COLUMN | Ron DeSantis: 'America's Governor' Or American Demagogue?

*This is an opinion column*

HOOVER, AL — Two of the most popular governors in America were on stage at the same time Thursday night inside the Finley Center in Hoover, with one introducing the other in front of more than 1,000 eager members of the Alabama Republican Party.

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At the podium, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey referred to Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as "America's Governor" while the 44-year-old conservative firebrand waited in the wings backstage and out of sight.

When the heavy red and blue curtains were thrown back, DeSantis — not standing all that much taller than Ivey — took the stage to the loudest applause of the evening.

And while DeSantis has yet to formally throw his hat into the ring for the Republican nomination for president in 2024, he spoke for more than an hour to the dinner crowd, mostly on national issues, while using Florida time and again as an anecdotal example to explain his approach to governance.

It's also worth mentioning the meeting kicked off with a video produced by the party that overlayed a famous speech from President Ronald Reagan with red-blooded scenes of a college football player — not from any of Alabama's universities — running out of the tunnel with the American flag, Black churchgoers raising their hands in praise and ... Jackie Robinson slapping a line drive to the outfield.

Never mind the noticeable hegemony of white faces in the crowd.

It was a cautionary speech that had little to do with the superimposed videos and one that warned of the United States losing its values and standing in world.

Moving on though, it must be mentioned that the speech from DeSantis was prefaced by Alabama GOP Chair John Wahl speaking at length about the party's accomplishments over the last year, including the Alabama GOP's quixotic quest to banish anything "woke" from a state that's already one of the most conservative in the country.

Let's go ahead and get this one out of the way: The term "woke" is not a new one.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary, along with a detailed report in The Independent, cited the first use of the term in the public lexicon somewhere between 1971-72.

Indeed, Kate NG of the Independent wrote in 2021 the phrase was first popularized in the play "Garvey Lives!" — a work that focused on Jamaican political activist and Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey.

Penned by American playwright Barry Beckham, the famous line in the Garvey play has a character saying:

“I been sleeping all my life. And now that Mr. Garvey done woke me up, I’m gon’ stay woke. And I’m gon’ help him wake up other black folk.”

This performance came roughly half a century before Erykah Badu brought the term to a contemporary audience with her song “Master Teacher.” And it's harmless when compared to the man-on-the-street definition of the term on the opposite side of the political spectrum. Nothing more than a straw man for people who don't care enough to try to understand it.

Still, the term has evolved in the post-George Floyd Era, especially taking on nuanced meanings for those on the political right who view the word to be synonymous with defunding the police and tearing down statues of historical figures with regrettable stances in their day.

And this distortion of the term took center stage in Hoover Thursday night as DeSantis spent most of his time railing against the "woke" left.

But as this reporter stood in line, wearing a suit and waiting to put my few personal effects in a little plastic bin for the metal detector, I was still itching from the sunburn I got in Selma at the 58th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, which was headlined by a speech from President Joe Biden.

ALSO READ: 'A Reckoning' | Dissecting President Joe Biden's Visit To Selma

While I couched this longform piece as an opinion column, the reporting is air-tight objective and the obvious conjecture on my part can be taken with a grain of salt. But what I saw over the last week, including Thursday night, showed two different Americas even in the state of Alabama.

The two different worlds of thought are impossible to ignore, much less not compare and contrast — two Americas in our own state, viewing the opposite side as something twisted, insidious and out to get them.

'America's Governor'

I stood in another line Thursday night to get a drink after the house lights were flashed and the 5-minute mark given before the dinner program commenced.

Over the PA system in the massive venue, "Only In America" by country music stars Brooks & Dunn blasted and helped herd the masses to their seats.

It's worth noting I was told as I arrived to the event that "the media" — which I later found out meant anyone deemed by the state GOP to be unsympathetic to the party cause — had been barred from the event.

Thank the maker for being a weirdo one-man band from Tuscaloosa that Mr. Magoo'd my way into the Finley Center.

But do, please look past the openly-partisan outlets that were generously granted gut-bucket access and premium standing room to document the event for the Alabama faction of the Grand Old Party.

"Seven dollars for a shot of Jack Daniels?" I muttered to myself as Republican Party Chair John Wahl began giving the initial introductions, while furiously tapping my card on the touchscreen register so I could get back to my seat. "For this to be a Republican function, that's not a very conservative price for whiskey."

Roughly as many years in age separate Gov. Kay Ivey and Gov. Ron DeSantis — 33 — as I have been on this Earth. But seeing the two on stage at the same time, in front of a massive banquet hall crammed to the gills with party die-hards, notable names and big spenders, the scene gave a pretty accurate temperature of the Florida governor's popularity in conservative circles outside of his state.

Gov. Ivey, after all, was not one of the speakers, nor even in attendance, when former President Donald Trump held a massive rally in Cullman in August 2021 after being unseated following two impeachments and four years of scandal.

The event in Cullman was a big national exposure moment for the state GOP at the time — a soft-toss opportunity for the party hats to kiss the rings and show their loyalty to the former president as he worked himself into a lather about a stolen election, while already stumping for a return to the White House.

Yet, in thinking back, that chapter serves as a stark and important contrast to the sit-down dinner event in Hoover Thursday night. Many women wore their heavy furs for the occasion and neck-ties were the norm among the men, as opposed to the sweat-soaked T-shirts worn by most at the Trump rally in Cullman.

And here she was, Gov. Kay Ivey, fresh off a widely touted State of the State Address earlier in the week and introducing likely the only Republican governor in America more popular in their respective state than she is.

Indeed, Ivey, the last true bastion of the pre-Trump establishment faction in Alabama, won re-election in 2022 with 67% of the vote in the General Election, while DeSantis carried 59% in his much larger and more demographically complex state.

"Folks around the country are taking note of Gov. DeSantis's proven track record, whether they want to admit it or not," Ivey told the crowd before the Florida governor took the stage while the speakers blared "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Political commentator Steve Flowers told CBS 42 of the event — accurately, in this reporter's view — that DeSantis was Trump, but younger, going on to say the former president is polling at 35% and likely won’t see much improvement on the line.

Indeed.

And apart from the politics, the money spent on the event Thursday night also spoke to tacit, high-level appeal for DeSantis in Alabama, with power-broker sponsors for the annual winter dinner including: Alabama Power, BlueCross BlueShield of Alabama, ALFA, Drummond Company, Congressman Gary Palmer, Congressman Mike Rogers and Congressman Robert Aderholt.

Conversely from Gov. Ivey, Aderholt did give an impassioned plea of support for Trump in Cullman in 2021.

And, if Thursday night's event was the primer campaign stop it appeared to be for the Florida governor, the congressman's open financial support of a party event with DeSantis as the headliner could signal a sea change for the state's Republican heavy hitters— one moving away from Trump in favor of the buttoned-up approach to the culture wars offered up by DeSantis.

First-term U.S. Sen. Katie Britt was also in attendance — despite Congress being in session — and received a shout-out from Wahl in the opening introductions and later from DeSantis.

Absent, though, was Alabama's senior senator, Tommy Tuberville, who has been closely aligned with the MAGA wing of the party since before his election win over incumbent Democrat Sen. Doug Jones.

But after dispensing a few football-related pleasantries pandering to the Alabama crowd, DeSantis trotted out his greatest hits ... all while the name Donald Trump was not mentioned once during the event by the Florida governor.

Hell, DeSantis mentioned former Chief Medical Advisor to the President Dr. Anthony Fauci more than he mentioned President Biden as he touted his record as governor. Soft targets make for easy shooting, after all.

And DeSantis has carved out his record through what he refers to as "The Florida Blueprint"— a concept that serves as the nucleus of his New York Times bestseller "The Courage to Be Free: Florida's Blueprint for America's Revival," which was released in February.

The blueprint is a simple, yet intentionally opaque approach to policymaking, consisting mostly of conservative platitudes that show little in the way of substance. Rather, think of it more as his internal, ineffable compass that dictates his approach to governance.

The five tenets of the "Florida Blueprint"

1. Trust in God ... whatever that means with respect to policy.
2. Upholding the founding principles of this country ... slavery, women's suffrage and workers' rights be damned, I guess.
3. Use some common sense ... again, whatever that means.
4. Be willing to "stand up to elites in places like Washington D.C., New York and Davos, Switzerland" ... Why one would need to do this as the governor of Florida is beyond my scope of understanding.
5. "You can be right on your policies, but if you don't have the courage of your conviction, you'll never beat the left" ... so, no matter how wrong you might be, it's better to go full-speed than to be timid about the openly divisive rhetoric you're pushing. Who cares about the consequences when you can refute them by screaming "fake news" at the top of your lungs.

Still, this has been a wildly successful approach for DeSantis — tapping into the more grounded portion of the MAGA base to boost his appeal among moderate conservatives.

Indeed, DeSantis lauded his own policies as being attractive for the state of Florida, supposedly luring conservative-minded citizens away from their liberal home states.

"When you look at what's happened over these last four or five years, what we have witnessed in this country is a great American exodus out of states governed by leftist politicians pursuing leftist ideology and destroying the quality of life in the cities and states," he said Thursday.

The numbers do support the claims from DeSantis, before he went on to tout statewide policies relating to everything from barring transgender athletes in sports to jailing those involved in protests that devolve into vandalism and violence.

Among the accomplishments DeSantis expressed pride in, his "Anti-Riot" law was the most prominent, despite being publicly condemned by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Simply put, the UN worries the law presents problems for the exercise of free speech in Florida, along with potentially encouraging the use of excessive force by law enforcement when engaging with demonstrators. Nothing more than atavistic concerns harkening back to Alabama Gov. George Wallace's approach of squashing political dissension with a police baton and water hoses.

"We also signed legislation that if you riot, loot ... we're not going to treat you like they do in Portland," DeSantis said. "In Florida, if you're rioting, looting, you're getting the inside of a jail cell. Our anti-riot legislation was actually condemned by the United Nations, so I wear that as a badge of honor."

A parent himself, DeSantis also spoke at length about education in America and how the toxic elements of "woke" culture have permeated basic learning for grammar school students.

It must be noted that DeSantis has caught an ass-worth of flack for pushing legislation banning certain books in school libraries and prohibiting teachers from discussing gender issues with students — I.E., the "Don't Say Gay" bill.

For an Ivy League man, I can't help but wonder if DeSantis during the course of his eduction was denied the brilliance of John Milton, who wrote in 1664: "he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself."

I graduated from Ole Miss and, hell, we even read Milton.

Still, among his base, the policies have shown to be insanely popular. It's also a much more tactical approach to policy than his perceived GOP primary rival — former president Donald Trump — ever articulated on the campaign trail or in office.

While DeSantis is laying out a troubling, yet coherent strategy to the Alabama GOP, the former president has been relegated to frothing at the mouth on his personal social media app, Truth Social, where he has referred to the Florida governor as "Meatball Ron" and the cringeworthy nickname of "Ron DeSanctimonious," which is neither clever nor relevant.

"The purpose of our school systems is to educate our kids, not to indoctrinate our kids," he told the crowd Thursday. "We believe in parent's rights. Parents have a right to know what books are being used and, fortunately, 95% of Florida schools are doing fine. But these parents have identified books in elementary school libraries that are pornographic, that have a lot of really adult messaging targeting very young kids. ... In the state of Florida, we think that's unacceptable. We also think that's a bad use of taxpayer money."

His claims of pornography in schools reminded this reporter of a famous case study from 1964, when United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart discussed his personal litmus test for determining what was and was not pornography.

"Perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so," Stewart said of his definition of pornography. "But I know it when I see it" — so apparently the interpretation is in the eye of the beholder.

I know it when I see it ... meaning it's only pornography if those in power decide it is.

But these talking points merely scratch the surface of DeSantis's complex platform — an increasingly negative one that seems more focused on taking the offensive against undesirable elements of American culture than it is on addressing the problems of everyday Americans and promoting unity.

So, let's take a close look at the "Us and Them" approach.

The next American Demagogue?

I don't take labels lightly and only use the word "demagogue" in referring to DeSantis because it's a term he used on multiple occasions Thursday to describe the opposition's reaction to his policies.

And this is where so much of the nuance gets overlooked. Victimhood is an important tactic in the playbooks of both major political parties, with the GOP turning the concept into an art form after the 2016 election of Donald Trump.

Simply put, the GOP has been quick to label themselves victims when the consequences of their actions, words or policies come back to bite them in any real world sense — encouraging followers to storm Capitol Hill, losing re-election bids, scaring off longtime benefactors or getting skull-dragged on social media for something they said that was objectively offensive.

Nowhere is this more prevalent than the rhetoric discussed by DeSantis.

Don't be fooled, though. DeSantis is far from a victim on the receiving end of torment from some federal bully.

Rather, his policies are intentionally antagonistic to the people of his state and many trying to seek asylum, taking aim at specific social groups and ideologies while at the same time convincing his base that their entire way of life is under attack — Christianity, social homogeny and the desire for the United States of old.

Never mind that, much like Alabama, conservatives are very much the majority and main power brokers in his home state. This is Jeb Bush and Rick Scott country. And let's just overlook that the United States of old wasn't so ideal for many Americans.

But sure, looking at his record, the long list of accomplishments, objectively speaking, is undeniable.

A well-connected conservative friend of mine, who will remain anonymous, put this as accurately as I've heard when I asked for his perspective.

"If he's making people like you upset, he's making his base very happy."

Indeed.

Still, I had a hard time wrapping my head around the governor's attacks on "woke" culture, "Fauci-ism" and his claims of an unseen "Neo-Marxist" agenda permeating every sector from education to business.

"We chose freedom over Fauci-ism," he said and I just shook my head and was one of the only people in the banquet hall to refrain from applause. This is because I've long since lost count of the number, but these words reminded me of the numerous obituaries I wrote of people in Tuscaloosa County who died after being hospitalized with COVID-19.

The vaccine debate aside, the virus was very real and something I saw ravage everyday people with my own eyes. Even the unprecedented transmission of the virus was visible to anyone halfway paying attention.

Our fatal mistake as a country was that we allowed the pandemic to be politicized by both sides, then stuck our corresponding heads in the sand any time a shred of information conflicted with our view of the world — regardless of if you were licking doorknobs out of protest to government mandates or wearing three masks driving alone in your car.

But never mind almost 90,000 people died in Florida after being diagnosed with the virus.

"Fauci does not care about your jobs, your businesses," DeSantis said Thursday, wholly disregarding the fact that Anthony Fauci retired at the close of the last calendar year. "He doesn't care about your freedom. We can't just do what Fauci says. We have to do what's right. So we stood up and we charted a different course."

In doubling back time and again to the pandemic to reinforce his talking points, DeSantis used the blue states of California and New York to underscore the success of his policies in Florida, referring to them as "lockdown states."

Never mind that his state, at present, trails only California and Texas for the most COVID-19 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. And never mind that this staggering death toll is roughly 10,000 souls higher than the reported deaths in the "lockdown" state of New York.

Despite culture war rhetoric being out front talking points for DeSantis, his stances on the southern border and the economy echo many of the same sentiments seen in the party and could provide his best path to the White House from a policy standpoint.

This was evident in the roars of applause he received when he mentioned Florida does not have a state income tax, before suggesting Alabama consider such a measure — completely ignoring Alabama's much smaller population and the state's embarrassingly low property tax rates compared to the Sunshine State.

The governor of a retiree and snow bird state, DeSantis also pointed out the growth in his state's population, which topped that of New York, before using the opportunity to mention the difference in New York's much larger state budget when compared to Florida.

At the state level, some of his policies include pushing for new legislation to prohibit any companies with connections to the Chinese government from buying land in Florida, along with a series of policies aimed at addressing undocumented immigration.

After all, this is the man who banned sanctuary cities and said Thursday night that he wrote President Biden to say he would send a boat to the Bahamas to pick up Serbian tennis star and renowned knucklehead Novak Djokovic so he could play in the Miami Open.

This was due to federal pandemic mandates that bar Djokovic from flying into the states from another country without being vaccinated against COVID-19.

Indeed, the border and immigration are some of the few issues — at least in this reporter's view — that are not culture war tactics and are talking points that should be addressed to ensure the most compassionate, yet just, policies for regulating the border.

Instead, DeSantis patted himself on the back for his viral decision to send detained immigrants to blue states. It's worth noting that last June, the New York Times reported that DeSantis approved setting aside $12 million for the creation of a program to transport undocumented immigrants out of Florida.

And it was with this taxpayer money that DeSantis last September footed the bill for 48 undocumented immigrants to be flown from Florida to Martha's Vineyard — the wealthy blue heart of Kennedy country. For those on the left, it stood as the troubling politicization of downtrodden immigrants for the sole purpose of grabbing headlines and sticking it to the libs.

Conversely, this move mostly inspired laughs on the political right, which stamped off on using vulnerable human beings as fodder to troll the political opposition. Basic human dignity was cast aside and this reporter's hope is that the individuals laughing at these poor souls never find themselves fleeing their homeland and desperately seeking asylum.

Compassion for anyone outside of his base is in short supply in Ron DeSantis's America.

In January, DeSantis even declared a state of emergency in Florida, ordering the Florida National Guard and state law enforcement agencies to provide resources in support of local governments responding to the "alarming influx of migrants landing in the Florida Keys, and providing additional support toward efforts to prevent further migrant landings on Florida’s shores."

As part of this, he claims his government has repatriated 11,000 people back to their country of origin — a talking point he mentioned with pride.

So much for Reagan's "Shining City on a Hill."

But on the home front, education reform is central to the governor's platform, particularly when it comes to weeding out any undesirable elements relating to "critical race theory," LGBTQ issues and anything "Woke."

Indeed, critical race theory has been completely scrapped from state curriculum in Florida and replaced instead with programs that give teachers $3,000 bonuses to complete training and implement curriculum that focuses more on American exceptionalism than it does historical context and truth.

"We're not teaching our kids to hate our country or hate each other based on their race," he said.

Still, DeSantis tossed out the victim card for the criticism he has received for his educational policies and encouraged Alabama Republicans to stop worrying about what the media will call them when they act on the courage of their convictions.

"When you do something like that, what's the media going to do?" he asked rhetorically. "They're going to demagogue you."

Folks — I've seen thieves who claimed they didn't steal, murderers who swore they didn't kill and politicians who argued they didn't lie, even after they were caught red-handed.

While due process is crucial in all instances, accusations typically carry some kind of merit, right?

And if someone is basking in the criticism of being called a demagogue, you should probably take said accusations seriously and consider them from a different perspective, lest you fall victim to the oppression you helped set loose into the body politic.

This country, more than any time since the Civil War, desperately needs a unifying leader — a president for all Americans, not just the ones who voted them into office.

DeSantis, who decries over-regulation on businesses while at the same time going to war with Disney over its stance on his policies, is not that candidate. And if he were, he likely wouldn't be as popular as he is among Floridians and conservatives outside of the Sunshine State.

It's the height of the culture wars, after all. For many, it's more important to hate your neighbor for who they vote for than trying to understand why they believe what they do.

Hell, if you don't want to believe something you read, just shout "fake news" really loud and it will suddenly be refuted — seems to work for a whole bunch of people I know, but I digress.

So, this where we've found ourselves and only time will tell if the most popular governor in America will commit to a 2024 White House bid. That is, if there is any America to be president of by the time the ballots are cast.

But from what this reporter saw in Hoover on Thursday, DeSantis is posturing for something bigger than his station and it's a something that should not be taken lightly by voters on either side of the aisle.

Ryan Phillips is an award-winning journalist, editor and opinion columnist. He is also the founder and field editor of Tuscaloosa Patch. The views expressed in this column are his own and in no way reflective of any views held by our parent company or sponsors.