Earlier this week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called the Russian invasion of Ukraine “a territorial dispute” and said aiding Ukraine wasn’t in the United States’ interest. These aren’t DeSantis’ first comments on the war in Ukraine. He previously said that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin partially based his decision to invade on the United States’ poorly designed withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Calling the literal invasion of a sovereign nation “a territorial dispute” is mind-numbingly stupid. There’s just no other way to put it. Keep in mind that this is a reversal of where DeSantis was eight years ago when he urged the Obama administration to send weapons to Ukraine while its forces were fighting in the Donbas region. The same region where most of the fighting is happening in Ukraine today.
A few weeks ago, a couple of good friends and I were discussing DeSantis, and I expressed concern because, as I said, I thought DeSantis may actually be worse than Trump. His crusade against all things “woke”—a term that is beginning to lose all meaning—has shown an illiberal side that at least in practice exceeds Trump’s. I say that because DeSantis has explicitly targeted private businesses because of their stances on diversity and inclusion or because they oppose legislation that DeSantis supports. Talk about thin skin.
Some would also point to his intervention in the state’s education curriculum and the “Don’t Say Gay” law. On the former, I’m increasingly concerned that Republicans’ obsession with “critical race theory” (CRT) is moving the base of the Republican Party in a direction of downplaying the stains on our history, including slavery and Jim Crow. Literally as I was writing this, I saw a new development that cuts along the same lines. Legislation proposed in Florida, apparently backed by DeSantis, is written so broadly that it could mean that Black fraternities, sororities, and other organizations could no longer receive funding from schools.
The denial that there’s systemic racism in the United States is also a part of the Republican crusade against CRT, and it comes from a lack of empathy and the ability of people to try to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. (That said, I’m a strong supporter of free market capitalism, so I’m sure there are some who accuse me of pushing systemic racism because of that fact alone.)
On the latter, I don’t know a lot about the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, but I think we should let kids be kids and not burden them with adult conversations.
My friend, who, like me, works in policy for a living, dismissed my concerns about DeSantis. “He’s just doing that for the base.” That’s the standard line that I hear. I don’t necessarily disagree that DeSantis is playing up his culture war bona fides for the base of the Republican Party ahead of his announcement for the party’s presidential nomination. After all, the culture wars are all the base—and most of the Republicans in Congress—seem to care about these days.
I can’t excuse DeSantis’ behavior so easily, though. First, the base is the tail wagging the dog. Giving the base what it wants at all times is a certain way to lose elections. See the elections in 2018, 2020, and 2022. “But, Jason, Republicans took back the House in 2022!” Yes, they did, and they have a very slim four-seat majority. There were predictions of a red wave and double-digit gains. That didn’t happen. Republicans also didn’t win back the Senate. In fact, they came out of that cycle down a seat.
Second, DeSantis has adopted a platform of illiberalism, which is why he has become one of the poster boys, along with Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and J.D. Vance (R-OH), for so-called “national conservatives.” He wants to use government for his version of “good,” and crossing him or opposing his agenda means you could become a target of government. DeSantis is effectively America’s Viktor Orbán.
Finally, dismissing DeSantis as merely trying to play to the base of the Republican Party is dangerous. If you stoke the fires enough, it may backfire. Trump did that as well with his lies about a stolen presidential election, and his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building in response as Congress was doing its constitutional and statutory obligations to count electoral votes.
Look, no one can predict much of what will happen in electoral politics with any ease, but DeSantis may have an uphill battle in some of the states that he needs to win because of the aggressive way that he has waged the culture wars in his home state. That assumes he makes it out of what may be a very brutal primary.
As for me, while I typically vote in Republican presidential primaries, finding a good candidate is going to take a lot of work because, at the moment, the top two contenders are not options for someone with a classical liberal worldview.