Ron DeSantis’ anti-revival crusade has just suffered a humiliating defeat

Florida was supposed to be the place where “the woke go to die,” as Gov. Ron DeSantis likes to say. But he suffered a humiliating defeat last week as only six of the 23 school board candidates he supported won in statewide races. Eleven were defeated outright, while another half-dozen races remain undecided.

A columnist for The Florida Times-Union of Jacksonville put the matter succinctly: “DeSantis is out of juice.” The guy some pundits compared to Ronald Reagan just a few years ago has found his Waterloo in … the Tampa burbs.

Those results came as Democrats gathered in Chicago to nominate Vice President Kamala Harris for president. The eyes of the nation weren’t in Tallahassee, in other words, yet the results of the Florida school board — minor as they may seem — say something significant about our national politics, about the deep thirst of most Americans for pragmatic politics that doesn’t pander to the fringes and doesn’t you play with our resentments.

As one social media user put it, “Florida wants moderates, not MAGAs.” As former President Donald Trump continues to struggle to define Harris and begins to slip significantly in some polls, the same may be true for the country at large. The impressive number of Republicans who spoke at the Democratic convention is further evidence of this trend.

According to the Associated Press, 83 percent of DeSantis school board nominees won in 2022. This time, he’ll be lucky to break 50 percent after the November runoffs.

The governor’s supporters will surely blame the “woke mind virus,” but that’s just an excuse for the failed attempt to plant right-wing ideologues in and around Tampa (Pinellas and Hillsborough counties), among other parts of the state. In South Florida’s Broward County, two members of the DeSantis were ousted. One of his school board candidates lost in a district won by every Republican presidential candidate since John McCain in 2008, according to Andrew Pantazi, editor of The Tributary in Jacksonville.

Faced with this defeat at the hands of the voters, DeSantis simply appointed one of the Broward losers to the State Board of Education.

DeSantis-backed candidates were also boosted by Moms for Liberty, a sophisticated Christian nationalist outfit masquerading as a kaffeeklatsch of well-meaning suburban ladies worried about their children reading Anne Frank’s diary. They successfully lobbied for the banning of an illustrated version of that book, among many others: Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Judy Blume’s Forever, to name just two egregious examples.

DeSantis calls this “freedom.”

Punishment of Disney Corp. for speaking out in favor of LGBTQ rights was also “freedom.” Removing elected prosecutors because he disagrees with their positions on abortion rights? DeSantis also did this in the name of freedom. Because only he understands the true nature of the threat: “groomer” teachers and drag queens trying to “convert” kids, George Soros-funded prosecutors opening prisons and letting criminals escape, corporate media (except Fox News) it brainwashes you. to believe that sea levels around Miami are rising because of a liberal fantasy called “climate change.”

Floridians told DeSantis they’re not stupid. They don’t need his heavy hand in electing local educators — or prosecutors.

And they certainly don’t want to be harassed by the Moms of Liberty, who want Americans to read “The Making of America,” a rambling tract that effectively glorifies slavery. It asks parents to make a commitment to “moral growth” for their children. (Its co-founder Bridget Ziegler and her husband Christian — a former Florida GOP chair — are embroiled in numerous scandals, including one involving an alleged ménage à trois.)

DeSantis rose to prominence with his opposition to coronavirus lockdowns and business closings. In the fall of 2020, he fought to open schools across the state, even though many Democrats argued that it was unsafe to do so. DeSantis was proven correct and began to gain national attention. As so often happens, the lure of fame, whispers of a presidential run proved impossible to resist. To stay in the news, DeSantis had to keep making news, which he did by taking increasingly extreme positions: on vaccines, masks, education, corporations, climate change, race.

But his brief foray into presidential politics was a debacle of historic proportions, starting with a misfire on social media and ending amid speculation about whether the governor was wearing high heels (yes, he is). The same conventional wisdom that had compared DeSantis to Reagan argued that he lost because Trump carried so much ground. And that was true to an extent. But it was clear — as it was once again in last Tuesday’s results — that the American people are not interested in his ideologically joyless style of politics.

Still, the guy keeps trying, as if the problem is that he’s not cruel and vindictive enough. DeSantis recently proposed opening up Florida’s parks to development. Because, you know, Florida doesn’t have enough golf courses or malls. The plan has met what the AP described as “widespread opposition across the political spectrum” and already appears to be falling apart, with a key backer pulling out.

It was classic DeSantis, equal parts evil and inept. Whatever the people of Florida voted for when they elected him, they didn’t vote for this.