DeSantis Sucks Eggs
The Republican governor of Florida, who has made attacks on the trans and LGBTQ+ communty his signature issue, is doing terribly in national polls.
by Evan Urquhart
Ron DeSantis, the cartoonishly villainous governor of Florida, was billed as a meaner, smarter Trump. With ham-fisted tactics and brutal efficiency, the dictatorial DeSantis has made Florida a no-go state for transgender people (and Black people, and immigrants) all while casting his greedy eyes on the Presidency of the United States. But all is not well in the land of Disney World, retirees, and gays. The continued popularity of Donald Trump among the rank-and-file of hate-filled assholes seems to be denting the dreams of the hate-filled elite to bring us all the evil of the Trump presidency, but competent this time.
Canada’s CBC News posted a breakdown early this morning laying out all the ways DeSantis is underperforming expectations, from polls to endorsements to large donors. The bottom line is that all the legislation seeking to make the lives of trans people a living hell hasn’t helped DeSantis one bit. It seems as rabidly anti-trans as the conservative base is, the personality cult of Donald Trump continues to hold sway over their small, cold hearts.
screenshot from CBC News
Donald Trump is, obviously, extremely bad. On trans issues, Trump has endorced eliminationist national policies, and there’s no reason to doubt he won’t pursue them if he returns to the presidency. In the long run, democracy is in grave danger from fascism, trans people are a major scapegoat, laws already passed in numerous states are unlikely to be reversed, the judiciary has been stacked with extremist judges chosen solely for their willingness to co-sign whatever conservative politicians want, everything is very bad in all the ways you almost certainly already know it is. However, for transgender people, DeSantis totally whiffing in the Republican primary is very, very good.
Opposition to LGBTQ+ equality in the Christian Right is deeply entrenched, but the absolute onlaught of legislation targeting trans people isn’t business as usual for that side. There’s no single explanation for why hurting trans people became the top legislative priority for conservatives in 2023, but the perception that DeSantis was the future of GOP surely played a role. By adopting DeSatis’ signature issue as the signature issue for the national party, elites were signalling the direction they either wanted or expected the party to go in next.
As DeSantis’ fortunes fade, signalling alignment with his signature issue may lose a little bit of its appeal. That doesn’t mean the GOP will give up on anti-trans policies or politics any time soon, but the motivation to make this the primary focus of the party may be less. Republicans may cast around for other evil policies, other minority goups to scapegoat, other routes towards fascism to pursue. This is not good news, per se, but it does mean there’s fresh a chance to see some of the anti-trans fever on the right starting to break.
