Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is “far more dangerous than Trump,” according to some commentators. He’s “scarier” than Trump. A DeSantis presidency would be “more terrifying” than Trump’s.
“Just Wait Until You Get to Know Ron DeSantis” Mark Leibovich of The Atlantic ominously writes. Indeed, when the left can only sputter about DeSantis being worse than Trump, you know that the GOP just might have someone who can win in 2024.
DeSantis’s most quoted line from his inaugural address is “Florida is the place woke goes to die.” That’s a message that would play well nationally. According to The Spectator, “An October Harvard-Harris poll found that 64 percent of Americans and 52 percent of Democrats blamed ‘woke politicians’ for the recent increase in violent crime, while 77 percent of Americans said it was very or somewhat important to ‘stop the teaching of woke ideologies in schools.’”
Related: Governor Ron DeSantis Leaves the Inaugural Stage—and One Group Is Ready to Draft Him for 2024
Of course, it’s not just that DeSantis has been visibly battling woke schools and woke corporations. As writer Dave Seminara points out, DeSantis wants to sell Florida’s style of governance to blue America.
In his speech, DeSantis spoke of our federalist constitutional system as a “laboratory of democracy” where states can test governing philosophies, arguing that his have worked. The proof, he said, was in what he called the “mass exodus of productive Americans” from blue states, just as he warned four years ago. The demographic trend is undeniable and, as a resident of Florida, I would love to see our state be a model for governance. But selling Florida as a model of freedom or anything else will require a serious de-programming effort akin to the sort of re-education program South Koreans will have to do in the North when the Kim dynasty falls.
Media figures, celebrities, and other woke types view Florida as a dystopian nightmare. A growing number of Americans distrust the media, but influencers are sadly still, well, influential. The only way to break through to independents and wavering Democrats is to have them visit our state and see things for themselves.
There are so many misconceptions about the state of Florida and Gov. DeSantis that perhaps the best way to vanquish the myths and lies of left-wing media is to make it public policy to subsidize trips to the Sunshine State.
In DeSantis’s first term, he shipped migrants to Martha’s Vineyard. In his second term — assuming he runs for president — his campaign should spend part of their budget on free or subsidized trips to Florida to help de-program brainwashed Americans. Some of the blue-state visitors we entertained at my home in St. Pete during the early phases of the pandemic expected to find dead bodies piling up in the streets and were delighted to discover that this wasn’t the case.
Americans who believe the media narrative that Florida is a place of book banning will be delighted to find whatever books they desire in our bookshops. Those who think our GOP-led state is one of environmental degradation will be surprised how pristine our beaches and state parks are. Hapless media consumers from other states should also visit cities like mine — where buses are rainbow-covered and the Pride parade is by far the biggest party of the year — so they can see that the media narrative about Florida being hostile to gays is ludicrous.
During the height of the pandemic, where did radical Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez go with her boyfriend to get away from Washington?
You guessed it. Florida.
We’re glad AOC is enjoying the Sunshine State. Hopefully she will learn a thing or two about the importance of freedom!https://t.co/5E4kYoyToZ
— Florida GOP (@FloridaGOP) December 31, 2021
The narrative about DeSantis will be hard to change. But the state he governs may help with that, as the Florida economy continues to boom and blue-state residents continue to move to the Sunshine state to experience a kind of freedom they are unaware of.
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