When you have a legislature willing to help you advance your agenda, you do it. Democrats know this, and so does Ron DeSantis. Regardless of what you think about him as a presidential contender, the guy isn’t a wallflower afraid of offending the donor class by doing something…Republican.
Is that a problem for him, and does it matter?
There are several theories out there suggesting this is for show. That DeSantis is the not so republican Republican Governors Association (RGA) candidate, and the wallflower Republicans like Sununu (thinking about running), Nikki Haley (Trump Deserter), or Asa Hutchinson (announced, but so what) are only there to make him DeSantis look better and to bash Trump.
It makes no sense to me. Why water the field down? Let DeSantis go head-to-head with Trump, let the media bash Trump, and may the best man win the nomination.
Maybe I’m reading that wrong, but that’s my thinking.
My other issue is that Republicans (the RGA, in this example) can’t be criminal masterminds and blundering idiots in the same breath. It’s the same problem I had when Democrats suggested George Bush had coordinated 9/11. Until then, and almost every moment after it, Bush was a moron who couldn’t even pronounce nuclear. But suddenly, he was Moriarty, coordinating a complicated act of terrorism on US soil.
And if he wanted to help his oil buddies (as many still contend), he could have worked to open up domestic production and skipped the Middle-Eastern BS. Trump did it. We were energy independent for about five minutes until Whoever is Running the Biden Administration slammed that door.
I like both (Trump and DeSantis), but Trump still has the outsider advantage. I think he needs to come clean about his pandemic errors in a big way and explain how he’d avoid that in the future. As for DeSantis, he’s doing stuff Republicans like and want. Loudly and proudly like it’s some big middle finger to the Left’s agenda, and what’s not to like about that?
In addition to defunding DEI projects, the law also bars public colleges from infusing critical race theory and related grievance politics ideologies into curricula for general education courses. Those classes “may not distort significant historical events or include a curriculum that teaches identity politics” stemming from “theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political, and economic inequities,” according to the law.
“If you look at the way this has actually been implemented across the country, DEI is better viewed as standing for discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination,” DeSantis said at a press conference at New College of Florida in Sarasota. “And that has no place in our public institutions. This bill says the whole experiment with DEI is coming to an end in the state of Florida.”
Yeah, team! Get er done! Now we’re cooking with fire! Pick your pithy phrase, one-liner, quip, witticism, or sound bite. How about ‘never back down’? It’s the definitive rule when dealing with the cage rattlers on the Left. But it dares to challenge the soft underbelly of the go-along-get-along aisle-crossers in the big tent party.
It sounds good on TV and works great when the whole government is in your corner, but as I’ve mentioned before, what happens when everyone else is against you, and you can’t get anything you want without a few of them? Does stepping sideways count as never backing down?
Reagan was great, but even he gave away some things we’d like back, and after Biden, we can’t afford to give up anything else. We need to take some back, and Ron DeSantis is doing that in Florida. But would it translate to the big stage?
