Governor DeSantis’ punitive efforts to punish Disney won him a lot of admirers among potential GOP primary voters around the nation but ultimately hurt Florida in multiple ways. Earlier this week, at his first shareholder presentation since returning as Disney CEO, Bob Iger took on Florida’s Governor.

“And that just seems really wrong to me, against any company or individual but particularly against the company that means so much to the state that you live in,”

To put in more direct terms, Iger is calling DeSantis anti-business and anti-Florida. I agree. 

DeSantis has tried to play a faux game of performative progressive-populist over the course of the last few years which I will concede aligns with middle American values and what many outside Florida might seek in a President. However, the act is a game, as DeSantis is arguably the single most transactional figure I have seen on the political landscape in this state – and that’s saying a ton. This is a conversation for another day, but DeSantis does favor some business – those who give him boatloads of campaign cash. 

DeSantis appears to have no idea about the history of this state, the values that built it and seeks to undermine it every day, and rip out our uniqueness, and deny our history, so very different from the states to the north of us, so we’re like the rest of the country. DeSantis seems to want Florida to either emulate the places he was educated in (though these days they vote blue, but were traditionally patrician), or the places he wants to be elected in, and clearly feels more comfortable in. Those are states like Ohio, Oklahoma and Wyoming. I don’t include Texas, because many GOPers in Texas despite their nonsensical rhetoric on cultural issues have actually worked to bring jobs to the state that attract young professionals, urbane and cosmopolitan. DeSantis has done the opposite here in Florida.

Our quirkiness and uniqueness is something we have long taken pride in.  While net-migration to Florida has been a reality since the 1960’s, it seems now DeSants wants to drive away those who came because Florida appealed to them and now attract those who want to make Florida like a sunnier version of the Dakota’s. 

Meanwhile DeSantis rhetoric, as Iger implied, is strongly anti-business. He attacks the “corporate media,” and “woke corporations” (the application of the term woke as he uses it implies these corporations are in some manner treasonous which is a loaded suggestion). DeSantis sounds like the same socialists and communists he attacks in the way he wants to use the power of the state and his personal power as an executive to hurt private businesses that cross him.