Opinion: Beware, DeSantis is as much a threat to America as Trump
By Jennifer Rubin
November 21, 2022 at 7:45 a.m. EST
If you believe Floridas Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis would be a less dangerous presidential candidate than former president Donald Trump, take a moment to consider the recent ruling striking down DeSantiss Stop WOKE Act. That opinion as well as other rulings against his attempts to inhibit dissent makes clear that DeSantis is just as willing as Trump to embrace the GOPs authoritarian element and use state power to punish his enemies.
To recap, the Stop WOKE Act also perversely known as the Individual Freedom Act is the Orwellian scheme that DeSantis signed into law earlier this year to muzzle the candid discussion of race and racism in classrooms and the workplace. As U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker explains in his opinion, The law officially bans professors from expressing disfavored viewpoints in university classrooms while permitting unfettered expression of the opposite viewpoints. He dryly continued, Defendants argue that, under this Act, professors enjoy academic freedom so long as they express only those viewpoints of which the State approves.
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DeSantis seems to have no fondness for the basic rights our Constitution confers on Americans. Instead, he delights in using state power to demonstrate his contempt for the expression of views he dislikes. This forms the core of his political brand, underscored by his dont say gay law, his statute banning critical race theory in schools and his firing of a county prosecutor who criticized his abortion policies. DeSantis has also regularly flexed his power as governor: excluding media from events, taking public proceedings behind closed doors (including the selection of the University of Floridas president) and exacting revenge on supposedly woke corporations such as Disney.
DeSantiss contempt for dissent and his crackdown on critics should not be discounted. This is the profile of a constitutional ignoramus, a bully and a strongman. Voters should be forewarned.
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lapfog_1
(29,244 posts)a smarter version of Trump... with a more insidious intent
Rebl2
(13,621 posts)Lovie777
(12,430 posts)BlueTsunami2018
(3,515 posts)Let him kneecap all the other assholes in the primaries and well crush him in the general.
cyclonefence
(4,483 posts)but I am way less worried about DeSantis than Trump--not that I think Trump has a prayer of being elected.
I can understand Trump's appeal for the Cletus vote (thank you, Charles Pierce!) but I think the very fact that DeSantis is smarter than Trump makes him less likable? relatable? to Cletus, and that will prevent the kind of cult Trump created, simply through his personality.
DeSantis is like Ted Cruz in that he's both evil and smart, but also because nobody likes either one of them as people. They are, for whatever reason, repellent human beings. Nobody dreams of being part of DeSantis' in-crowd they way they did about Trump. Nobody longs to be Ron's best friend.
Trump has no insight and no shame. I can imagine DeSantis being embarrassed by MTG, for instance.
And that attitude shows, and it will cost him support among the Trumpists.
Phoenix61
(17,028 posts)part carnival barker, part evangelical minister and DeSatan has neither. He has a power hungry wife who is hellbent to be First Lady and runs his campaign. Personally, I think hes going to flame out just like Tebow did.
CTyankee
(63,932 posts)the fact that he is extremely smart and can foresee all the downfalls we, as liberal Democrats, can foresee. Don't count him out! I think he can readjust his campaign as events unfold. We're in for a really challenging campaign against this guy.
Phoenix61
(17,028 posts)I was wondering if he was smart enough to see thats not going to be a winning strategy nationally but I dont think he or his wife are.
CTyankee
(63,932 posts)What I want to believe is that he is "too clever by half" as the saying goes. I want to think that he will have a spectacular downfall. Would-be dictators always do...eventually. That all he learned as a Yale undergrad and a graduate of Harvard Law School were just academic smarts, not real world political smarts.We shall see...
LetMyPeopleVote
(146,035 posts)republianmushroom
(13,916 posts)Ollie Garkie
(186 posts)People at Gitmo. Gonna be fun when that story blows up.