This past week has been a whirlwind for me, as messages have flowed in to me, basically saying “you are right.”. As I have discussed at this website for close to two years, I believe Governor DeSantis represents the greatest existential threat to the Republic since Joe McCarthy – that’s right, a greater threat than Donald Trump or Richard Nixon. Rhetorically, DeSantis is the most dangerous American with a national platform since George Wallace.

At first, I was laughed off, then gradually people came around to my thinking. Now, as mentioned I am getting an endless flow of private “you are right,” messages.

It is not that I have tried to minimize the Trump, it’s just that the impulsive, undisciplined and largely non-ideological Trump, as terrible a human being as he is, doesn’t have the same ability to permanently destroy the American Republic the way a highly-focused, dangerously ideological and uber-competent DeSantis does. Few elected officials that I have witnessed anywhere outside full-on dictatorships understand how to gain, use and manipulate power the way DeSantis does.

It is also alarming the size of DeSantis’ national profile, as GOP rank-in-file voters in places like Pennsylvania and Nevada have all not only heard of him, but have a favorable view of him. DeSantis has a national name recognition, very few Governor’s of US states have ever had. That profile only increased this week.

This week’s Martha’s Vineyard stunt is perhaps the most outrageously sick behavior we have ever seen from an elected official. Not only is it barbaric and maniacal, but it involved an incredible amount of secrecy, deceit and disciplined coordination, at a level few outside of the CIA or MI6 cold coordinate. That is not to mention the potential illegalities involved. This is the way Ron DeSantis Florida works.

It’s also particularly interesting that DeSantis choose migrants seeking political asylum from Venezuela for this stunt. By his own admission, the migrants were “profiled,” meaning DeSantis wanted to take those fleeing a left-wing, pseudo-communist dictatorship (I don’t want to get into the weeds here, but the “socialism” practiced in Venezuela is more like communism, whereas the socialism practiced for example in Bolivia under Evo Morales, was actual socialism) and ship them north. He wanted to “inflict” pain on those darn Yankees the same way leading Segregationist Senator Richard Russell proposed doing with African-Americans in the 1960’s.

I don’t make comparisons to George Wallace or Richard Russell lightly. For example, I rejected the Democrats constant comparisons of Trump or other GOPers to Wallace, because I felt something was fundamentally different in their rhetoric and intent (Trump actually sought minority votes, albeit in a crudely clumsy way). But in the case of DeSantis, his rhetoric AND policy seeks to divide people along lines that we have not seen in 50 years in America.

Governor DeSantis is a Catholic, yet he has shown no remorse in putting fellow Catholics through an ordeal of epic proportions, despite his open rhetorical claims that he would govern by biblical principles.

“You got to be strong. You got to put on the full armor of God. You got to take a stand — take a stand against the left’s schemes. You got to stand your ground. You got to be firm. You will face flaming arrows, but take up the shield of faith and fight on.”

Ron DeSantis, June 2021

“So I look forward to joining with you in the battles to come,” said DeSantis. “I can tell you that, in the state of Florida, I’ll be holding the line. I’ll be standing my ground. I won’t back down, and I have only begun to fight.”

Ron DeSantis, June 2021

Ironically DeSantis gave these remarks just as Florida’s Covid spike was beginning in the Summer of 2021, a spike which was down to his calculated and cold political decision to abandon the vaccine advocacy he had undertaken for the previous several months, and become the national leader with a bully pulpit of the Alex Jones’ / Joe Rogan, anti-vaccine forces.

DeSantis lack of class and tact was on full display in the summer of the 2021 as he sold anti- Dr. Anthony Fauci merchandise on his website. This was a sign, that to DeSantis everything is about performance art and trolling, ie “owning the libs.”

As I wrote well over a year ago, DeSantis emulation of Hungary’s ethnocentric authoritarian President Viktor Orbán’s policies while mimicking George Wallace’s rhetoric would lead to unprecedented peril for Floridians and potentially the nation if he became President.

I wrote this on August 7 of 2021 regarding DeSantis rhetoric and policies:

• Blame immigrants for the COVID surge. Inspired by Viktor Orbán’s Hungary, DeSantis seems determined to turn Florida into a combination of Orbán’s anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ, largely ethnocentric Hungary and a place of lawlessness and zero accountability like Venezuela.
• Attack “woke” local governments and use preemption laws to create a new “anti-Federalist” model which centralizes power in the hands of a Chief Executive (this is also taken from Viktor Orbán) and undermines the long-standing conservative principle of respecting government closest to the people.
• Attack the “corporate” media for hating on Republicans, and “ordinary” Americans .
• Characterize unvaccinated and unmasked Floridians who are actually responsible for spreading the virus as victims of a liberal plot to make everyone conform to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s worldview.
• Push vouchers as a way to expand the culture wars and potentially re-segregate the public school system.
• Attack scientists and doctors as pointy headed elites pushing panic for political purposes

This was BEFORE DeSantis went into full-blown anti-LGBTQ+ territory, an area Trump himself had largely avoided. DeSantis had given us nibbles before but nothing like what we’ve seen in 2022 on that topic area.

While all this has gone on, Florida’s cost of living crisis has intensified as insurance companies flee the state, rent escalation is the highest in the country and professional white-collar jobs elude the state. Oh and the unemployment system is still broken.

Yet the state is spending tax dollars on a high-priced, inhumane political stunt.

Yes, not even Trump would have pulled this off, and if Trump had tried it, he’d have been ultra-defensive and angry. Instead DeSantis is showing a clear sense of childish exuberance this week, a harbinger of coming attractions as he continues to break this state and eventually the nation if he isn’t pushed back upon aggressively.

The danger has never been greater…