Ron DeSantis Squares Off With New 'Woke' Foe: The NHL?

[Zorro]

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ latest target is a curious one. Republican strategists are wondering whether it was a smart move.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is squaring off with an unlikely opponent: the NHL.

In the latest battle of the culture wars, the NHL—where gloves-off fighting still brings just a five-minute penalty, where the player base is 93 percent white, and until the hiring of Mike Grier by the San Jose Sharks earlier this month there had yet to be a Black general manager in the history of the sport—has somehow become the new epitome of woke culture gone awry.

Over the weekend, the DeSantis administration got the NHL to fold on a local hiring event aimed at diversifying the league’s workforce ahead of its annual All-Star Game. (The All-Star Game and Skills Competition is set for the first weekend of February in Sunrise, Florida—a suburb a little under an hour north of Miami—home to the Florida Panthers.)

How DeSantis ended up dropping the gloves with America’s fourth most popular sport ahead of an event ostensibly designed to draw tourists to the state and Floridians into the NHL’s front office jobs is the result of a wash, rinse and repeat approach to corporate efforts to brand themselves as inclusive.

As one GOP strategist put it, DeSantis has found another way to “raise his profile as a fighter as well as raise money.” But as another Republican campaign veteran told The Daily Beast, this isn’t a risk-free strategy for the Florida governor and rumored 2024 contender; it could mark the beginning of a “strategy that works until it doesn’t.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/ron-desantis-squares-off-with-new-woke-foe-the-nhl

[Caliman73]

1. The last sentence in your post encapsulates my thinking on this.

DeSantis is going all in on grievance culture and "owning the libs". It will work until it doesn't. He is a one trick pony and I do not think that he will be a strong candidate in 2024. He lacks any of the "charisma" that Trump has (ugh, that felt awful to say). He keeps getting his ass handed to him in court. He is an ineffectual, dry, non personality having Trump. It may work in Florida, a state that is a red cesspool, but it won't play as well across the country.