I don’t consider myself an adult Ronald Reagan fans, but I’m willing to give credit when credit is due.
President Reagan is a policy maker. (It doesn’t matter that I disagree with the wisdom and effectiveness of many of his policies.) He had big ideas about how to fight communism and grow the economy. He was a traditional conservative: shrink government and cut it out of the lives of the American people. He understood that politics is the art of compromise. He worked throughout to pass bipartisan legislation on taxes, immigration and social security.
And while it is often left out of the Reagan lore, he even raised taxes in later years after his massive 1981 tax cuts resulted in a growing budget deficit—an example of Reagan being a realist despite its contradictions. contradicts his image of tax cuts. As a former actor (and perhaps a former Democrat), Reagan had to work hard to show voters that he was a serious public policy thinker, not just an artist. stage performer.
Time has changed. Join Ron DeSantis: Florida governor and presidential candidate who reduced management to performance art.
He’s the newest star on the Republican screen, and his recent fictional portrayal of a real-life statesman is worthy of criticism at a time when our politics has blurred the lines. between technique and reality. DeSantis has mastered the Art of Trump. He represents the latest paradigm of the reality TV politician—full of political stunts but no serious policy.
DeSantis became nationally known as governor of what he called “free Florida.” But that freedom is an illusion, and it hides the failures that lie beneath the surface while Floridian rights are taken away.
For starters, DeSantis’ national profile has grown tremendously during the COVID pandemic, but in reality, he’s taken on two different roles in that production: initially: he closed businesses and schools, and he set up highway and airport checkpoints to monitor travelers entering Florida. He then went to the opposite extreme: lifting similar restrictions and intervening in autonomous cities as they tackle the pandemic.
“DeSantis became nationally known as governor of what he called ‘free Florida’. But that freedom is an illusion…“
Changing one’s approach to COVID based on emerging data is certainly defensible, but DeSantis’ policy is largely a political game and inflammatory rhetoric, from convening a statewide grand jury to “investigate” the vaccine, to hiring a controversial doctor, who went viral, as a surgeon. Medical theory of vaccines. DeSantis even Calling for Dr. Anthony Fauci to be thrown at the Potomac.
As part of his act, DeSantis bragged about Florida’s economic success and the state’s budget surplus but ignored the inconvenient fact that federal stimulus dollars — which he criticized — helped fund for it.
Supporters describe him as a warrior—one who doesn’t back down from tough challenges. But in reality, DeSantis is afraid of difficulties questionHe rarely gives interviews to most media outlets except for far-right softball journalists, and he often refuses to answer reporters during press conferences.
DeSantis’ favorite theatrical routine is fanning the flames of culture war: passing a six-week abortion ban, anti-wake laws (whatever that means), and so-called “wake-up” laws. Don’t say gay”; attack Disney, Special Olympics and social media companies; suspend twice-elected prosecutor; and transported the emigrants from Texas to Massachusetts while bluntly claiming that it was somehow done to protect the Floridian people.
Many of the controversial laws he supported were deemed unconstitutional; Others are still being challenged in court. A federal judge introduced his “Stop WOKE Act,” calling it “positive backward.”
Another federal judge found that he violated both state and federal law by suspending me from my position as Tampa’s local prosecutor for public and political reasons.
None of that seemed significant to DeSantis, who uttered these so-called achievements in cryptic speeches, despite the fact that they were found to infringe on his freedoms. by the basic of the citizen that he took an oath to protect his rights.
DeSantis’ willingness to violate people’s constitutional rights to win headlines (or a primetime Fox News interview) is scary, but the real danger is that he’s undercut the main discourse. serious treatment into public policy is the equivalent of a class clown.
DeSantis graduated from Harvard and Yale – a guy smart enough to know better, but acting like a fool. Governance deals with complex issues of public policy. It requires identifying problems, developing and implementing solutions, making difficult choices, explaining those choices to your constituents, and being honest about your successes and failures. Friend. DeSantis built his political career by doing the opposite.
As a member of Congress for six years — during his Republican majority in the House of Representatives — the only piece of legislation DeSantis authored that became law was a one-sentence amendment to the bill. The 2018 allocation prohibits the Department of Defense from purchasing heavy water from Iran. That might be a reasonable adjustment, but it’s not exactly “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” in its ambition.
As governor, his legislative victories were mostly on culture wars issues that invigorated his establishment, but had minimal impact on the table issues that most most Floridians as well as most Americans care.
The microscope of a presidential campaign will lift the curtain on who DeSantis is and what he has (and hasn’t) done. I’m not sure if the specter of DeSantis’ presidency would bring President Reagan back to life, but Gipper would certainly agree that these are serious times for serious leaders—not serious leaders. must be for guys who pretend to only play them on TV.
Andrew Warren was elected State Attorney for Hillsborough County, Florida in 2016 and re-elected in 2020. In August 2022, Warren was unlawfully suspended by Governor Ron DeSantis for speaking out. against laws that criminalize abortion and discriminate against transgender Americans—a federal court found the suspension violated the U.S. and Florida Constitutions but said it lacked authority to restore him. Warren’s legal battle against DeSantis is still ongoing.
