Since it’s more likely than not that Ron DeSantis will be the 2024 Republican nominee, many are asking “Just what would a Ron DeSantis Presidency actually look?” Like most things the media says, I disagree with the prevailing narrative that it’s guaranteed Ron DeSantis would be “less crazy than Trump.”
Although we don’t know for sure if DeSantis actually believes in all the crazy stuff he’s done this year (he might just be chasing the applause), I’m willing to bet he believes enough of it to be just as crazy and stupid as Trump—if not more dangerous because he knows more about government and how to actually accomplish the far right agenda.
I’ll take his feud with Disney for just one example: Disney CEO Bob Chapek is a closet Republican and very much wanted to transition Disney from a California company to a fully-Florida company. He was getting ready to build a massive new Disney campus in an Orlando swamp and forcibly relocate thousands of Disney employees from California to Florida.
As you can imagine, this was a big win for Little Ron. Thousands of new jobs? A brand new campus costing a fortune in new construction? Disney increasing their economic presence with more large investments in Florida on the horizon? And poaching those jobs from California of all places? …Why Little Ron should’ve been so happy he practically creamed himself—and he was…for about 5 minutes.
Then, Disney voiced a mild objection to his “Don’t Say Gay” Bill that many Disney talent had to practically force Chapek to issue at all. If Ron weren’t full-on crazy and full of himself, he would’ve just deflected that criticism or said something like what Brian Kemp always does whenever Georgia is in hot water over being socially backwards like “people can disagree” or “Georgia laws remain for Georgians to decide.”
Instead, “Conquistador Ron DeSoto” thought it was a better idea to go to war with Disney. He issued a furious denunciation of Disney’s stance, threatened them eight ways to Sunday (his henchman Josh Hawley introduced a bill in the Senate to shorten the length of Disney’s copyrights), and even seized the Reedy Creek property from being a semi-autonomous region to one back under his government control. This plan was so rushed, DeSantis apparently did not know that the government of Florida was essentially absorbing Disney’s debt and adding a ton of red to the local Orlando taxpayers.
This is a hotheaded man. This is a reckless man. This is a stupid man who knows just enough to be truly dangerous. [Trump would’ve just threatened Disney via Twitter, then gotten distracted by a large dump he was taking, and then he would’ve moved on to some new outrage the next day.]
This year, DeSantis has had feuds with the gay community, women (full abortion ban), private businesses (“Stop WOKE Act” telling them what they can or can’t say to their employees on race), Norwegian Cruise Line, Twitter, black congressional districts (he ripped them up to hurt Val Demmings), “woke” math books, various other books he’s banned, education from K through university, health officials, Disney, and common sense (he’s the only Governor in the country to refuse to order the CV vaccine for children under 5).
This is about the last man in the U.S. who needs to be President.