A gay man accuses Governor Ron DeSantis of luring him into a degrading sex act. That was the plot of the final episode of the Paramount+ cable series The Good Fight, a spin-off of the previously successful broadcast series The Good Wife.
Not having watched this distasteful episode, a quick search revealed that the gay man was just looking for attention, that DeSantis was just a convenient public figure in this fictional drama. Cut to reality: wasn’t suggesting such a perverse plot perhaps targeting the Florida governor in real life? Hollywood (and Disney) aren’t fond of Ron.
Dramatic license and the vulnerabilities of celebrities to media defamation make entertainment a powerful force in molding public opinion. To suggest that the Conservative icon of national politics, defender of family values, enemy of the Woke, champion of birth gender, and scourge of Martha’s Vineyard might be exposed as a closet homosexual is the stuff of Leftist dreams.
This same week, former President Donald Trump also suggested that Ron DeSantis has a skeleton in his closet: “I would tell you things about him that won’t be very flattering — I know more about him than anybody — other than, perhaps, his wife…” One of Trump’s attorneys even advised DeSantis to confine his ambitions to Florida, or else.
To his credit, DeSantis did not ask for The Donald’s endorsement in this year’s Florida gubernatorial election. Though Trump championed DeSantis four years ago in his first run, the governor needed only to run on his record and conservative credentials to sweep passed his opponent by 20 points. That may be what irks Trump – a guy who can match and surpass the Orange One.
Making matters worse, all the signs are there for a Republican switch to DeSantis. Trump’s self-destructive ego has worn his fellow party members thin. The cry “Ron not Don” is picking up steam among both conservative and moderate Republicans. Some commentators on FOX News and the opinion makers in the Wall Street Journal and NY Post are already shifting to DeSantis.
A recent op-ed by former diplomat Dave Seminara noted that DeSantis won without the endorsement of any major Florida newspaper. Those publications called him a bully, who rules his state with an iron hand, who muzzles dissent, and challenges experts in every field including education, medicine, and sociology. But clearly the voters of Florida like that in a leader. He is often called “Trump without the drama.”
But don’t think Ron is a paragon of etiquette. He has said of Dr. Anthony Fauci, “someone needs to grab that little elf and chuck him across the Potomac.” Doesn’t sound like a better version of Trump, does it? But he was speaking out of revenge for all the media grief he got for successfully defying Fauci and the CDC over lockdowns and vaccine mandates. Maybe they were also the gritty words of a former Naval officer – one of the few veterans in political high office, another reason ‘heel spur’ Donald might resent [Lieutenant] DeSantis.
One ‘mystery’ still surrounds the DeSantis – although it is no mystery to anyone with roots in the Boot – is he Italic? In the September 18th issue of the NYTimes Magazine, DeSantis was the cover story. But in the twenty or so pages detailing his life and politics not a word was written of his ethnicity. In an era where race, gender, sexual leanings, and self-identity are paramount descriptors, the author skipped any ethnic details. Of course, not all Italian surnames end in a vowel, but not all compound names with a ‘De’ are Italian. Maybe no one, including the magazine’s author, cares what his roots are. DeSantis himself is not trumpeting his Italian heritage. His kids aren’t Maria or Anthony, but named Mamie, Mason, Madison. He’s not 100% Italian but all eight of his great-grandparents were born in central Italy. His maternal side came over in 1904, settling in Pennsylvania. His parents moved to Florida when he was six-years-old.
It may be a bit of a letdown for those of us who wish DeSantis would be more open with his ethnicity, at least enough so people don’t think he’s Hispanic or French. Politically, it shouldn’t matter and perhaps that’s a reason to keep ‘em guessing. To be true to his disdain for ‘identity’ politics, DeSantis follows his own advice.
As he said at his victory speech: “Florida is where Woke goes to die”. -JLM
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