expense to encourage reluctant readers – until each title is reviewed and approved by a librarian. His laws against the teaching of race, sexual orientation, and gender have led to strict book bans in various school districts.
At the college level, the governor is rolling back diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives; reducing tenure protections; and moving school leaders to review core courses to make sure they’re free of “liberal indoctrination.”
HB 999 instructs Florida’s Board of Governors to regularly examine the course offerings at schools in the state university system to make sure there are no majors or minors in critical race theory, gender studies, intersectionality, or any related subjects. The bill also bars the teaching of “identity politics” and critical race theory, two concepts it does not define.
General education core courses also must not define American history as something “contrary to the creation of a nation based on the principles stated in the Declaration of Independence,” an especially ridiculous requirement given that the principles of the Declaration of Independence (“all men are created equal”) quite specifically didn’t apply to women until 1920 and blacks until 1965.
Probably the most notable thing is he seems to have no sense of of limits or decency. The man who dressed his children up in Trump gear and head them say “Build the Wall” has no limits, seemingly on his willingness to scapegoat gays, blacks, drag queens, teachers, or anyone else who displeases him.
And he has utterly no concern for the economic cost of his nasty little crusades. His attack on Disney promises to cost billions in lost jobs and foregone revenue. And his recent legislative crackdown on illegals may wreck Florida’s agricultural sector.
In reality, DeSantis is doing more to create a Fascist state than a free state. Jimmy Breslin’s immortal description of Rudy Giuliani (“a small man in search of a balcony”) would fit him well if it weren’t already taken.