DeSantis Earned The Boos He Got At Vigil For Slain Blacks

 

After his racist actions as governor of Florida, DeSantis had the audacity to attend a vigil for three slain Blacks killed by a racist. He was not well received. Here is how Ja'han Jones describes it at MSNBC.com:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was loudly booed Sunday while attending a vigil for the three Black people gunned down by a white man at a Jacksonville store the day before.

Through his administration’s assault on inclusive learning plans that may make white students feel uncomfortable, its efforts to dilute Black voter power, its efforts to whitewash racist massacres against Black people and its efforts to tout the purported benefits that slavery afforded Black people, DeSantis has arguably become Florida’s most prominent face of anti-Black rhetoric. 

The governor, who’s vying for the Republican presidential nomination, routinely claims that his state is where “woke” — that is, the term denoting Black consciousness — “goes to die.”

And with that reputation in mind, he was the last person many Black Floridians wanted to hear from after three Black people were killed at a Dollar General store by a shooter who authorities say was motivated by anti-Black hate. . . .

One of the audience members yelled, “Your policies caused this!”

Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., agreed with the icy reception.

“This is the energy needed,” Frost wrote on X. “I understand that some electeds + pastors want ‘unity,’ but folks have to understand that for Gov DeSantis, this is a campaign stop. Don’t let your community be used as a prop. If he wanted to help, he’d do something.”

Another Florida Democrat, state Rep. Angie Nixon, said DeSantis bears some responsibility for the racist hatred. Speaking on MSNBC on Sunday, she characterized the governor’s condemnation of the Jacksonville killings as “hollow statements” and added: “At the end of the day, the governor has blood on his hands.”

“He has had an all-out attack on the Black community with his ‘anti-woke’ policies, which we know very well was nothing more than a dog whistle to get folks up — and riled up — in the way in which it just happened,” said Nixon, whose district includes where the shooting occurred. 

Ironically, the reaction to DeSantis has given him a crash course in critical race theory, an academic framework he has sought to ban in Florida that focuses on the ways racism is interwoven with the nation’s law and institutions.

Understanding that relationship would help explain to DeSantis how he — as an executive who authorizes bigoted laws — is seen as culpable for, or at least permissive of, racist violence in Florida. DeSantis denies the existence of systemic racism, but the reaction to the Jacksonville mass shooting shows he’s a poster boy for it.

Because in many people’s eyes, white supremacy is no different whether you’re operating from the governor’s mansion or aiming a gun. Fundamentally, the goal is the same: to place Black people beneath you.

DeSantis Support Declines As Trump Support Grows

The charts above are from the Yahoo News / YouGov Poll -- done between August 17th and 21st of a nationwide sample of Republicans and Republican leaners. No margin of error was given for just this group.

Trump's Lead Is Growing Over His Opposition

 The chart above is from the Yahoo News / YouGov Poll -- done between May 25th and 30th of a nationwide sample of 1520 adults, with a margin of error of 3.1 point.

New Poll Has Trump With A 33 Point Primary Lead

This chart is from the Morning Consult Poll -- done between April 7th and 9th of a nationwide sample of 3,608 potential Republican primary voters, with a 1-2 point margin of error. 

Trump Extends His Lead Over DeSantis Among GOP Voters

The chart above is from a Morning Consult Poll -- done between March 31st and April 2nd of a nationwide sample of 3,488 Republican primary voters, with a 2 point margin of error.
 

Public Opposes Most Of The DeSantis Agenda

This chart is from a Yahoo / YouGov Poll -- done between March 16th and 20th of a nationwide sample of 1,582 adults, with a 2.7 point margin of error.
 

DeSantis Joins Trump In Supporting Russian Aggression

The following op-ed is by Jennifer Rubin in The Washington Post:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), a probable presidential candidate, has decided that if you can’t beat the pro-Putin wing of the Republican Party, then join them. He declared that Russia’s brutal and unjustified war of aggression against a sovereign Ukraine is actually “a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia” and that protecting Ukraine is not a “vital” national interest of the United States. His implicit agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin that Ukraine has no right to territorial integrity contradicts the view of 140 United Nations member countries and gives oxygen to the Russian propaganda effort. (If Mexico invaded Texas, would it be a “territorial dispute”?) DeSantis’s betrayal of Ukraine (delivered in a statement read on Monday on pro-Putin propagandist Tucker Carlson’s show, no less) is an ominous indication of where DeSantis and the GOP base are heading on the defense of democracy and American foreign policy.

DeSantis has chosen to cast his lot with the crowd that admires Putin’s army as the antithesis of the supposedly “woke” U.S. military. In doing so, DeSantis has simultaneously flip-flopped on a major issue, betrayed a core U.S. national interest (in defending democratic allies against international aggression) and signaled that pro-Putin foreign policy rhetoric is an essential component of a MAGA candidate’s identity.

His move serves to divide the GOP. While MAGA voices in the House get a disproportionate amount of attention, the lion’s share of House and Senate Republicans (especially Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky) strongly endorses support for Ukraine. Sen. Lindsey O. Graham and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie were among the Republicans who slammed DeSantis. Rather than seek to pull together that contingent of Republicans, DeSantis has chosen to out-Trump defeated former president Donald Trump and cozy up to the far right. (By contrast, former vice president Mike Pence and former ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who has announced her presidential candidacy, have reiterated their support for Ukraine.)

DeSantis, like Putin apologist Trump, might have misjudged the party whose nomination he he might seek. The majority of Americans, more than 70 percent, favor our role in the defense of Ukraine, and more than 90 percent have a negative view of Russia. In the 2024 general election, President Biden would love nothing more than to seize the mantle as the defender of strong American foreign policy and leadership, NATO solidarity, and protection of democracy, thereby attracting support from many independents and even the traditional, hawkish wing of the GOP exemplified by figures such as former congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) (who bashed DeSantis for forgetting “the lessons of Ronald Reagan”). In other words, DeSantis is doubling down on the Trump strategy of ingratiating himself with the core MAGA base at the expense of alienating the rest of the electorate.

DeSantis did not always sound this way. CNN reports: “As a conservative congressman, DeSantis, now a potential presidential hopeful, urged sending ‘defensive and offensive’ weapons to Ukraine in 2014 and 2015 and even voted to refuse to fund a new missile defense treaty with Russia until they withdrew from Ukraine.” But that position apparently did not mesh with his current self-image as a cultural warrior, primarily concerned with “wokeness" (which many see as a cover for racism, xenophobia and homophobia). DeSantis is setting himself up for the accusation that he is too unsteady to be commander in chief.

DeSantis might have miscalculated the appetite for MAGA extremism (just as polling in deep-red Florida shows opposition to a six-week abortion ban and attacks on higher education). Even worse, in his willingness to throw Ukraine into the jaws of the Russian bear, DeSantis gives Putin hope that if he can hold out beyond the 2024 U.S. presidential election, the West’s united front will crumble. When it is imperative to convince Russia that its war is hopeless, DeSantis’s declaration — purely for domestic political advantage — has undercut efforts to accelerate Russian capitulation. Only when Putin is convinced that the West will remain united, whatever the outcome of future elections, will he be convinced to give up on his dream of conquest. As Cheney said, “Weakness is provocative and American officials who advocate this type of weakness are Putin’s greatest weapon.”

Other Republican presidential contenders would be wise to differentiate themselves from DeSantis’s and Trump’s pandering to pro-Putin MAGA Republicans. If Haley, Pence and others want to stand out from the crowd and undercut the poll leaders’ position, calling them out for defeatism, weakness and fecklessness on national security would be an ideal place to start.

DeSantis (& GOP) Are Keeping Racism Alive In The U.S.

The following post is by Dan Rather and Elliot Kirschner:

Much of American history is entangled with racism and white supremacy. That is the reality of our beloved nation, no matter how much we wish it were not.

 

As we sit here nearly a quarter of the way through the 21st century, it is obvious that we need to have the maturity to look back to our past as well as ahead to the future. Can we do this with our eyes wide open? Will we study and learn from the lessons of history? 

You can't grapple with the truth if you hide it from view. Yes, our national narrative is an inspiring one — of freedom, rights, and new opportunities. But it is also a narrative of pain — of the bondage, rape, and murder of enslaved people. It is a story of mass death, broken treaties, and land stolen from Native people. And it is a story of persecution of the “other,” time and again.

The chasm between the noble promises of our founding documents and our historical realities continues to obstruct our national journey toward a more perfect union.

Yes, ours is a country that has facilitated exploration, innovation, and growth, but it is also one built upon families torn apart at the auction block, bodies whipped, and police dogs and fire hoses set against children. 

Cities were redlined. Public schools were segregated. And despite our carefully cultivated national image as a meritocracy, throughout our history we have seen talent overlooked and our common humanity diminished on account of people’s race, gender, religion, and sexual orientation. 

The ripples of injustice continue to destabilize our society.

 

It shouldn’t be controversial to say any of this. But acknowledging these truths today is a political act, because it threatens the privileged narratives of those who seek to sugarcoat our past. These are men and women who serve their own ambitions by fortifying their cynical holds on power, delighting in division, feeding off fear, and applauding anger.

And that brings us to Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis.

Listing all of his efforts to leverage the power of his office to attack equity, empathy, and justice would stretch this post immeasurably. But doing so would also jeopardize the central point: DeSantis is an opportunist. He is not weighing the merits of any one campaign. Rather, he wants headlines as a culture warrior standing up to “wokeness,” a term he has eagerly redefined to suit his own purposes. It allows him to sneer at and dismiss any attempt to reckon with American injustice. 

DeSantis has focused his assaults on two of our society's most traditionally marginalized groups: Black Americans and the LGBTQ community. While these populations have thus far felt the brunt of his targeting, we need to see clearly that his rhetoric is a threat to all who care about a democratic, peaceful, empathetic, and just America. Those of us with the greatest privilege should bear a special burden in rejecting this hate. 

DeSantis’s pugilism has enabled him to consolidate power in Florida. Any opposition to his toxic initiatives must contend with the uncomfortable truth that voters validated his message and style via his landslide win in November. Now DeSantis thinks he can take his show on the road with a presidential bid. That remains to be seen. Florida has been trending Republican in recent years, and success there might not translate to the current battleground states, many of which saw big Democratic wins in the midterms.

 

All that being said, there is a great danger to framing this struggle primarily through the lens of electoral politics. This normalizes a discourse that should be rejected by society’s mainstream. Just as the outright bigotry of the past became socially unacceptable, so too should these latest attempts at divisiveness.

 

It should not surprise us that DeSantis is making schools — both K-12 and college — a central target. He wants to teach a distorted view of America. He wants to make dissenting speech not only suspect but even criminal. He wants to silence the voices of his critics and of critical thinking more generally. This is a playbook that has been followed by demagogues before to very dangerous ends. 

It is essential that DeSantis not be covered by the press through a false equivalence paradigm. We can debate what we should teach and how to teach it. But we can’t replace the truth, as unsavory as it may be, with sanitized narratives that suit those already in power. This is a battle for the minds of the voters of the future. This is about what kind of nation we will become. 

But DeSantis primarily cares about what kind of country we are now. He wants to appeal to fear because he thinks he can mine that fear for votes. That is his game plan. And he’s not hiding it. There can be no appeasement. DeSantis has already shown that he isn’t interested in deliberations or good faith compromise. Those would disrupt his approach of means to an end.

History illustrates that hatred can be taught, but so can empathy and justice. We are on a winding journey as a nation. And we have much farther to go. But we have made progress in the face of bigots and autocrats because people had the courage to forge the inequities of our past into a more equitable future.

 

This history, this truth, is what scares people like DeSantis the most. But it is one that can give us hope if we are determined not to look away.

Trump Has Support Of 37% Of GOP For 2024 Race

The chart is from a recent University of Massachusetts Amherst Poll -- done between January 5th and 9th of a nationwide sample of 1,000 Republicans, with a 3.55 point margin of error.
 

What Republicans Currently Think About Trump/DeSantis

 The chart above is from the Morning Consult Poll -- done between December 10th and 14th of a nationwide sample of 667 Republican voters, with a 4 point margin of error. It shows the current status of a Trump and DeSantis match-up for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.

Don't Believe It! DeSantis Is Not A Centrist or Sensible!

Some Republicans, those who want to move past Donald Trump, are trying to paint DeSantis as a centrist and a sensible choice. Don't buy that fallacious argument. DeSantis is every bit as bad as Trump.

Here is how Frank Bruni puts it in The New York Times:

Elon Musk is a geyser of gibberish, so it’s important not to make too much of anything he says. But a recent Twitter thread of his deserved the attention it got, if not for the specific detail on which most journalists focused.

They led with Musk’s statement that he would support a Ron DeSantis candidacy for the presidency in 2024. That obviously disses one Donald Trump, though it should come as no surprise: Magnates like Musk typically cling to the moment’s shiniest toys, and DeSantis, fresh off his re-election, is a curiously gleaming action figure.

But how Musk framed his attraction to the Florida governor was revealing — and troubling. He expressed a desire for a candidate who’s “sensible and centrist,” implying that DeSantis is both.

In what universe? He’s “sensible and centrist” only by the warped yardsticks of Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Kari Lake and the like. But those yardsticks will be used frequently as various Republicans join the 2024 fray. And therein lies real danger.

Trump’s challengers will be defined in relation to him, casting them in a deceptively flattering light. They’ll be deemed steady because he’s not, on the ball because he’s out to lunch, enlightened because they don’t sup with Holocaust deniers. They’ll be realists to his fantasist, institutionalists to his nihilist, preservationists to his arsonist.

None of those descriptions will be true. Some will be persuasive nonetheless.

That dynamic is already doing wonders for DeSantis as he flies high over a very low bar. “Look!” say Republicans eager to take back the White House. “It’s Superman!” Hardly. But his promoters are hoping that the shadow of Trump produces such an optical illusion. . . .

It is not normal to release a campaign ad, as DeSantis did last month, that explicitly identifies you as someone created and commanded by God to pursue the precise political agenda that you’re pursuing. Better words for that include “messianic,” “megalomaniacal” and “delusional.”

It is not sensible to open a new state office devoted to election crimes when there is scant evidence of any need for it. That is called “pandering.” It is also known as a “stunt.”

It is not centrist to have a key aide who tweeted that anyone who opposed the “Don’t Say Gay” education law in Florida was “probably a groomer or at least you don’t denounce the grooming of 4-8 year old children.” Those were the words of Christina Pushaw, who was then DeSantis’s press secretary and “transformed the governor’s state messaging office into a hyperpartisan extension of his political efforts,” as Matt Dixon noted in Politico, adding that she “used the position to regularly pick public fights with reporters on social media, amplify right-wing media outlets and conservative personalities and attack individuals who oppose or challenge DeSantis.”

DeSantis’s response to her derisive and divisive antics? He made her the “rapid response director” for his re-election campaign. Because that’s the normal, sensible, centrist thing to do.

DeSantis used his power as governor to punish Disney for daring to dissent from his political views. He used migrants as political pawns and sent two planes full of them to Martha’s Vineyard. He pushed for an extreme gerrymander in Florida that marginalized minority voters. He’s a darling of the National Rifle Association.

And the signature line from his stump speech is that Florida is “where woke goes to die.” I’m with him on the destructiveness of peak wokeness, but base-camp wokeness has some lessons and virtues, which a sensible centrist might acknowledge and reflect on. Can’t Florida be where woke goes to decompress in the sun and surf and re-emerge in more relaxed form?

DeSantis himself might currently reject the labels that Musk gave him: It’s the right-wing-warrior side that promises to propel him most forcefully through the primaries, should he enter them. But he or any nominee not named Trump would likely segue to the general election by flashing shades of moderation.

In DeSantis’s case, there’d be chatter galore about his 19-point re-election victory as proof of his appeal’s breadth. But another Republican, Senator Marco Rubio, won re-election in Florida by sixteen points, suggesting that forces beyond DeSantis’s dubiously pan-partisan magnetism were in play. And Florida is redder than it used to be.

The extremists and conspiracists so prevalent in today’s Republican Party have distorted the frame for everyone else, permitting the peddling of DeSantis as some paragon of reason. Be savvier than Musk. Don’t buy it.

Biden Leads Both Trump And DeSantis In An Early Poll

These charts reflect the results of a new Marquette University Law School Poll -- done between January 10th and 21st of a nationwide sample of 1,000 adults, with a 4 point margin of error.

COVID Hospitalizations For Children Is At A Record Level

While ignoring the COVID pandemic, Donald Trump told Americans that young people, especially children, didn't get the disease. That was a lie, but it seems to be a lie that is still being put forward by right-wing Republican politicians.

As school is starting across the country, many schools want to mandate that their students (and teachers) wear a mask. That is a reasonable action. Consider the chart above. It shows that not only can children get sick with COVID, but many require hospitalization -- and those child hospitalizations have reached a record level nationwide.

But in spite of the virus raging across the country, many red-state governors are banning mask requirements in schools (or anywhere else). This is especially true of Gov. Abbott in Texas and Gov. DeSatis in Florida. Both have issued edicts that say schools cannot have a mask mandate.

They did this in spite of the fact that their own states are experiencing record child hospitalizations due to the Coronavirus (especially the Delta variant). They do this to please their extremist base. Evidently, playing politics is more important to them that saving the lives of children in their states.