Ron DeSantis and the Republican paradise

While Donald Trump has surged in recent weeks, DeSantis has come to define the new culture wars waged by the GOP. Can he get America to back his agenda?

For a state that prides itself on being the symbol of freedom, here is what you can’t do in Florida.

Ron DeSantis is the new star on the horizon. He checked every ideological box of Right-wing cultural extremism(Getty Images via AFP)

If you are a student, you can’t study material that deals with what many consider to be structural racism embedded in American society. If you run a university or college, you can’t spend money on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

If you are a woman, you will not to be able to undergo an abortion after six weeks. If you are a young person grappling with your sexual identity, you will neither be exposed to pedagogy around lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+) issues nor get gender-affirming or transition care. You can neither use a bathroom nor be called by a pronoun that doesn’t correspond to your sex at the time of birth. If you are a doctor or teacher or a public school employee who violates these rules, you will be punished. And if you run a company with a large operation in the state (think Disney) and oppose these moves, get ready for state retribution.

But here is what you can do.

If you want to carry a concealed gun without a permit in a state that has seen terrifying shootings, feel free to do so; you need neither training nor background checks. If you are a part of jury, you no longer need a unanimous verdict from your fellow jury members to pass a death sentence. If you run a public company in the state, you don’t have to meet environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals. If you happened to live in Florida through the pandemic, you neither needed to wear a mask or get vaccinated and could pretend that all was well.

Armed with this “anti-woke” record, and with the promise of replicating this idea of a Republican paradise nationally, Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis is set to announce his candidature for the Republican nomination for president of the United States (US). His political focus throws a spotlight on the fundamental fault lines in American politics, of race, gender, class, and violence. It also shows the nature of today’s Republican Party, redefined by DeSantis’s one time patron turned arch-rival, Donald Trump.

After Democrats trumped Republicans in midterm polls last year — Democrats kept the Senate and lost the House by a narrow margin and many Trump loyalists who had joined him in the absurdity of challenging the 2020 presidential poll result lost — it appeared that the Grand Old Party may finally be ready to get rid of Trump.

DeSantis was the new star on the horizon. He checked every ideological box of Right-wing cultural extremism. He was a Yale and Harvard graduate who had served in the US military and then the US Congress. He had just stormed to victory yet again in Florida. Republican donors and the party-aligned media, including Fox, suddenly turned to him.

And this was driven by a set of assumptions within Republican ranks. DeSantis would carry forward Trumpism without Trump. He did not have Trump’s recklessness and would be disciplined in his remarks and campaign. He would not alienate the independents, moderate Republicans and suburban women who had drifted away from the party. When pitted against an 82-year-old incumbent president, the 45-year-old presidential aspirant would ooze energy. He was, as DeSantis himself put it recently, electable.

But within the Republican base, his script went awry. Trump put together a better campaign machine than expected. He won over endorsements from Republican figures. Each time he was accused of an alleged crime, his popularity soared. His very recklessness appealed to the core voters. DeSantis’s flaws, particularly his aloofness, reliance on an extremely small set of advisers and strategy not to engage with the non-Republican media, began extracting costs. And as the momentum shifted back to Trump, so did donors and media attention.

It is still a long way to go before Republicans decide on their candidate to battle Biden in what has already become a crowded internal race. But irrespective of who gets the nomination, 2024 won’t reverse the party’s extremist orientation.

Deeply uncomfortable with the form of gender politics sweeping across mainland America, the party has firmly positioned itself as anti-choice, both in terms of a women’s right over her body and a person’s right to embrace their sexuality. This taps into a wider fear among communities unsettled by this dramatic social churn. Recognising that their political power isn’t matched by intellectual and cultural influence, Republicans are either seeking to transform the educational ecosystem or create their own infrastructure. This taps into an unease that segments of the population feel with what is perceived to be progressive and politically correct.

Despite the gun violence epidemic raging across the country (14,000 people have been killed in over 200 incidents of mass shooting in the US this year), Republicans are creating an infrastructure of individual violence with the easy spread of guns and then countering it with advocacy of state violence. This, as puzzling as it may be to outside observers, taps into the anxieties of those who believe that the State is about to attack their individual rights. Due to a major demographic shift where the political influence of people of colour and immigrant communities is growing, Republicans are flirting with White majoritarianism through pedagogy and electoral mobilisation. This taps into the fear of those, including the working class, who are yet to come to terms with changing economic and political structures.

This is the world that both Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump seek to represent with their politics of fear and anger. It works for the base; whether it works for a majority of Americans is to be seen.

prashantjha1@htlive.com

The views expresed are personal