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The DeSantis Dilemma: Your Thoughts

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The DeSantis Dilemma: Your Thoughts

Many readers chime in on the governor of Florida.

Andrew Sullivan
Jul 22, 2022
27
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The DeSantis Dilemma: Your Thoughts

andrewsullivan.substack.com
Governor DeSantis speaks while meeting with President Trump in the Oval Office on April 28, 2020. Trump met with DeSantis to discuss ways that Florida is planning to gradually re-open the state in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Getty Images)

A reader dissents:

Thanks for the interesting piece on DeSantis and Trump. I basically agree with your reaction to the woke movement, but I find it overwrought (which is actually one of your charms as a writer). I think that you consistently overstate the influence and effects of wokeness. But that is a matter for another day.  

Where I think you miss the mark on DeSantis is less about policy (which I agree is rather more moderate than often reported, albeit wrong on the merits), than character. He and Trump I think are fundamentally alike in this respect: they are bullies motivated almost entirely by personal grievances and resentments. They are not in public life to try and help anyone, like Joe Biden is, however fecklessly.

The reason that DeSantis should not become president is because, like Trump, his first response to any challenge is a malicious lashing out. Off the top of my head, examples are: (1) the performative but substantively moronic response to Disney, (2) when he bullied the Special Olympics (of all groups!) into abandoning its vaccine mandate, and (3) when he hectored college kids at a cybersecurity event in Tampa into removing their masks:

As far as the Special Olympics saga, below is the response from DeSantis so you can decide for yourself whether it was the right move:

Twitter avatar for @BrendonLeslie
Brendon Leslie @BrendonLeslie
BREAKING: @RonDeSantisFL responds to Gavin Newsom’s comments calling him a “bully” in an exclusive interview with @FLVoiceNews “This is a guy [Newsom] that locked people down, that kept kids out of school”
4:12 PM ∙ Jul 19, 2022
7,292Likes1,940Retweets

Sorry, but I honestly don’t see anything that awful about either of these clips. Maybe it’s subjective. I reserve judgment on his character. We will soon have much more evidence to measure that.

Another reader runs through the many reasons he dislikes DeSantis:

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