Florida Gov. Ron Desantis, who wants to be president, is wildly popular at the ballot box in his home state.
One wonders why. While the stereotypical Floridian is a well-heeled East Coast retiree, in reality Florida ranks in the bottom third of average household incomes, and DeSantis has done almost nothing for his state’s average citizens.
“Even a cursory dip into the statistics of social and economic well-being reveals that Florida falls short in almost any measure that matters to the lives of its citizens, Time magazine says (read story here).
“More than four years into [his] governorship, Florida continues to languish toward the bottom of state rankings [in] the quality of health care, school funding, long-term elder care, and other areas key to a successful society.”
Florida is “where teachers’ salaries are among the lowest in the nation, unemployment benefits are stingier than in any other state, and wage theft flourishes with little interference from the DeSantis administration.” In 2021, DeSantis campaigned against raising the state’s stingy minimum wage from $8.65 an hour; under his leadership, “the Sunshine State has not … been a workers’ paradise.”
Well, you wouldn’t expect a GOP-ruled state to be worker-friendly, would you?
Time says DeSantis’ “core mission” is to “starve” programs that make life better for ordinary citizens to keep taxes low on the wealthy and corporations. That makes Florida a haven “for privileged Americans who don’t want to pay their fair share of taxes.” In 2019 the Orlando Sentinel found 99% of Florida’s companies paid no corporate income tax.
His Covid-19 policies, which are best described as keeping businesses open at all costs, killed Floridians. He won’t take free federal money to provide health care to Florida residents, which Time calls “an act of political spite.” They’re paying for it with lower life expectancy, higher cancer and diabetes rates, more teen births, and higher infant mortality.
As I’ve commented in other postings on this blog, he’s also gutting public education; Florida schools have thousands of unfilled teacher vacancies, and he wants to fill them with non-teachers. He’s now expanding his attack on education by going after colleges, professors, and academic freedom, too. He’s also attacking journalists, bloggers, and free speech.
DeSantis has mastered the Republican tactic of exploiting “wedge” issues to distract voters from policies that harms them. Time says, “As the 2024 election draws closer, DeSantis must not be allowed to accomplish nationally what he did in his state.”
It’s not a foregone conclusion that he’ll succeed. He has a couple things working against him. MAGA voters and GOP politicians are rallying to Trump, not him; and as several political observers have commented, his personality turns people off; he’s no good at the retail politics a candidate needs to win the early primaries that are crucial to a fledgling campaign’s momentum.
A GOP strategist recently noted that DeSantis, at 44, is young and argued he should bide his time. Trump won’t dominate the GOP forever, and he’d have a better chance by waiting. But unlike wine, he probably won’t improve with age; he’s someone you should never vote for.