Florida Governor/possible presidential hopeful/budding fascist Ron DeSantis came to my state of Pennsylvania – among others -- recently to attend some campaign events and to try out his culture war bullshit act on the road.
In his four years as governor DeSantis has shown himself to be a would-be dictator willing to not only use the power of the state to punish those who don’t agree with him, but to push his backward-thinking ideology onto the public.
In the small picture, DeSantis is Florida’s problem. If there aren’t enough voters there who see this clown for what he is then they deserve what they get.
But in the big picture, DeSantis is still another example of a Republican Party trying to find a way to make people forget that it has no policies, no answers to our most pressing issues, no interest in anyone but its rich individual and corporate donors, and no desire in governing for the greater good.
While false claims of socialism against Democrats and a red-hot hatred for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi remain staples of the GOP’s miscommunication efforts, DeSantis and others have grasped the concept of wokeness as still another way to try to pull the wool over the public’s eye.
What is being woke, anyway? What does that even mean? Well, it’s defined as being “alert to injustice in society, especially racism.”
Why is that a problem? Why have Republicans fashioned a complete line of attack against such a thing? It’s not hard to do when you don’t value the truth and don’t care about the harm your lies can do to other people.
Do Democrats go too far sometimes? Probably. But on the other hand, it’s hard for the Republicans to go too far when they don’t do anything in the first place.
Think about this for a second. Even if you don’t agree with everything the Democrats do, at least they’re trying to do something. Things like helping those in need, addressing climate change, and making our tax and voting systems fairer. You know, governing.
When the Republicans look across the aisle and see what a party with an agenda actually looks like, all they can think of are lies and personal attacks designed to divide our country more and gin up their base with anger and hatred in the hope that will make more of them show up at the polls.
DeSantis has gleefully promoted the red meat culture war issues in an effort to win over the party’s base. Hate and fear of the other are pretty powerful things. They’d have to be for the GOP’s diversionary plan to work. Their game is right there in plain sight.
Even a dog wants a treat when it follows a command. Republicans want their base to vote for them even though they get back nothing in return.
Of course, part of DeSantis’s shtick is smearing Joe Biden – the president who has accomplished more in two years than former President/DeSantis role model Donald Trump did in four, all without running around pointing at imaginary boogeymen and engaging in other divisive activities.
No wonder DeSantis doesn’t like him. Biden is everything the GOP isn’t – a man of compassion and sanity who gets things done. Getting things done? To Republicans that’s the hard way of accomplishing their only goal – win at all costs.
The easy way is what they’re doing right now. The question is will enough of us see through their smoke and mirrors to understand the disaster awaiting our country if the GOP gets back in charge.
As quoted earlier, DeSantis said “the state of Florida is where woke goes to die.” Actually, the state of Florida is where a lot of people go to die. That’s a sad reality
Another sad reality is what a catastrophe it will be if the trumped-up culture wars of DeSantis and his fellow Republicans turn out to be why our democracy dies.
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Thank you for reading my post. You can see my other writings on my blog: Musings of a Nobody.