FLORIDA’S ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ BILL PLAYS INTO DESANTIS’S HANDS:

In refusing to kowtow to Democratic histrionics — which DeSantis has been doing since early in the pandemic — the governor adopted a signature rhetorical move of his own: he set the political frame and never bended to faux emotionality or backtracked once committed to a position. DeSantis understands that if you don’t fall for Democrats’ emotional blackmail, eventually they’ll have to defend the inconvenient facts. If they scream “don’t say gay,” you counter with “are you okay with a random teacher talking to little kids about sexuality?” and let them attempt to sell that line to normal Americans.

As a Floridian, it’s been fascinating to watch DeSantis become a smooth political operator ready for primetime. In the early days of the pandemic, he was an inexperienced newcomer in search of an identity and governance style. Yet he proved to be up to the challenge, and the ensuing pandemic years honed his burgeoning political personality. He was quicker than most when it came to removing unnecessary pandemic restrictions, but he held his frame — the first time — when pro-lockdown Democrats called him genocidal.

Next, he was forceful in getting kids back to in-person learning, and when faced with histrionics yet again, he never gave in to the screams of “Deathsantis.” But now that the pandemic is in the rearview mirror and DeSantis is looking toward a possible presidential run, he needs more than just popular pandemic policies and an immovable frame — he needs to round out his political platform.

Lately, one gets the sense that DeSantis’s maneuvering in Florida has less to do with the state and more to do with the DeSantis doctrine; the fact that Florida is now the “free state of Florida” and buzzing with newcomers is incidental to the larger project at hand. Which is to say that Florida Democrats have played right into his hands with the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

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