In a speech light on policy initiatives — he’ll save that for his March State of the State address that kicks off the legislative session — DeSantis waxed patriotic and traditional, stressing Florida-style freedom and opportunity that steered joyously into “the boisterous sea of liberty, rather than cower in the calm docks of despotism.” 

“Over the past few years, as so many states in our country grinded their citizens down,” he said, “we in Florida lifted our people up.”

DeSantis poked at “the floundering federal establishment in Washington D.C.” that has, by turns, gotten most everything wrong: inflationary spending, pandemic restrictions and mandates, wide-open borders, a crippling energy policy, and more.

He spoke then of the enduring fire of liberty, invoking the founders and their like-minded successors, each of whom carried a torch of freedom — from Independence Hall to Gettysburg to Normandy to the Lincoln Memorial to the Berlin Wall. Floridians, DeSantis said, accept the responsibility to “carry this torch.”

What wasn’t to love?

Among the not-enthralled: The Democratic National Committee, which scolded DeSantis and Florida for its “extreme abortion ban [after 15 weeks] that’s already forced teenage girls to leave the state to get care.” Good one, DNC. After all, what is freedom if it doesn’t include access to slaying the unborn who are capable of feeling pain?

Let’s not stop there. The New Republic, getting comfortable with a DeSantis-is-worse-than-Trump campaign, was neither encouraged nor amused. As a cheeky Melissa Gira Grant wrote: 

DeSantis, like his fellow Republicans, is entirely uncommitted to what most people would call “governance,” instead favoring scapegoating and vigilantism, declaring war on an unoriginal, fairly outgunned list of enemies: trans kids and their teachers and librarians; queer and trans people generally and drag queens specifically; prosecutors who refuse to enforce the law the way DeSantis wants them to; school board members who refuse to fight the bogeymen DeSantis simply stole from other, more successful message-makers — “critical race theory,” “gender ideology,” and “grooming.” That’s what DeSantis is running on, pledging, “We will enact more family-friendly policies,” that “we will defend our children against those who seek to rob them of their innocence,” garnering the longest applause line of his inaugural address. It meant nothing, and it was the whole thing, with the governor pausing and nodding and waving like he wanted you to know he got the right answer, and to give people more time to rise for him from their seats. 

There is simply too much to unpack here. But a couple of the more glaring accusations clamor to be addressed.

That mention of “drag queens specifically” no doubt references an investigation by DeSantis’ administration, through the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, into a holiday-themed drag queen event at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts where children were allegedly present. 

“The Department is actively investigating this matter, including video footage and photographs from the event,” DeSantis spokesman Bryan Griffin posted on Twitter in a post that has garnered over 250,000 views. “DPBR will, like in other cases, take action.

“Exposing children to sexually explicit activity is a crime in Florida, and such action violates the Department’s licensing standards for operating a business and holding a liquor license,” the statement said.

So, yes, in the Era of Ron DeSantis, Florida will enforce its laws designed to protect youngsters from sexualizing images and performances.

Which leads us to another of Gira Grant’s charges, that DeSantis punishes “prosecutors who refuse to enforce the law the way DeSantis wants them to.” This is important if true.

Let’s have a look. While it is accurate that Hillsborough County’s twice-elected state attorney, Andrew Warren, crossed a line of particular importance to the governor, that’s not ostensibly what caught DeSantis’ ire. When Warren declared he would not prosecute violations of current or future state laws pertaining to abortion or transgender health care, DeSantis suspended him (in August) for “neglect of duty.”

A three-day trial in federal district court in Tallahassee before Judge Ron Hinkle concluded more than a month ago, but despite expectations, no ruling has been issued.

Whenever a politician paints boldly and in primary colors — as DeSantis increasingly (and successfully) does — it’s easy and, indeed, tempting for opponents to miscast the politician’s positions and deeds, especially when presenting for an audience seeking only to have its opinions affirmed.

For them, it is enough that the New Republic said it, they believe it, and that’s the end of it. Leave dissections for the biology lab.

For Floridians who re-elected DeSantis in a landslide, full well knowing we might lose him to a national contest before long, the proof of the governor has been in his doing: His actions have matched his rhetoric, and in both categories, he has been plain, courageous, consistent, and effective.

Small wonder national Republicans are thrilled, and their Democratic counterparts are nervous enough to fudge the facts.