Political Enemy #1 in America today is presidential candidate Ron DeSantis.  Both Donald Trump and the liberal media want to take him out pronto.  But Ron’s worst enemy appears to be the Black Establishment.

Anticipating Ron’s entry into the presidential race, the NAACP issued a sham “travel warning” to all folks of color to avoid Florida ‘at the risk of their lives’.  This laughable stunt was the result of DeSantis rejecting a high school Advanced Placement course on African American history.  Seems the course was heavy on reparations and BLM (Black Lives Matter) talking points.  Like so many politically motivated attacks, DeSantis critics intentionally boil their arguments down to slogans:  DeSantis wants to ‘erase Black history’, or in the case of the LBGTQ coalition, DeSantis endorses “Don’t say gay!” when the Florida school law in question only restricts teaching sexuality in grades K thru 3 (5 to 8-year-olds).

While these incidents may be seen as political attacks, there are telltale signs that the DeSantis candidacy is headed for an ethnic phase.  MSNBC commentator Joy Reid – an outspoken Black activist – has already delved into the DeSantis family tree, fully Italian.  In denouncing the Florida governor’s re-gifting of 50 illegal aliens to the sanctuary island of Martha’s Vineyard – they were abruptly deported from the island by the Massachusetts National Guard within 24 hours – Reid informed her viewers that the DeSantis clan only arrived in America in the early 1900s, centuries after Reid’s Black forebears came.

A self-proclaimed “genealogical adventurer & storyteller”, Megan Smolenyak of Florida spiced up the DeSantis story with this historical cliff-hanger about DeSantis’s great-great-grandmother Luigia in 1917:

[Luigia’s] ship, the Patria, made it to New York, landing on February 21st. On February 5th while they were at sea, the U.S. passed the Immigration Act of 1917 which was intended to limit undesirable southern and eastern European immigrants such as Luigia and her family. Fortunately, it wasn’t implemented until May 1st. Otherwise, she and her daughters could have been denied entry due to the freshly imposed literacy requirement. They had squeezed in with a margin of ten weeks.

Let’s add some details:  World War I was decimating Europe in 1917.  Hundreds of thousands of immigrant Italians were serving in the U.S. military.  Italy was an American ally.  Luigia came legally. 

I’ve expressed concern about DeSantis not owning his heritage.  His surname has enough consonants to not scream “Italian”.  And he doesn’t hail from Italian American urban roots.  In his defense, there is absolutely nothing he can gain politically, but more to lose, with Italian Pride.  Lately, he’s been asked by the media the correct pronunciation of his surname: Dee-Santis or Duh-Santis.  He had an opportunity to explain Italian vowels but he wisely brushed off the question by joking his name is pronounced “winner.”

However, there is one character flaw that DeSantis might correct with some Italian DNA – his reluctance to socialize.  Both Republicans and Democrats have observed that Ron doesn’t have Donald’s chumminess with audiences or individuals.  This could be a major problem in gaining die-hard Trump supporters and showing voters ‘warmth’.  The Romans called it comites (friendly, openness, ease of manner).  Italians just call it simpàtico.  To counter his reserve, DeSantis needs to show off his young family.  Passing out cannoli might help, too.

A more serious angle of attack is linking DeSantis’s political and management skills with fascism.  The aforementioned Joy Reid has made the link: “And presidential candidate and toy-sized Mussolini Ron DeSantis unveils his authoritarian manifesto, vowing to destroy leftism and wokeism.”

DeSantis has, in fact, taken on ‘wokeism’ in Florida legislation and in calling out corporations like Disney for dividing American society by race and gender.  And lately he has declared war on “leftism”: “I will be able to destroy leftism in this country and leave woke ideology in the dustbin of history,”

Strong words, for sure, enough to demand clarification.  DeSantis sees the extended Covid lockdowns, arbitrary vaccine mandates (for citizens, not illegals), Biden’s authoritarian Executive Orders, presidential student loan forgiveness, open borders, late-term abortion, media collusion, and a weaponized justice system as leftist assaults on traditional society.  How many can see the irony of “fascism” in ultra-liberal diktats?

In the coming months, I predict the corporate media and the Utopian Left will ease up on Donald Trump and exploit DeSantis’s “fascism”. -JLM