Ron DeSantis has not (but) mentioned if he’ll run for president in 2024, however with roughly two years to go till the election, and with the caveat that a couple of zillion issues can change between at times, his candidacy seems to be a forgone conclusion. That prospect is thrilling to quite a lot of folks—specifically, his record-setting pack of billionaire donors—however, because it seems, having the assist of, say, Elon Musk doesn’t imply somebody must be president. In reality, it’s most likely an excellent indication somebody positively ought to not be president, and in the case of DeSantis, that’s most definitely the case.
However wait, you say: Wouldn’t DeSantis be a hell of much more preferable to ship to the White Home than Donald Trump? Shouldn’t we be blissful about the truth that, on the very least, he doesn’t seem to be the kind of man who would Sharpie over a hurricane map to cowl his personal ass or pressure folks to consider what he will get as much as within the lavatory? And the reply is not any! We shouldn’t be!
To be clear, this isn’t an argument in favor of giving Trump, who introduced in November that he’ll run for a 3rd time, a second time period; that man must be legally prohibited from coming inside 1,000 toes of the Oval Workplace and it could clearly be a boon for humanity if he was by no means heard from or seen once more. Moderately, it’s an argument that DeSantis—who some latest polls present thrashing Trump in a theoretical GOP main—could be no higher and it could be nice if folks might keep away from giving him the highest job in Washington, too.
What, precisely, is there to dislike in regards to the man? Wellllll:
He thinks it’s okay to deal with human beings like chattel
Bear in mind when the state of Florida despatched a bunch of planes to Texas; lured Venezuelan migrants onto mentioned planes with the promise of housing, jobs, and primary providers; instructed them they had been headed for Boston; after which dumped them on the tiny island of Martha’s Winery? All so the governor might rating some low cost political factors with the gang at Fox Information and anybody else who thinks it’s cool to deal with folks from different international locations as subhuman? It is best to, contemplating it occurred fairly just lately, it was completely stomach-churning, and it’s presumably the sort of stunt DeSantis would stay up for usually participating in on a mass scale as president.
He’s dangerously anti-science
After three weeks of taking the COVID-19 pandemic critically by declaring it a public well being emergency and ordering a statewide lockdown, DeSantis apparently determined science was for suckers. “We’ll by no means do any of those lockdowns once more,” he mentioned in April 2020—as 1000’s of Individuals had been dying every day—lifting all restrictions on faculties, companies, and authorities buildings and banning native governments from imposing their very own public well being measures, like masks mandates.
After initially telling folks to get vaccinated towards the virus, he reversed course, refusing to say if he’d gotten a booster shot. He enacted a legislation prohibiting companies from requiring proof of vaccination, together with in petri dish environments like cruise ships. He withheld pay from college board members requiring masks; held a press convention with a man who claimed COVID vaccines change your RNA; and supplied unvaccinated cops $5,000 to relocate to Florida. In September 2021, he appointed Joseph Ladapo to function surgeon normal of the state, apparently having appreciated the flurry of op-eds the physician had written selling hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, opposing masking and lockdowns, and questioning the protection of vaccines. Ladapo later really useful that wholesome kids not get vaccinated towards COVID-19, regardless of the CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics advising they accomplish that and cited what consultants mentioned was a deeply flawed examine that additionally really useful males between 18 to 39 not be vaccinated.
In December, DeSantis introduced that he’d petitioned the Florida Supreme Courtroom to convene a grand jury to research “crimes and wrongdoing” associated to COVID-19 vaccines, and prompt within the petition that anybody who really useful folks obtain the lifesaving vaccine—just like the CDC and Joe Biden—should have been financially compensated to take action. That announcement got here roughly one month after the Palm Seaside Submit famous that “the coronavirus has killed extra folks aged 65 and over in Florida than another state within the nation” and that “public well being consultants outdoors of the state attribute the development to the DeSantis administration’s counterproductive COVID-19 insurance policies,” which began when “the Governor started weaponizing well being care.”
He desires to make it more durable for folks to vote and had Floridians arrested as a part of one other considered one of his political stunts
Like many a Republican, DeSantis is a giant proponent of disenfranchising voters, and has signed a raft of legal guidelines making it more durable for folks to forged ballots for his or her candidates of alternative, together with ones limiting using drop containers, hampering Floridians’ capacity to vote by mail, and stopping the distribution or meals or water to voters ready on lengthy strains. {That a} decide discovered such measures “unconstitutional and particularly discriminatory towards minority voters,” based on USA Right this moment, didn’t cease DeSantis from signing a invoice this yr creating the Workplace of Election Crimes and Safety, and tasking it with investigating alleged voter fraud. Throughout a press convention he held in August to brag about his work cracking down situations of supposed wrongdoing, the governor instructed reporters that greater than a dozen folks had been arrested on expenses of voting illegally within the 2020 election and warned, “That is the opening salvo.”
