Ron DeSantis: Worse than Trump?

The moments are still fresh when President Joe Biden and his vice-president, Kamala Harris, went around Florida futilely fawning on the opposition members of all kind, as well as related elements controlling the political and economic life of the Florida state, in order to win their favor so their Democratic candidate for governor could win the most recent midterm elections.

Not for nothing, the voters of the so-called Sunshine State are considered 60% far-right, for which they re-elected Ron DeSantis, who is still said unofficially to discuss with Donald Trump the candidacy of the Republican Party for the 2024 presidential elections in the United States.

A little bit nervous, Trump has railed against his opponent, who is always portrayed in a family image, with his wife and his three children, and is characterized by repeatedly mentioning God in his speeches.

So far, no one is interested in who could be his Democratic opponents. So far, President Joe Biden and nine other candidates are the most likely possibilities.

We all know Trump and the American political scientist and intellectual Noam Chomsky has a very strong opinion on him:

“This sounds harsh, but it's true: Trump is the worst criminal in history, hands down. There has never been a figure in political history so passionately devoted to destroying the plans for organized human life on Earth in the near future. This is not an exaggeration."

He has also put the former Republican president ahead of infamous figures in history, including Ponzi racketeer Bernie Madoff, presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, gangster Al Capone, drug lord Pablo Escobar, and serial killer Jack the Ripper.

Meanwhile, the considered richest man in the world and current owner of Twitter, businessman Elon Musk, who had previously supported Biden, assured that this time he would support DeSantis, because he believes he is "sensible and centrist."

CENTRIST? NOT AT ALL

But DeSantis is in no way centrist. He is a faithful follower of the far-right agenda and with only 44, he has proven so already. In his propaganda, he has God on his side, at least as a voiceover. In the announcement that he had been revalidated as governor of Florida, an announcer repeated the name of God 10 times in a minute and a half.

DeSantis is the same as the former president ideologically and different in the rest: cold and of military sobriety.

He practiced as a lawyer at the military base illegally occupied by the United States in the Cuban territory of Guantánamo (2006) and Fallujah, Iraq (2007), and in both hot spots, he advised and protected soldiers in relation to the mistreatment of prisoners. Upon his return home in 2008, he acted as an adviser to active duty military lawyers in the southeast of the country, especially on how to proceed with “sensitive” cases, such as those of soldiers accused of rape. Then, in 2012, he jumped into politics, running for a congressional seat, which he won.

His declared personal net worth is over $300,000. However, his ability to raise campaign funds knows no limits. In the most recent one, he raised $200 million.

He always maintains a distant attitude even with his collaborators. That utter lack of human warmth is often made up for on the campaign by his wife Casey DeSantis, an affable and talkative former television host who often accompanies him at key events.

DeSantis assumed the governorship of Florida in January 2019, and soon after had to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic in a state hard hit by the virus: with nearly a million and a half (1,465,903) confirmed cases and 11,648 deaths.

In this context, DeSantis was criticized for ordering the restrictions lifted before most other districts, and has consistently opposed the mandatory mask usage.

BUT THERE IS MORE

It did not stop there: he banned vaccine passports (even before they were real) and blocked COVID-19 vaccine requirements from private employers, trying to distinguish itself from "lockdown governors" under the guise of protecting the individual rights and liberties.

DeSantis has also delved deep into the curriculum wars in schools, a core element for Republicans.

The Florida education commissioner announced at the beginning of April that 41% of the mathematics textbooks sent were being rejected, because DeSantis affirmed that they included "indoctrination concepts such as racial essentialism."

These measures amount to censorship and lead to the marginalization of the most vulnerable children struggling with identity issues, but cynically, the Florida governor has repeatedly said that his goal is to “protect children.”

In this context, the Florida legislature gave final approval to a series of bills aimed at Disney in April, after weeks of dispute between the company and DeSantis over a new law with clear retrograde overtones that limits classroom discussions about the sexual orientation and gender identity.

On banning critical race theory from the classroom, DeSantis said, “I don't want to teach kids to hate our country. I don't want to teach kids to hate each other and the way to stop discrimination based on race is to stop discriminating based on race."

Likewise, to gain sympathy from those who fear losing their jobs due to competition, he orchestrated flights to transfer migrants from San Antonio, Texas, to Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, without caring that they were not states within his jurisdiction, in support of the Texas Republican Governorate.

This is the man who supported Trump four years ago, but he is also the man who has Trump enraged, to the point that Trump himself has baptized him DeSantis as "Ron DeSanctimonious."

Translated by Sergio A. Paneque Díaz / CubaSí Translation Staff