A Friday Op-Ed published in the Guardian warned of a Ron DeSantis presidency as a threat to the “entire nation and to the world beyond.”
The piece, written by Margaret Sullivan, a columnist and media, politics and culture writer for the Guardian, criticized the Florida Governor’s speech during Tuesday’s State of the State address in which DeSantis touted his achievements during his first term stating, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
“He means it as a promise, but it ought to be heard as a threat,” Sullivan wrote, criticizing Florida legislation including the Stop WOKE Act and the Parental Rights in Education bill infamously referred to and miscited by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, along with efforts to bolster election security measures.
“If DeSantis should somehow capture the presidency … that threat would extend to our entire nation and to the world beyond.”
Ron DeSantis is just getting started with his rightwing agenda. That should worry us all, yet the media mostly fawns over him. My latest in @GuardianUS https://t.co/oJBnV8AKgc
— Margaret Sullivan (@Sulliview) March 10, 2023
Sullivan notes the Parental Rights in Education bill “prevents teachers from talking about gender identity and sexual orientation in some elementary-school grades,” along with the Stop WOKE Act, which “restricts how race is discussed in Florida’s schools, colleges, and even private workplaces.”
The Guardian writer claimed schools pulled Toni Morrison’s Bluest Eye in response to legislation, further referring to the novel as a “literary masterpiece.”
“Florida’s medical boards now bar transgender youth from gender-affirming medical care such as hormone therapy. State law bans most abortions beyond 15-weeks gestation; a new bill would tighten that to only six weeks,” she continued. “And, of course, never forget that true liberty means ready access to guns: Florida residents may soon be able to carry firearms without a state license.”
Sullivan criticized Florida legislation and other measures supported by DeSantis, referring to the Florida Governor’s new book, The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival, as “Orwellian.”
“It’s appalling to see the media lavish him with so much fawning coverage. Fox News has put its calamitous love affair with Donald Trump on ice while it swoons over his younger rival,” she wrote, criticizing media response to DeSantis’ State of the State speech as “[magnifying] his boasts.”
“The media should be delving into the substance of that record, including the kitchen-table economic issues that have nothing to do with performative anti-woke nonsense,” Sullivan continued. “Instead of letting DeSantis play at will on his favorite field of divisive social issues, reporters should dig into his war on teachers’ unions, like trying to limit how they can collect dues and where they conduct union business.”
The Guardian writer concludes, “With DeSantis, as with Trump, [the] stakes are incredibly high. Especially if his threat is true and we ain’t seen nothing yet.”
