All the GOP presidential candidates (except for Donald Trump who apparently had some urgent hysterical posting and golfing to do) converged on Iowa last weekend for Sen. Joanie Ernst's Roast and Ride gathering. They gave speeches in front of haystacks and wandered around in dad jeans pressing the flesh. Florida first lady Casey DeSantis sported a black leather jacket with the words "Where Woke Goes to Die" emblazoned on the back and Mike Pence donned a leather vest and rode around on a Harley trying desperately to imitate a regular guy. It was a magical time.
There were a lot of speeches but one stood out among all the rest:
"... we will fight the woke in education, we will fight the woke in corporations, we will fight the woke in the halls of Congress, we will never ever surrender to the woke mob! "
As you can see, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is fashioning himself as a wartime leader, aping Winston Churchill's most famous speech given June 4, 1940 after the miraculous rescue of tens of thousands of British troops at Dunkirk. The German military had overrun France and in just over a month, the bombing campaign known as the Battle of Britain began, killing more than 40,000 British civilians. You can see why DeSantis would think it appropriate to draw rhetorical parallels between Britain's dire straits in 1940 to the threat American faces from "the woke." In fact, our war is even more daunting since nobody can even define what or who the enemy actually is.
Even DeSantis, the undisputed Supreme Commander of the anti-woke army, couldn't adequately explain it in terms that voters who aren't tuned in to the far-right fever swamp can grasp:
It's a form of cultural Marxism. It's about putting merit and achievement behind identity politics, and it's basically a war on the truth. And as that has infected institutions, and it has corrupted institutions. So, you've got to be willing to fight the woke, we've done that in Florida, and we proudly consider ourselves the state where woke goes to die.
He really has the common touch doesn't he?
If you don't know what woke means you almost certainly have no clue what "Cultural Marxism" is. The term has an ugly antisemitic, conspiracy theory pedigree with all kinds of kooky far-right connections that's finally made its way into the Republican mainstream. But to average Republicans he sounds like some pointy-headed perfesser. If "woke" means commie, well, just come right out and say it! (Trump would...)
"You may think his 'war on the woke' is silly but if DeSantis has done nothing else, he's shown that he is deadly serious about it."
And anyway, isn't it mostly about Dr. Seuss and critical race theory and "tuck friendly" swimsuits and cat boxes in classrooms and whatever other phony culture war outrage they can drum up to keep the rubes stimulated? Yes, of course. The culture war rages on. But DeSantis has opened a new front that goes way beyond the outrage of the day.
He's been cosplaying as a wartime leader for quite some time. Recall his notorious campaign ad from last year:
In that ad he's taking on the corporate media, which I assume falls under the definition of "the woke" as well. Then there was the infamous "And God made a fighter" ad" which seemed to imply that he is the second coming. (Never let it be said that his team is overly modest.)
But let's remember that while DeSantis' model, Winston Churchill, was fighting a foreign enemy that had rolled over Europe and was coming for him next, DeSantis has declared war on fellow Americans he simply believes have the wrong ideas. And he's not being subtle about what he plans to do about it.
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He has, of course, made clear that he will leave "woke ideology on the dustbin of history" but he has recently added another flourish that broadens his declaration beyond the nebulous "woke." On Memorial Day, he did an interview on Fox News in front of a naval warship:
How do you suppose he plans to do that? How do you destroy an entire ideology? There certainly are historical attempts to look at, some of which Churchill was very familiar with. Certain countries in South America had some experience with attempting to "destroy leftism" as well. It has a name. It's called "eliminationism." It makes you wonder just how far DeSantis is prepared to go.
I'm not ready to say that he's backing the wholesale arrest of "leftists" or that he plans to decree a 1933 German-style enabling act but it's not unreasonable to consider what kind of mechanisms he would use to fulfill his goals. We've seen what he has done in Florida, with book bans, speech bans, state intrusions on family, education, health, private business and more. His war on "the woke" has been aimed at racial minorities, LGBTQ citizens, immigrants, women and progressives. That is the "leftism" he aims to destroy.
While his speeches have been filled with this vague "fight the woke" rhetoric, we do have some idea of what he has in mind if he becomes president to "re-constitutionalize" the government. He plans to withdraw many benefits for federal employees and move their agencies out of Washington which will further his other goal of purging the civil service, and filling the jobs with right-wing ideologues.
He wants to "clean out" the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, Food and Drug Administration, no doubt opening the door for the banning of abortion drugs and gender-affirming hormones and the like. We can assume that his choices to head these agencies will be on par with his choice for Florida Surgeon General, an anti-vax doctor known to have altered scientific studies to fit his ideological agenda.
He's pledged to fire the FBI director and clear out all employees who he believes aren't devoted to "the truth" (and you know what that means.) He defends Trump against the "partisan" investigations and has indicated that he might pardon January 6 insurrectionists. He would almost certainly pardon Trump as well.
He seems to be thinking of adopting the modern authoritarian style of Hungary's Viktor Orban who has skillfully used the power of the state to degrade and dismantle liberal institutions, including the media and higher education and created a political environment that assures his hold on power without having to resort to violence. But the American right is a bloodthirsty lot and Ron DeSantis is not a patient guy so it's hard to know if he could resist a crackdown on what would be sure to be a massive resistance.
As we watch Trump and DeSantis start to go at it in earnest, it's easy to get caught up in the theatrics and the spectacle. Both of them provide tons of fodder for late-night comics and partisan punditry. But I cannot understand why people insist that DeSantis would be better than Trump because he would never obstruct the peaceful transfer of power or attempt a coup. I honestly don't know why they believe that.
You may think his "war on the woke" is silly but if DeSantis has done nothing else, he's shown that he is deadly serious about it. He believes he has to save the country from leftism. Is it so hard to imagine that he would usurp democracy to do it?
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