Florida’s DeSantis a foe worth fearing

TAMPA, FLA . Deny. Deny. Deny. Which makes Ron DeSantis the perfect Trump 2.0.

The Florida governor has disavowed any interest in running for president in 2024, calling the speculation “nonsense.” But straw polls show him closing in on Donald Trump, his ally and possible rival, for the Republican nomination.

Trump lies and obstructs, in and out of office. No. 45 hasn’t explicitly confirmed he’ll make a bid to become No. 47, toying and teasing during rallies over the past few months, laying down the foundation for another White House run while averting fundraising rules that would be triggered by a formal announcement.

Since founding “Save America” in November 2020, Trump has raised $ 124 million, according to FEC ( Federal Election Commission) filings, ostensibly to promote GOP candidates in the midterm elections. But mostly to promote himself. No other ex- prez has ever come close.

That would be a formidable running start for Trump versus DeSantis. The governor, who blusters about wanting to make America over in Florida’s image — egad! — is arguably the most divisive politician in the United States right now, with apologies ( not) to Sen. Ted Cruz. Loved and loathed, he’d replicated the policies of bullying and grousing that Trump elevated to manifesto for a party in abject thrall to its once- current- maybefuture leader.

De Santis is just as boorish as Trump — a few days ago, on a FOX- TV segment, describing Joe Biden as a “doddering, quasisenile president.”

As ready to double down on criticism, as he did earlier this week, when signing what’s known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which prohibits classroom instruction and discussion about sexual orientation and gender identity. Sneering at opponents he accuses of misrepresenting the legislation: “They’re doing it because they actually support having woke gender ideology in the first grade.”

Thing is, DeSantis, positioning himself on the cutting edge of American politics as wrought by Trump, as an unflagging cultural warrior for the red- meat base, is actually far superior at governance by cult. Trump failed to push through into law many of his imprimatur reactionary proposals; the bills never got to his desk. Or they were bills that Biden immediately revoked.

DeSantis, by comparison, is regarded, even by his enemies, as being in firm command of the legislative process. Which makes him a most alarming foe, should he take possession of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. This is a man who, unlike Trump, who had a tendency to bankrupt businesses, is a Harvard graduate who was an attorney with the Navy’s Judge Advocate General Corps at Guantanamo Bay and served in Iraq as legal adviser to SEAL Team One.

The “Don’t Say Gay” bill, actually House Bill 1557, has attracted a swell of approval, exploiting the fears of many parents that they’re being supplanted as moral avatars within the family by an indoctrinating radical left, particularly in the education system. Many parents, who do have the right to rear their kids as they see fit, are deeply troubled by the sharply escalating issue of gender identity that might confuse children … although it’s more accurate to say that kids who begin to question their gender assigned at birth are already feeling confused, maybe frightened, and often ashamed.

A further front of contention has exploded over transgender athletes – transgender girls competing in high school and college athletics, which threatens to erase the space for other female athletes. ( Thirteen

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is just as boorish as Donald Trump, but in firm command of the legislative process states have now passed legislation restricting transgender women and girls’ participation in school sports.)

The core problem with Bill 1557 is that it doesn’t say what it means, or at least doesn’t say so clearly — it is both vague and complex at the same time — and certainly isn’t limited in scope as many conservatives contend.

Classroom instruction by teachers or third parties “on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten or Grade 3” — many agree with that restriction, in general, with students still too young to be introduced to the subjects — but further adds: “or in a manner that is not ageappropriate or development appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”

Hence the “Don’t Say Gay” label.

Caught in that net could be any student in any grade, as “age appropriate” hasn’t been defined, and may encompass, not only “instruction” around gender identity and sexual orientation, but also “classroom discussion” of those topics.

Would teachers have to avoid the subject when it is raised, say, by the child of same- sex parents? Would that topic be taboo in the classroom? This is certainly chill- inducing for teachers, especially as parents, when the bill comes into effect on July 1, will be able to sue schools and school districts for violating a poorly written bill.

DeSantis doesn’t give a fig about backlash, including from Disney, one of the state’s biggest employers, earlier slammed for not condemning the law more forcefully. He actually seems to be thriving in the maelstrom wake of a law Biden has called “hateful.”

“We will make sure that parents can send their kids to schools to get an education, not an indoctrination,” the governor vowed as he signed the bill at a charter school, north of Tampa.

The governor sounded bringiton defiant when noting the hostility of progressive activists, corporate boardrooms and Hollywood A- listers.

“If those are the types of people that are opposing us on parents’ rights, I wear that like a badge of honour,” he said after signing the bill. “I don’t care what corporate media outlets say. I don’t care what Hollywood says. I don’t care what big corporations say. Here I stand. I’m not backing down.”

He railed against the bill’s opponents, accusing them of “sexualizing kids in kindergarten.” ( In fact, there is no sex instruction in kindergarten through Grade 3.)

“They support enabling schools to ‘ transition students’ to a ‘ different gender’ without the knowledge of the parent … without the parent’s consent.”

His own press secretary remarked on Twitter that the legislation would be more accurately described as an “antigrooming bill,” silhouetting its inherent homophobia by linking gays to pedophilia and the grooming of victims.

DeSantis has won this battle. The prevailing view is that, if challenged legally, the courts will uphold the bill.

Of course, the governor is far from a one- trick pony; he signed an appalling voter- suppression law; an anti- protesting law that granted some civil protections to people who, say, drove through protesters blocking a road ( blocked by a judge last fall). This month, the Florida legislature passed the “Stop WOKE Act,” intended to limit how workplaces and classrooms handle discussion surround critical race theory. As well, DeSanti s has thumbed his nose at the Biden administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC) throughout the pandemic, digging in his heels against regulations, ditching mandates way early and spearheading the rump of states — there are 21 of these — who just this week filed a lawsuit challenging requirements that people wear masks in airports, on planes and on public transit.

What is it about masks that makes some people lose their mind? Masks and transgender kids: not wanted in Florida.

Thursday was International Transgender day of Visibility, by the way. An LBGTQ advocacy group marked the day by filing a lawsuit against DeSantis.