By now everyone has seen and commented on this video which was so poorly produced and so incendiary, I hesitate to post it here.

While the video created a justified cringe, it’s worth noting it does point something out I had been meaning to write about for a while – that for all of Donald Trump’s many flaws, the GOP’s drift into homophobic rhetoric in recent years owes itself more to Ron DeSantis than any other single figure. DeSantis supporters correctly point out in the video that Trump had courted LBGTQ voters and while touching on flashpoint issues of culture in his rhetoric, he tending to avoid gay-bashing. It’s not shock to me, that the intensity of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric of elements within the GOP intensified in 2021, with Trump off social media and DeSantis the darling of Rupert Murdoch’s US-based entities.

As I have discussed at this website for close to three years, I believe Governor DeSantis represents the greatest existential threat to the Republic since Joe McCarthy – that’s right, a FAR greater threat than Donald Trump or Richard Nixon. Rhetorically, DeSantis is the most dangerous American with a national platform since George Wallace. And unlike Wallace who sought to prevent a progression of American society, DeSantis is actively trying to turn the clock back 60 or 70 years on any number of cultural issues. His is more than the grievance culture of Trump; It’s an active ideological effort to erase large parts of history and destroy the post-1960’s modernity that characterizes large segments of western culture. This makes him fundamentally different and more dangerous than Trump ever could be.

This applies to DeSantis’ sanitized views of American History (which again, I will state I find particularly troubling because he’s Catholic), his constant harping on “woke,” to the point he defines anything he doesn’t like as “woke,” book banning, the culture of fear, the curtailing of free speech and his various anti-LGBTQ views.

DeSantis thrives on bragging about how he’s hurt people and has gained a following for it. Time and again, DeSantis supporters point to Trump, despite his bravado as being “soft” when compared to DeSantis on issues such as immigration, race, woke, and LGBTQ. This has been a constant buzz from those around DeSantis and the pay-to-play media ecosystem he’s created of Florida-based bloggers who never were involved with state issues of government pre-2018 as well as hanger-ons he’s attracted to his campaign.

They’ve now said this out loud with a megaphone for everyone to see and hear – basically if you thought Donald Trump’s subtle rhetoric and dog whistles were offensive, we can and will do him one better, loudly proclaiming our hatred of the other and our professed moral superiority.

Now is this following big enough to win a GOP nomination for President? It probably would be if DeSantis had ANY real economic messaging that divorced him from the donor class with which he has total fealty to. While Democrats and liberals love to say Trump is corrupt, their is still a genuine streak of working-class centric populism in his rhetoric and even some of his actions. DeSantis lacks this ability because, well he’s completely bought-and-paid for by donors – the same big money, corporate donors screwing the working class.

The entire movement to marginalize communities has a constituency in the GOP, but it’s not big enough to win a nomination. To do that, DeSantis must play a more populist economic tune but since he is fundamentally an elitist, educated at Ivy League schools it’s not easy for him. Couple that with his donor class fealty and rhetorical tone which appeals more to highly-educated ideological conservatives than working class Trump backers, I don’t see how he pulls it off. But he can and will be competitive in states with important early contests like South Carolina where cultural issues matter more than economics.