A lot of the outcomes are in from the 2022 midterm election, and the much-hyped “pink wave” and the potential for Republican domination in Congress by no means materialized. However one Republican outperformed most of his get together this cycle, successful reelection in a landslide: Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida.
Now, as arguably the solely large Republican winner of the 2022 midterms, DeSantis has been floated because the Republican star, the 2024 presidential candidate that may save the get together from Donald Trump’s unpopularity. His candidacy has been deemed “inevitable” by The Washington Submit, and “the hottest thing going in the Republican Party,” in response to CNN. The prevailing theme appears to be, lastly, a “regular” Republican frontrunner once more!
There’s only one drawback: DeSantis isn’t any “average.” He’s brash, bigoted, and wields the rhetoric of populism as a cudgel to reify white, patriarchal, heteronormative energy. He could also be a substitute for Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, however he’s different in identify solely.
Take abortion, for example. Whereas DeSantis didn’t completely ban abortion, he simply signed a 15-week ban into legislation — a draconian, extremist place that endangers the well being and lives of essentially the most marginalized. Florida doesn’t permit Medicaid funding for abortion care. It stays one of many few states left within the Southeast the place abortion is authorized in any respect; neighboring states like Alabama and Georgia have abortion bans on the books (although Georgia’s was not too long ago blocked by a federal decide). This places inordinate strain on the capability of Florida abortion clinics, which implies booked-up schedules and fewer accessible appointments for abortion seekers. A 15-week abortion ban imposes a strict time restrict on an already time-sensitive process.
Florida has different restrictions on abortion –– it bans state Medicaid and Reasonably priced Care Act protection of abortion care, and has a compulsory 24-hour ready interval, which forces sufferers to return to the clinic twice earlier than an abortion could be carried out. Coupled with the onslaught of sufferers coming from states the place abortion is already banned, it may push some sufferers, particularly low-income of us who want to boost the funds to pay for an abortion, previous the 15-week cut-off.
DeSantis’s abortion coverage isn’t “average,” and neither is his strategy to a lot else. In any case, that is the person who rammed by the “Don’t Say Gay” invoice that, simply months in the past, was decried as “dangerous” and “wrong” throughout shops like Healthline and NBC Information. He directed the state medical board to ban gender-affirming well being take care of trans youth, banned trans women from taking part on sex-segregated sports activities groups, and has engaged in egregious voter suppression efforts, arresting 20 formerly incarcerated people in one day who had been granted the fitting to vote in a 2018 state referendum. Furthermore, he signed a legislation that banned state college professors from speaking about racism, sexism, and different types of oppression and discrimination, a legislation so horrific that the U.S. district decide who blocked it known as it “positively dystopian.” Now, as a result of he received large in a state racked with gerrymandering whereas the remainder of his get together appeared to flounder on the polls elsewhere, he will get to be the torchbearer for a extra “average” Republican get together.
We’ve heard this tune earlier than. In 2000, George W. Bush ran as a “compassionate conservative,” framing himself as an outsider with a unique strategy to conservatism. As a substitute, he led the nation into two main tragic wars that might lengthy outlast his administration, tried (unsuccessfully) to intestine Social Security, and in 2004, ran on banning same-sex marriage.
There may be nothing average about arresting marginalized individuals for voting, or endangering the lives of pregnant individuals, trans youth, Black and Brown individuals. If DeSantis is what passes for average right this moment within the U.S., then average is simply one other phrase for oppression, masking itself as affordable political discourse. However for a celebration that has staked its legacy on a twice-impeached con man and his military of election-deniers and conspiracy theorists, brazenly harming anybody who isn’t a white, straight, cisgender man, it’s par for the course.
Gov. Ron DeSantis could very nicely win the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. And if he does, the legitimacy granted to him by pundits and the media alike, framing his as a extra affordable choice to Donald Trump, may assist him win election. And the struggling of the marginalized might be a characteristic, not a bug.
