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DeSantis: Don’t Stop Him; He’s on a Roll

AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall

Meanwhile back in the Sunshine State, the overwhelmingly reelected governor and erstwhile GOP presidential candidate — regarded by certain dreamers as the Plan B you can’t get at CVS — keeps racking up victories. Not just for the center-right, mind you, but for all sensible Floridians and, indeed, Americans across the fruited plain.

Here is some of what Florida’s 46th governor has been up to just in the past week:

  • DeSantis rebuked in unmistakable phrases any notion that Florida — the nation’s third-largest state — would in any way cooperate with President Biden’s wholesale and scandalous recasting of Title IX, the landmark civil rights legislation that codified females’ equal footing in all things educational, especially including sports.
  • He warned gravely about repercussions for students at Florida public universities who participate in violent protests that target specific groups of students, in this case those who are Jewish. A few days later, University of Florida President Ben Sasse issued rules for demonstrators that, if violated, would result in expulsions for students and job losses for employees.
  • On Earth Day — a high holy day for leftist shakedown artists, but what are you gonna do? — DeSantis demonstrated the sensible side of eco-conservatism by signing bills targeting the root causes of red tide; helping restore the Everglades; increasing access to government-supported home-hardening improvements; and expanding the state’s 18-million acre Wildlife Corridor. 
  • The Republican Party of Florida celebrated topping a 900,000 registered-voter advantage over Democrats in the state, a better-than 1.1 million tsunami in four years, due in no small part to DeSantis’ involvement, energy, focus, and money devoted to the task.
  • He announced the evacuation of more than 700 Americans from Haiti to Florida, “despite a lack of cooperation from the federal government.”
  • Finally, DeSantis wrapped up the week by stumping for the adoption of shelter dogs, building on the early lessons his family is learning from having welcomed Liberty, a blond terrier/lab mix, in February.

So much winning. And on things that matter, too. In this, he’s sort of the Bizarro Blutarski, the guy who inspires the troops and accomplishes impressive stuff, all the while getting his facts straight. There are no Germans bombing Pearl Harbor in DeSantis Land. Still, as Boon said to Otter in the middle of the greatest call-to-arms speech since Henry V, “Forget it. He’s rolling.”

All of this pragmatic advancement of conservative philosophy caught the attention of one Rare Normie Libertarian, who offers this pithy summation of DeSantis’ recent triumphs.

So there’s that. Yes, the nominating campaign may be wrapped up, the inevitable Trump vs. Biden sequel that, if you believe polls, “nobody wanted” is all but carved in granite. Nonetheless, the wistful among us still can’t understand how we — both sides, but mostly Republicans — got this so wrong. (Pause for audible sigh.)

Anyway, operating once more out of the Governor’s Mansion, DeSantis is back to underscoring almost daily what it looks like when the chief executive has a clear and unwavering commitment, whose morality is arrow-straight, and whose counsel he values most is his own, not the last person he spoke with.

Yes, it’s splendid news that Florida’s universities won’t be turning into laughing stocks because they succumb to malcontents who never lettered in anything except Vietnam-era protester envy.

And we’re all in favor of dogs finding homes, especially with Gov. Kristi Noem still on the loose.

But we leave you with this, because, in a week of sheer dopiness in blue states where residents never seem quite certain about the link between actions and consequences, this bold pushback soars as a uniquely significant moment of conviction sobriety.

Good on you, Governor. Let’s hope the GOP presidential nominee, who’s otherwise occupied just now with opponents who have exacerbated the consequences of his misbehavior, at last displays similar courageous crystal clarity.

Oh, wait.


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Ed Morrissey 10:00 PM | November 20, 2024
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