“The goal of our declaration of economic independence is simple,” according to Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign website: “We win. They lose.”
By “we,” DeSantis presumably means everyday Americans. But he never really explains who “they” are, other than to reference shadowy “elites” no fewer than five times, and China a whopping 14 times, in his “declaration.”
He claims he will “protect entrepreneurship from central planners” … with vigorous central planning.
He’ll “demand that American companies act in accordance with American interests.” By doing what Boss Ron tells them to do.
He “will not tolerate woke corporations using ESG as an end-run around our constitutional system to impose heavy-handed, left-wing edicts through concentrated private power.” But at the same time, “there will be no ideological litmus test for getting a loan, establishing a bank account, or running a business. “
Which is it going to be, Ron? Can those “woke corporations” run their businesses the way they want to, or do they have to pass your ideological litmus tests?
He “will create a fair labor market” — with draconian immigration policies to exclude the vast majority of humanity from that labor market. If that means that American workers can’t get — or afford — many things for lack of willing hands to make them (and because he’ll prevent Chinese companies from selling them), too bad for us.
He reminds me a lot of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
Like Warren, most of his career has been spent in so-called “public service.” Other than a couple of years in private practice while preparing his first congressional campaign, he’s spent his entire adult life drawing a government paycheck. Public school teacher. Navy attorney. U.S. Attorney. Congressman. Governor.
And, like Warren, when he sees a problem — real, imagined, or manufactured — his automatic response is to propose “solving” that problem by putting him in charge, with sweeping powers to “fix” it by ordering people around.
If there’s a difference between the two, it’s that elitist political careerist Elizabeth Warren doesn’t run around pretending to hate elitist political careerists, while that’s part and parcel of elitist political careerist Ron DeSantis’s schtick.
Fortunately, there’ another similarity between the two. Like Elizabeth Warren, Ron DeSantis looks set to fail in his bid for a major party’s presidential nomination.
That’s a small favor for which I’m duly grateful to the Almighty. Even if it means putting up with his misrule in Florida for another two years.
Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.
