Kissing Your Political Advantage Goodbye

 

Kissing Your Political Advantage Goodbye

Ron DeSantis’ Lesson Plan

“People are like ... ‘What should we do with this land?... Maybe create a state park.

Maybe try to do more amusement parks. Someone even said, like,

‘Maybe you need another state prison.’ Who knows?... The possibilities are endless,

and so that is now gonna be analyzed to see what would make the most sense.”

Florida Mega-MAGA Governor, Ron DeSantis at a mid-April news conference speaking about the land surrounding Disney World.

The king of the culture wars, Florida’s Ron DeSantis, is about to be termed out as Florida’s governor. He was sort of counting on running for president… and somewhere in the back of his mind, this former House member, maybe viewed a Senate seat as a fallback. However, his “anti-woke” message is wearing thin, he is failing sufficiently to counter Trump’s direct hits against him, and his actions aren’t winning him any new friends. Skulking off to sign his 6-week antiabortion bill at 11 PM behind closed (and camera free) doors, DeSantis faces angry polls of women voters that are drawing a line in the sand… and DeSantis is on the wrong side of that line.

What’s worse for DeSantis is that by crafting a long-term, binding agreement with the board that rules Disney’s region, just before DeSantis puppets took over, Disney shut down DeSantis’ efforts to muzzle and control the Mouse House. DeSantis looked like a fool, the biggest loser, but he will not let go of decimating Disney for backing their LGBTQ+ employees in strongly opposing the “Don’t Say Gay” centerpiece of DeSantis’ anti-“woke” legislation. Business leaders who have supported DeSantis in the past see these moves as interfering in corporate matters – bad for business, creating instability in corporate governance. It just may be too late for DeSantis to undo his obvious mistakes.

“A top Republican mega-donor says he is holding off on financially backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) ahead of his widely expected presidential bid, citing his policies on a number of social issues in the state… ‘Because of his stance on abortion and book banning . . . myself, and a bunch of friends, are holding our powder dry,’ Thomas Peterffy, a billionaire businessman who is a notable GOP donor, told the Financial Times… The businessman previously backed DeSantis’s 2018 gubernatorial campaign and the Financial Times reported Peterffy had said earlier this year he was looking forward to supporting a White House campaign from DeSantis.” The Hill, April 17th. Peterffy is just one of many from the business world who have pulled back from providing campaign funding for DeSantis’ obvious, but not yet formally announced, run for the GOP nomination.

DeSantis stumbled earlier this year when he bought into GOP extremists’ questioning our support of Ukraine in its war against the Russian invasion. The backlash from mainstream GOP leaders in Congress served as notice that the Florida governor lacked sufficient foreign policy knowledge to be remotely effective in that arena. But taking a lesson from Trump’s proclivity to double down when challenged, DeSantis’ ill-conceived efforts to mimic that strategy with his Disney failure only served to underscore his fading popularity with those needed to fund any going-forward election campaign for any office. Was DeSantis shooting himself in the foot or points north? Recent poll numbers show Trump moving far ahead of DeSantis, and the governor’s plunging popularity suggests that even if Trump is somehow not the GOP nominee for president, DeSantis is anything but a shoo-in to replace him.

DeSantis’ feud with Disney is emblematic of the problems with his efforts to censor books, change school lesson plans, and hold companies responsible for anything that smacks of opposing his culture war. Writing for the April 18th Los Angeles Times, Brian Contreras explains: “DeSantis’ feud stems from Disney’s public opposition to Florida’s so-called ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law, which last year banned education on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade. DeSantis is pushing to expand the prohibition to all grades.

“After Disney’s chief executive at the time, Bob Chapek, voiced opposition to the bill, DeSantis began trying to strip the mega-corporation of the self-governance that its Walt Disney World resort has enjoyed in Central Florida for decades… DeSantis signed legislation in late February that would allow the state to take control of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which operated as Disney’s de facto private government for the area containing its theme parks and resort complex.

“DeSantis hand-picked members for the district’s new board, filling it with cultural conservatives and political allies — only to learn that the outgoing Reedy Creek supervisors had preemptively undercut the state’s power with a development deal, giving the House of Mouse authority until at least 21 years past the death of the last surviving descendant of King Charles III… DeSantis, as expected, is looking to challenge the legitimacy of Disney’s maneuver.

“‘They thought that they could create some type of development agreements that would essentially render everything that we did null and void, and put them in control in perpetuity,’ DeSantis said during his news conference. ‘Well, that’s not gonna work. That’s not gonna fly.’.. DeSantis cited ‘a plethora of legal infirmities’ in the Disney agreement and said a bill set to be introduced in Florida’s state legislature will revoke the deal and make sure that ‘the people’s will is established and is upheld.’”

You have to wonder what Governor Ron remembers from Harvard Law School. His threats are not judicial rulings, and he has not risen to be America’s chief autocrat who can issue dictates. Whatever efforts he may mount, the matter will probably still be in the courts until long after DeSantis leaves his gubernatorial office… or perhaps any elected office. In the meantime, it seems the more he speaks, the more essential supporters he alienates.

I’m Peter Dekom, and people who play high stakes games often wind up as the biggest losers.