![]() And on the global front, he infamously called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a “territorial dispute”, a judgment he was forced to walk back when it didn’t play well within the Republican party. As the Associated Press bluntly wrote, he puts forth a narrative that experts in the nation’s major medical associations say is false, such as the idea that children are routinely being “mutilated”.Īnd of course, he has pulled attention-getting and destructive stunts like flying planeloads of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts and feuding with Disney, a major employer and tourist draw. He proudly signed bills that ban gender-affirming care for minors, go after drag shows, restrict the discussion of personal pronouns in schools and force individuals to use particular bathrooms. On women’s reproductive rights, DeSantis signed into law a bill to ban abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, before many women even know they are pregnant. (One school district looked askance at both Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, proving that Florida’s book banners have a discerning eye for great literature – and want no part of it.) Presumably, DeSantis had nothing to do with that particular decision but his tireless campaign against supposed wokeness (read: egalitarian portrayals or treatment of Black, gay and transgender people) has freed a torrent of censorship. One clue came this very week as a Florida school district confirmed that – after only a single complaint from a parent – a school had decided to remove from the elementary-school area of its library The Hill We Climb, by the young Black poet Amanda Gorman, whose gorgeous recitation of it stole the show at Biden’s 2021 inauguration. ![]() Beneath the governor’s endless culture wars is an appalling reality of policies that fail to serve the vast majority of Florida’s citizens: the non-richīut the far more important question is what would a DeSantis presidency – however unlikely it seems right now – mean to the United States and the world? Is the 44-year-old merely a younger and less impulsive Trump, or does he offer his own special set of worries for those who care about democracy, fairness and good government?įor the answer, just consider what the two-term governor has wrought in his home state and in his early forays into world affairs. The rollout was plagued with embarrassing glitches, no big surprise given Twitter’s general meltdown under Musk’s ownership. It’s the digital-age equivalent of a bumper sticker for your luxury car: Safe With DeSantis.) (The clear message to other rich Republicans: you can desert Trump and we’ll still have your back on tax policy, wages and the like. Granted, the Twitter decision is fascinating in its way, since it signals that DeSantis is all in with the rightwing money guys.
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