By: Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted and Published on August 8, 2023
Last Friday, Donald J. Trump, the GOP frontrunner for president, was in Montgomery, Alabama as the featured speaker at the Alabama Republican Party’s summer dinner. The venue was packed with supporters who waited in long lines to see and hear Trump speak.
While Trump was talking about using money from President Joe Biden's Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 to widen Interstate-65 from Huntsville to Mobile, Ron DeSantis was in Tama, Iowa re-imaging the slavery experience of American slaves of African descent in a way that makes this ugly chapter in American history look beneficial to these slaves.
To be clear, the only beneficiaries of the slavery enterprise in America from 1619 to 1865 were white men.
DeSantis also spent time explaining his aggressive fight against Walt Disney World, Mickey Mouse, and a handful of Florida school children who identify as transgender.
Only a handful of DeSantis’ staffers and supporters showed up for his esoteric and boring campaign speech in Tama, Iowa. It was embarrassing.
DeSantis has never offered real solutions to real economic problems facing Floridians. For example, DeSantis has not offered a single practical solution for the millions of Floridians who no longer have homeowners’ insurance in his state because the major insurance companies refuse to sell them this product.
Likewise, DeSantis has taken no action against Florida Power & Light for gouging electric customers with unrelenting rate hikes, or for corrupting the political process in Florida.
Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign is imploding. He is out of touch with the pocketbook issues that threaten the quality of life for ordinary Americans.
This is who Ron DeSantis really is -- a small man, with small mind, and a small world vision.
Those who knew DeSantis when he was an unmarried teacher claim he was hanging out and drinking with underage female students at the Darlington School in Rome, Georgia. Some, like Donald Trump, have insinuated that DeSantis was “grooming” young girls for his personal enjoyment. Judging by the smile on his face in the photo below, DeSantis certainly seems to have enjoyed the affection these teenage girls were showering upon him.
Instead of dealing with real economic issues facing voters, Ron DeSantis acts like he is running to succeed Robert Marvin Shelton as Imperial Wizard of the United Klans of America, a bankrupted Ku Klux Klan group.
To me, it seems like the voters with whom DeSantis seeks to connect died with Adolf Hitler in a German bunker in 1945.
I am amazed that Floridia’s GOP establishment allowed Ron DeSantis to tarnish the state's positive global brand in the futile hope that he could be sworn-in as the president of the United States in January of 2025. It will take decades to repair the reputational damage DeSantis has done to Florida's worldwide, progressive image.
At this juncture, one thing is clear – Ron DeSantis will not be the 47th President of the United States.
After his presidential campaign ends, DeSantis will be free to pursue his warped fascist agenda on a full-time basis as a private citizen.
Goodbye, Ron DeSantis. It's been nice watching you lose!
