Going to War With the Mouse
Has power and ambition gone to Ron DeSantis' head?
In Woody Allen’s 1971 film Bananas, Allen’s character travels to a small Latin American country to join a revolution led by a Fidel Castro-like figure, Esposito. When the revolution succeeds, Esposito addresses a crowd and gives a deranged speech:
I am reminded of this scene when I take note of the actions of Ron DeSantis, the pugnacious Republican governor of Florida. DeSantis is up for reelection this year but it’s obvious he has set his sights on bigger things. He is often described in the media as a possible Presidential candidate in 2024 with the caveat “if Trump doesn’t run”. To that end, he engages in attention-seeking behavior, no doubt to increase his national visibility. And some of this behavior is more performative than it is good governance.
For starters, DeSantis, like many current Republicans, is shameless in his pursuit of the support of the GOP’s Trumpist base. For that reason, his approach to governing- you know, the job he was elected to do- is sometimes reduced to either pushing policies that pander to that base or cheesy political stunts calculated to gin up support. DeSantis, a Yale and Harvard Law product, is certainly no dummy, so it’s believable that the surly persona he likes to display- he’s had journalists who annoyed him removed from press conferences- is a cynical approach rooted in the belief that politics is the process of gaining and maintaining power. In a state where the electorate is close to evenly divided between the Republicans and Democrats, DeSantis has the luxury of a Republican ‘trifecta’- the GOP controls both houses of the state legislature as well as the governorship.
With an approval rating of 58 percent and comfortable polling margins over his likely Democratic opponents (Charlie Crist and Nikki Fried), DeSantis likes to wield this power ruthlessly. The kerfuffle over redistricting is a prime example. Florida had already gained one additional seat in the House of Representatives as a result of the 2020 census. DeSantis wanted to gerrymander the new electoral map to ensure Republican dominance. When the legislature presented a redistricting plan that wasn’t to his liking, he vetoed it. To end the impasse, the legislative leaders capitulated to DeSantis and agreed to accept a map he drew up. In a special session today, the legislature passed DeSantis’ map that redraws the boundaries of three districts with large black populations that had voted for Democrats. The consequence is an inevitable gain of 4 seats for the Republicans and a loss of 3 for the Democrats. Let’s be honest: DeSantis brought a bulldozer to a knife fight.
But it is in the culture wars that DeSantis is making an all-out effort to paint himself as the Ivy League-educated version of Donald Trump. Last week he signed into law a bill that would prohibit abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy without exemptions for rape, incest, or human trafficking. Florida is the latest state to enact this type of legislation that is modeled after a Mississippi law enacted last year. The Supreme Court heard the challenge in the Mississippi late last year. A decision is expected by the end of the SCOTUS term.
This was not the only chunk of red meat DeSantis tossed to the the right-wing this year. In March he signed the Parental Rights in Education bill- the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill. This law bars public school teachers from teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity in K-3rd grade classes. In a related development this past Friday, the Florida Department of Education rejected 54 out of 132 math textbooks “because they incorporate prohibited topics or unsolicited strategies, including CRT [Critical Race Theory]”. DeSantis praised the Department’s action, accusing the publishers of attempting to “indoctrinate” students.
The “Don’t Say Gay” law also started a kerfuffle with the Walt Disney Company, Florida's largest private employer. After DeSantis signed the bill, Disney released a statement making clear its goal was to get the law repealed or see it defeated in the courts. Under pressure from employees opposed to the anti-LBGTQ measure, CEO Bob Chapek also announced the company would no longer make political contributions in the state, this after a decades-long history of large donations, especially to Republicans, including DeSantis. Disney’s public stand quickly drew the Governor’s ire. After weeks of insinuating that Disney could have its special district status that effectively allows it to operate as an independent government (providing fire and police services, etc.) around its theme parks outside Orlando, DeSantis challenged the legislature to actually rescind the company’s special district status in the special session. Today, the State Senate took the first step by passing a bill to dissolve Disney’s special district. The bill now goes to the House.
Presenting himself as a bully in the Trump mold may not be the shrewdest tactic. Going to war with Disney could be counter-productive. Rescinding the company's special district status will impact the counties the Disney property straddles as they would be forced to provide all the services currently provided by the company and would need to increase property taxes to do so. The risk DeSantis is taking is that, in retaliating against Disney, he may inflict pain on the tourism industry and business in the Orlando area. Nice play, Governor Shakespeare!
Is going to war with a global corporation a miscalculation on DeSantis’ part? He might have chosen to not react to Disney’s statements and let it fade from the news cycle in our short attention span society. After all, his reelection looks like a solid win: he is leading his closest potential Democratic opponents by comfortable margins. More impressively, he’s collected $100 million in campaign donations, apparently a record in gubernatorial races.
Or, like President Esposito of San Marcos, perhaps power has gone to his head.
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Disney World is a set of parks with cast members performing for audiences. Workers are really called 'cast members'. So this is intense immersive entertainment, a business field that attracts LGBTQ people in abundance. So Disney employees have apparently made it known to managers that they aren't thrilled with anti-gay rhetoric and actions by Gov. DeSantis that impact them and their families including fellow workers, gay or not. So DeSantis, knowing this and seeing it from Disney's reversal of policy from silence to outspoken opposing of new laws must now punish his opponents, as corporations and workers, and he has. The Governor has passed legislation to stop Disney World from acting as it's own corporate city, meaning self-governance, self-policing and self-emergency/protective services.
At the same time DeSantis realizes how much corporate money transfers from Disney corporate and management coffers to conservative and radical Republicans as campaign donations. So the new law doesn't take effect for over a year, which conveniently is past the next Florida gubernatorial election. Disney thus has enough time to grovel and repent sufficiently to prevent losing its privileged status in the state.
But there's a larger issue here that remains unspoken, or at least unpublished. As the largest employer in Florida, in central Florida, in concentrated Democratic households around Orlando, Disney is being chastised first to bring a large international corporation to heel in the Republican pantheon of donors in Florida and nationwide. Extreme Republicans cannot brook any wandering of their money pots like Disney is in this state. Then much opposition to Republican wacky dominance of Florida (and nation) as power grabbers without portfolio can be shown by oppressing the Mickey Mouse, and icon easily seen as a cartoon character rather than a set of individual donors. Punish the Mouse in lieu of naming names and alienating check-writing people in central Florida. But any oppression of Disney World by stripping away self-governance punishes surrounding cities, counties and their deviant (from Republicanism) opponents, many of them majority Democratic governed or ruled by Democrats. So de-incorporating 'city-Disney World' means surrounding taxpayers and governing bodies must pay for services Disney provides a large area near Orlando via tourist dollars. This could mean millions more in taxes for nearby Democratic households to pay for support services now paid by Disney itself--a big financial blow to DeSantis political opponents. Never mind that there are Republicans nearby; extreme hard right politicians like the governor are never concerned with 'friendly fire' hurting their supporters.
So like the entertainment world, called Disney in this case, not all is what it seems. Highlighting Disney as DeSantis is doing is gas-lighting a well-known entity and employees with oppressive legislation--that may or may not become effective after election time. Even if DeSantis is not re-elected, there's little chance the legislature will turn Republican, so those onerous laws can still be allowed to initiate punishment of Democratic majority central Florida. It's Machiavellian either way, a hallmark post-Trump presidency of ultra-conservative politics. Does anyone want to elect or re-elect hard right executives or legislators who manipulate the law for authoritarian rule. Do you want to vote Republican and support dictators like DeSantis? Is this Republican-style 'freedom', the word the governor ballyhooed at his February Rodeo speech in Orlando suburb Kissimmee that garnered unbridled cheering, picture taking and right wing politicking from mostly cowboys and their families. We'll see this next election.
An insider's take on DeSantis v Disney:
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/518189-rick-wilson-the-battle-of-reedy-creek/