Florida voters ate up his war on ‘woke.’ DeSantis 2.0 will unleash even more | Opinion
Republicans running Florida’s state government devoted much of their political capital over the past year to targeting drag queen shows and complaining that too many young people are coming out of the closet. They have rallied parents against classroom topics that, by most accounts, public school schools aren’t teaching, like “gender ideology” and “critical race theory,” a complex academic theory that has morphed into anything that makes white people feel blamed for racism.
Voters saw the racial and homophobic attacks and essentially said, “We want more.” They gave Republicans a super majority in the Legislature and a landslide reelection to Gov. Ron DeSantis.
And more of it they will likely get.
As DeSantis said, after his resounding victory, “Florida is where woke goes to die.” It’s also where one single, myopic world view will likely continue to be enshrined into law when lawmakers convene in Tallahassee next March. Expect the latest “liberals-are-ruining-our-children” headline from Fox News to inspire the next piece of unneeded legislation in Florida.
Those who wish lawmakers would spend more time fighting real boogeymen, like the rising cost of living in Florida, might find some glimmer of hope, fingers crossed. DeSantis announced he will call a December special session to address the state’s broken property insurance system and help residents affected by Hurricane Ian. Earlier this year, lawmakers passed insurance reforms that didn’t go far enough. The new Senate leader has also promised to address housing affordability and is expected to file comprehensive legislation early next year focused on workforce needs.
Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, talked about inflation and pocketbook issues in her opening speech last month. Wonky policy discussions on complicated issues don’t get a lot of media attention, but they will indeed happen. Lawmakers, though, will be sure to jump on cultural issues with little bearing on the lives of Floridians as DeSantis potentially seeks the presidency in 2024. While they’re at it, they are sure to make it easier for him to run for president while remaining governor by loosening Florida’s resign-to-run rules.
After all, as much as there is a Senate president and a House speaker, it’s DeSantis who will set the tone.
DeSantis is pushing lawmakers to ban state investments in what he calls “woke” companies and funds that adopt “Environmental, Social and Governance” principles, also known as socially responsible investing. He wants the Legislature to allow people to carry firearms without a permit, a move that would turn Florida into a gun-toting, MAGA dream. Lawmakers are also expected to expand the law known as “Don’t say gay,” which banned instructions about gender identity and sexual orientation in K-3 or in a manner that’s not “age appropriate,” as defined by state regulators. They also want to go beyond the 15-week abortion ban they approved this year, though there’s talk they also might add exceptions for rape and incest that currently don’t exist.
Doubling down
A decade ago, the Republican Party, faced with Barack Obama’s reelection in a country that’s becoming more diverse, concluded it needed to be more inclusive and tone down its rhetoric on controversial issues. DeSantis — and before him, Donald Trump — proved that wrong.
Florida Republicans discovered the power of validating voters’ discomfort with the fast pace of cultural changes — i.e., the debate over systemic racism or new ways to look at gender and sexuality. They found how effective it is to focus on the excesses and virtue signaling of PC and cancel culture, which can cause even liberal Democrats to roll their eyes. In doing so, Republican lawmakers themselves indulged in excess, appropriating and distorting the meaning of “woke” — a term long used in Black communities to generally describe awareness of racial and social injustice. They stoked fear that in every corner of America a socialist is trying to indoctrinate children.
“We need to take our culture back,” conservative talk-radio host Mark Levin told an audience at this year’s Republican Party Sunshine Summit. What is “our culture” exactly and from whom are we supposed to save it?
By Florida’s definition, it is mostly Christian and culturally conservative — and certainly not a true representation of the state. At the same time, Republicans won the Florida Hispanic vote this year. They achieved what they set out to do a decade ago by doing exactly the opposite of what conventional wisdom recommended. The key might be that Latinos are racially, politically and culturally diverse. Many, especially in Miami, identify as white and Christian much like the traditional Republican base. They aren’t all bleeding hearts for migrants fleeing poverty and oppression in Latin America, as Democrats hoped. A large share of Latinos approved DeSantis’ decision to fly migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, according to an October poll by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy.
DeSantis has found a large, diverse and friendly audience that either enjoys his culture wars or doesn’t hold them against him, evidenced by his role in turning Florida deep red for the foreseeable future. The critics, the media, Democrats — they’re just noise in DeSantis World.
He has proven that, as problematic as it is, conservatives can use government to interfere in what has occurred organically in our culture. So far, voters are eating up his war on “woke” with gusto. The second course is coming with full force.
