Anyone following this year’s U.S. presidential run can’t help notice that two Americans of Indian descent, Biotech CEO Vivek Ramaswamy and former South Carolina governor/UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, are running on the GOP side. A few Dem pundits have already pointed out the irony of this, at least from their point-of-view; that is, two “people of color” representing a political party whom they (the Dems) consider deeply racist at its core. 

(Interestingly, in 2016, this same party also featured two Cuban American candidates, Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, as well as a woman, Carly Fiorina. And this year, African American senator Tim Scott is also a candidate). 

The Dems are seizing on this, of course, as their party has made identity politics part-and-parcel of their own core, both historically and even more so over the last decade after a bi-racial man’s election (Obama). To the Dems, the Republican Party is an “invite only” party — you have to check your ethnicity at the door and embrace conservative (i.e, “white”) values, whatever they may currently be. (Trump threw a bomb into those values with his election). 

Republicans say that Dems play a similar game — theirs is an “invite only” party, too, where your particular identity (Black, Hispanic, Asian, female, gay, etc.) grants you immediate respect and visibility. Once upon a time, “white ethnics” were part of that mix, hence the Dem party’s positive promotion of Gov. Mario Cuomo in the early 1990s. 

So what is one to make of Governor Ron DeSantis? The current (as of today) #2 candidate in the GOP race is probably the most “Italian American” of any presidential candidate in history; all four grandparents were Italian. And yet, both in his tenure as Florida governor and during his current political campaign, he has made nary a reference to his ethnic background. He is perhaps the poster boy for what Republicans see as its “America First” agenda — you must identify as an American first, eschewing any ethnic or religious baggage. There are pluses to this. One is that it’s rather true: When you travel outside of the country, you are seen as an American first — not as Italian, Irish, Black, Jewish, etc. 

I recall visiting a restaurant in Venice over a decade ago and looking up to see a huge (at least 6’8″ or taller) Black man enter with his wife. The man looked vaguely familiar so I asked the waiter who he was. The waiter replied that the man was a player on a local European (Italian) basketball team, and that he often ate here with his wife. Then the waiter replied, “So now it’s my lucky day. I get to wait on two Americans! The other waiters will be jealous.”

It made me pause. The waiter didn’t see a 5’8″ white (Italian American) man and a 6’8″ inch black (African American) man. He saw two “Americans.” And he was correct. We both come from a specific nation where — at least from this waiter’s perspective — our language (American English) and our openness (personalities) transcend any racial or ethnic identities. What unites us as Americans is our sense of “freedom,” emboldened by a constitution. I get it.

I also get that it seems such a wasted opportunity for DeSantis to be so blasé about his background. Not that he has any obligation to wear an “I’m Proud to Be Italian” button. Those days are long gone. And as my story proves, once we move beyond our insular borders (and our insular politics), the Dem obsession with identity quickly dissipates. 

But now, with a bully pulpit, imagine how DeSantis could do so much to correct misperceptions about our community.

He is a law-and-order guy. He could point out the Rule of Law comes directly from the Romans, and that there are more Italian police chiefs in America than so-called “mafia” thugs. He is a Founding Fathers fanatic; he even wrote a book about them (unread by me as of yet). He could point out how our Founding Fathers drew inspiration from both classical Roman and Renaissance writers, or that Thomas Jefferson’s neighbor was political writer Filippo Mazzei. 

As a Navy guy, DeSantis could remind his fellow (non-Italian) Americans of people like WWII fighter pilot Don Gentile, whom General Eisenhower called a “one man airforce.” As a proud Floridian, he could make a reference to Tropicana Orange Juice, an American business institution created by an amazing entrepreneur named Anthony Rossi. 

And even as a baseball player (DeSantis led Yale’s team), Ron could certainly mention an Italian American superstar or two. Indeed, one wonders if he’s even seen this year’s documentary on the late, great Yogi Berra. 

Instead, it is an Indian American candidate, Vivek Ramiswamy, who has defended the “Renaissance spirit” of Columbus’s journeys, and who makes comparisons of America to classical Rome, both positively and negatively.

To use a very American (specifically, African American) expression, “What’s up with that”? 

Ron DeSantis or Ron DeBlandis? The combo of assimilation and endless media defamation has taken its toll.

Was it only a few decades ago that Mario Cuomo could joke (affectionately) that former VP Walter Mondale had “the personality of polenta”? Or that self-help guru Leo Buscaglia noted how the calamari that he brought to middle school in his lunch-bag — which made him the subject of jokes by classmates — is now considered an “American” delicacy? 

To quote another Italian (Cicero): “O tempora! O mores!” (“Oh, the times, Oh, the customs!”). -BDC