Dear Opponents of Ron DeSantis Everywhere: Get Your Shit Together

[babylonsister]

Dear Opponents of Ron DeSantis Everywhere: Get Your Shit Together
by Hamilton Nolan | January 27, 2023 - 8:02am


snip//

People in Florida of all political persuasions often talk of Ron DeSantis as if he is a formidable juggernaut that Democrats can’t hope to restrain. This is false. He is a half-smart, washed up Ivy League baseball player whose defining characteristic is not cleverness or likeability, but overweening ambition. He has a goofy squeaky voice and palpable absence of warmth that will not translate well to the national stage. He is just as immoral as his rivals, but he lacks the polished presentation of Ted Cruz and the magnetic insanity of Donald Trump. Though, as a rule, I do not make electoral predictions, it would not be surprising to see him crash and burn when faced with a presidential campaign that depends, above all, on charisma. It is easy to imagine him as the latest in a long line of media-hyped red state governors whose self-importance crashed and sunk against the rocks of a competitive primary.

Nor is he some sort of king whose hold on Florida should be taken for granted. Florida is, in essence, a 50/50 state that should be extremely competitive in every election. So why did DeSantis win reelection last year by 20 points? Because Democratic turnout in the state plummeted by 20 points compared to the 2018 election, while Republican turnout increased. In 2018, Democrats ran Andrew Gillum, a progressive, younger candidate of color for governor, and almost won; in 2022, they ran a tepid old former Republican, and got whipped. When you don’t give people anything exciting to vote for, they don’t turn out to vote.

Like partisan redistricting, gerrymandering, and showy acts of racist voter suppression, DeSantis’s new salvo against teachers unions is an effort to turn a narrow, temporary advantage into a permanent one. Disenfranchise some Democrats, demoralize the rest, and demolish the few institutions that can sustain their statewide power. This is the DeSantis plan, and he isn’t shy about it. He doesn’t need to be. His base revels in it, and his opposition is weak, scared, and seemingly without a plan.

In Florida, all of the most important macro-issues of American politics are screaming out as we speak. The proud fascism that DeSantis embodies must be met with radicalism. Clinton-esque Democratic attempts to triangulate their way out of the problem are doomed to fail, and will only serve to drive home the untrue impression that Florida is a red state. You can’t equivocate with DeSantis. He puts Black people in jail at gunpoint for voting; he bans books and outlaws Black history teaching with a bluntness that would make George Orwell blush; he demonizes trans kids, perfectly happy to drive a few young people to suicide if it helps him solidify his own position. This guy is not some sophisticated mastermind — he’s an asshole. He is the embodiment of the worst 30% of Floridians, the ones who make the state a national punchline. And those who roll over for him, like the dozens of college presidents who publicly kowtow to his backwards “vision,” are cowards who will find themselves on the wrong side of history when the uncensored textbooks eventually get written.

That is one thing Florida proves: The absolute need for the Democrats to stop being weak and afraid of their own convictions. The second thing it proves is the absolute centrality of organized labor as a path out of the political quandary that afflicts America. Inequality has killed public faith in institutions, and modern media has entrenched national partisanship to a degree that some perceive as hopeless. Unions can roll back inequality. Unions can bring people of different political persuasions together in common cause in the workplace. Unions can show people an actual functioning democracy. Unions can lead regular people to political activism based on principles they learn by fighting for fair treatment for themselves. Unions can be strong enough to serve as a wall that stops the predations of opportunistic, hateful politicians like Ron DeSantis.

more...

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/hamilton-nolan/104862/dear-opponents-of-ron-desantis-everywhere-get-your-shit-together

[katmondoo]

1. I hate his policies

[TheBlackAdder]

15. He's an asshole.

.

.

[lame54]

2. Long ass article to say He's Not Trump

[Sky Jewels]

3. Let's band together to take him down.

He must be destroyed politically.

[Initech]

6. We got to stop Fox News too.

We stopped them in 2020, we must stop them in 2024. Fox News has led the GOP on a very dark path that's embracing authoritarianism and conspiracy theories. We've got to stop the Murdochs' evil agenda.

[summer_in_TX]

4. DeSantis is evil. But he can and must be stopped.

Ron DeSantis accused of illegal acts of torture against Guantanamo detainees when he was a Navy JAG officer

As a Navy JAG officer supposedly sworn to uphold the Geneva Conventions, DeSantis is alleged by one of the victims to have encouraged and laughed at torture at Guantanamo as well as pretending to be there to make things better and using prisoners' complaints to make things worse for them.

[lpbk2713]

5. I would love to see him invest Millions of $$ on a presidential campaign.

And then fall flat on his face for all the world to see.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

7. Does de fascist still have his white booties?

[rubbersole]

10. He lent them to the green M&M.

He wants them back by Mardi Gras.

[KS Toronado]

8. Hope he is the GQP nominee in 2024

President Biden will eat him alive on the debate stage and prove to voters he's not the
person to sit in the Oval Office.

[ancianita]

9. Sorry, but Florida DEMS have NOT been weak and afraid. The DNC has not committed money

Last edited Fri Jan 27, 2023, 08:39 PM - Edit history (2)

and effort to Florida. That's why there is no national party effort to replace Manny Diaz as Florida's Democratic Party chair.

Since my childhood in South Florida, my college days on the panhandle and now, on the West Coast, I have not seen ANY national Democratic effort for the third largest population state. WHY IS THAT.

Someone ask the national party, okay?

It could be that 16 billionaires of this state run it like their personal fiefdom, and are part of the Koch (money insurgent to seven major FL state and private universities) oligarchic network.
It could be that the statehouse is full of loons.
It could be the treatment of schools after mass shootings, and the arming of teachers, yet waiting to charge them for felonies for allowing censored books in their classrooms.
It's a gun permit state with a gun culture and gun shows.
It could be that union organizers have not come to the least unionized state in the nation.

But Democrats weak and afraid? Pfffft. Hell, no. But Democrats in Florida are surrounded by the worst of the opposition.

Stop blaming the political victims of party neglect. We've held true to voting -- former governor Charlie Crist has run for governor again, visited every county; St Petersburg's David Jolly continues to promote the Democratic face and good sense of Florida on MSNBC. So does Joy Reid, from Broward County.

YET. Is the national party paying attention to how they've neglected candidates running for national office? How little the DNC helped Val Demings?? Not that I can see. From what I saw, she was on. her. own.

No. The national party hasn't even tried to get the state party registrations caught up!
County supervisors of elections have openly stated on their websites that Florida Democrats are down by over 100,000 registrations.

Young groups are finally getting out to register high school grads and college students. That's the best effort I've seen to raise registration numbers. You've got to watch your back when you join Indivisibles, or when any Democrats hold any meetings.

If anyone looked around, they might consider VAL DEMINGS OR DAVID JOLLY -- BOTH Florida's Democratic Representatives in the US House.

[Ligyron]

14. The national consciousness seems to imagine Florida as just a place were old people go to die.

It's a lot more than that and it's huge, diverse population and THIRTY electoral votes deserve a lot more money and attention than they are getting from the DNC.

[ancianita]

17. Yes, and you're right that it does NOT let the DNC off the hook for neglecting FL's electoral votes

The DNC's neglect became most apparent after the 2000 SCOTUS Bush v Gore ruling against the FL Supreme Court to continue the vote count.

I hear you about the many well earned stereotypes of Florida.
And the nation damn well knows why old folks go there so as not to die from slips on ice in their home states' winters. 75% of the population also lives within 10 miles of the coastline.

You're right. The state has a HUGE non-old demographic. 83% of the state is under age 65. Florida is also a highly urbanized state, with 89 percent of its population living in urban areas in 2000, compared to 79 percent nationally. Over 2/3 of FL's population was born in other states, the second highest in the country in that category.

Thanks for your positive points.

[Evolve Dammit]

11. I never had any doubt he was a total asshole. Never, none. Death Sentence or DeSatan. Either works.

[pwb]

12. He has short woman stand behind him to make him look taller.

He doesn't have woman appeal. IMO. The old Florida folks may like him, but young America wants no part of his kind.

[DET]

13. Never Understood It

I’ve never understood how DeSantis became the presumed Republican nominee seemingly overnight. The man is a hate filled wannabe dictator with absolutely no charisma. I’ll be almost as happy to see him go down as Trump.

[Ligyron]

16. Me either.

It's like, out of nowhere, the media suddenly crowned him leader of the loonies, and this before he even pulled any of his hateful, attention getting stunts.The stories and TV coverage pronouncing him king just popped up out of nowhere all at once like it's a done deal.

The Koch's must love him or something, idk

But nobody else does.

He has the charisma of a dead fish, will fail miserably on the national stage but I hope not before they make him their candidate for President in '24.

Any Dem nominated will then be almost assured of victory.