Ron DeSantis has something to teach liberals
It’s depressing to revisit 2016 and the misbegotten liberal conviction that America couldn’t possibly elevate Donald Trump to the presidency. But here we go again. As Democratic political strategist Lis Smith has remarked, the left’s reaction to Ron DeSantis looks just like its reaction to Trump: “He’s picking these fights. He’s saying and doing abhorrent things. And all the same characters — whether in the media, Democratic politics, the punditry class, whatever it is — have the same freakout.”
Let’s pay closer attention this time.
We shouldn’t underestimate DeSantis. He may resemble Trump in his politics — but not in his intellect or resolve. Compare their respective backgrounds: After an academic record notable only for its mediocrity, Trump leveraged personal connections to get into a prestigious university. DeSantis, the son of a TV ratings box installer and a nurse, actually earned his way into the Ivy League. He worked his way through Yale University while playing baseball and graduated magna cum laude.
Whereas Trump skirted military service with a convenient discovery of bone spurs, DeSantis was a commissioned officer in the Navy. He graduated from Harvard Law School. As Dexter Filkins observed last year in a New Yorker profile, “DeSantis has an intense work ethic, a formidable intelligence and a granular understanding of policy.”
Because we can assume DeSantis knows what he’s doing, we should make careful note of his record in Florida, where he has been governor since 2019. His approval rating in Florida is consistently over 50% and includes high ratings among Latinos and in former liberal strongholds like Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.
The fact that he took an aggressive approach to COVID to avoid the pains of lockdown on small businesses and families wasn’t lost on Florida voters. While other politicians prevaricated and dithered, he spoke with conviction and seemed to be doing something, and to many working families in Florida, that mattered. He also acted decisively last year during Hurricane Ian, a response that won strong bipartisan approval.
In a country where government often looks sclerotic, DeSantis’ knack for action bears notice. We can decry his stunt in shipping migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, but we should also be attending to the real concerns of people living in areas of heavy immigration. Hispanic voters in Florida preferred DeSantis to his Democratic opponent in last year’s election for governor.
They also supported his Martha’s Vineyard escapade, according to a Telemundo/LX News poll.
Democrats need to grapple with this appeal. It would be easy to write DeSantis off as a cartoon culture warrior or as racist, homophobic, transphobic and xenophobic. He may well be all those things, and so may some of his constituents.
But he may not be, and either way, it would be foolish to characterize all his followers as such. Assuming a stance of moral superiority will do us no good. (See: Hillary Rodham Clinton, “deplorables.”)
Finally, we shouldn’t let DeSantis co-opt positions on which Democrats have historical strength and a natural advantage: education, health care, jobs.
There are reasons so many Americans are relocating to the Sunshine State beyond the balmy weather.
This month, DeSantis released a budget plan that featured targeted tax cuts aimed at parents; salary increases for state employees, including teachers; and significant investments in schools, including programs in civic education.
DeSantis’ maverick approach to primary, secondary and higher education has brought widespread condemnation from Democrats, particularly from their more progressive wing.
But we should pay attention to why his policies land better with voters than with progressive critics.
A law like the Stop WOKE Act of 2021 (later partly blocked by a federal court), which limited the discussion of certain racial issues during diversity training sessions offered by private employers and in the classroom appeals to Floridians tired of racial and ethnic divisiveness and the overt politicization of what’s taught in the classroom.
As many liberals will quietly acknowledge, the Parental Rights in Education Act, which opponents nicknamed the “Don’t Say Gay” law, has reasonable and legitimate attractions for a broad range of parents who worry about the focus, efficacy and age-appropriateness of what their kids are learning in primary and secondary school.
It should be cause for alarm that recent polls show Republicans holding an advantage on educational issues. Rather than dismiss parents’ concerns as somehow unfounded or wrongheaded, we should be listening to them and finding better solutions to their grievances.
Telling parents they’re bigots or are unenlightened for not embracing the latest faddish orthodoxy is not a winning message.
Which brings us back to Trump. We know that he takes DeSantis seriously because he has shown signs that he’s scared of DeSantis as a competitor. He may think the best way to defang DeSantis — whom he calls “DeSanctimonious” — is to mock and belittle him. Democrats should recognize it will take far more than that.