We’ve been watching Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida on the national stage for a little while. His state, he says, is the place where “woke goes to die.” It’s also a place where you “don’t say gay.” As a result, he thinks it’s okay to attack a private company, Disney, over its non-discriminatory and open policies because they offend him. How is that not discriminatory?
Nearby is Governor Greg Abbott of Texas. (If he’s an Abbott, then DeSantis should be Costello, but I won’t argue who’s on first with their hateful policies.) He is one of several governors creating a wedge issue by inserting themselves in the private lives of citizens on issues of transgenderism, transsexualism, and just being gay. Not a big surprise, considering people like Abbott and Cos—er, DeSantis have been inserting themselves in the private lives of women for decades by telling them what they can and can’t do with their bodies. And yet despite all their complaints about government intervention in our lives and businesses, this is somehow okay? This is a conservative view?
Fear and loathing of all things LGBTQ+ are on the rise in our society, and fear had another win this past week in a ruling by the Supreme Court allowing business owners to deny service to LGBTQ+ customers. The ruling amounts to state-sponsored discrimination. The fact that religious and moral beliefs were put ahead of civil rights shows just how far we have sunk from the founders’ vision of this country.
DeSantis and his ilk have found their wedge issue, and they are pushing that wedge as far as they can into the body politic. Their underlying argument is that their constituents are fearful of schools, other public institutions, and even private companies that highlight gay issues, gay history, black issues, black history, and other things that offend them. They feel they are protecting their constituents.
Fear is a powerful weapon, and once a politician can isolate the littlest drop of fear, they find it all too easy to nurture it, expand it, and weaponize it. I’m not sure if DeSantis actually believes what he’s saying or is just cynically jumping on an anti-gay bandwagon in an effort to win votes. It shouldn’t matter—it’s hateful.
But leaders don’t conduct themselves this way. That is the difference between a leader and a politician. Politicians care only for power, and they’ll say anything that allows them to win more votes, even at the expense of human rights, civil rights, and perhaps even their country. Leaders calm fears, say “We got this” and “Keep calm and carry on,” and try to unite us. Even when politicians win power and seats, once they get into office their entire political calculus is crafted around staying in power, not what’s right for their country. And staying in power is so much easier when you can convince large swaths of the electorate to stay fearful.
Examples of leaders: Lincoln, who said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand;” and FDR, who said, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” These presidents united our country instead of dividing it, and they were rewarded for it by additional terms of office, so apparently back then words of unity won out over words of division. I sometimes wonder if that time has passed, but I also believe Americans are sick of this divisiveness and would welcome a leader who proclaims, “Other Americans are not your enemy.” Such words would bring out “the better angels of our nature,” to put it in Lincoln’s terms.
I’ll throw the right a bone by saying I’m not on board with President Biden’s attacks on “MAGA Republicans,” although I think members of that group are more like a cult than a community with any political ideals or logic. But these poor souls have legitimate concerns and fears, and rather than denying them a voice we should be trying our hardest to listen to them and convince them they have nothing to fear. Nobody is coming to make them or their children gay or trans-—the LGBTQ+ community and other minorities simply want to live in peace without being vilified and blamed for all of society’s ills. It’s a hard message to break through after decades of hateful noise, but it’s work that needs to be done.
I have yet to hear a policy statement from DeSantis that doesn’t involve his being anti-gay and anti-woke. (He claims Florida has low income taxes and business taxes, but property taxes are sky-high, so he’s just another example of shifty politicians who move the costs of living somewhere else so they can brag about lower taxes in another arena.) He has found his issues around fighting “wokeness,” and he is warming them like an alligator sitting on an egg. If he can divide this country in a way that wins the White House, he won’t care that his words stoke hatred and even violence against marginalized groups.
This is not what leaders do, and my hope is that if he were to get to the general election, there are far more good people in the country who see DeSantis’ divisive ways as harmful to our nation. Standing next to anyone who promises to unite our country will be his downfall. The vast majority of Americans favor gay marriage, and younger generations support LGBTQ+ rights more than older ones. Despite horrible Supreme Court decisions (which can be overturned just like the Dred Scott and Plessy v. Ferguson decisions over the long arc of history), most Americans don’t want politicians or policies that divide us.
A real leader who promises relief from this division and fear-mongering would be a welcome change, and I believe there are many leaders like this out there. They may be drowned out by the haters and fear-mongers, but they need to yell louder and prouder. They need to reveal the haters for who they are: cynical, calculating, and devious dividers. However far they are able to ride this wave of hate, history will look as unkindly on them as it does now on George Wallace during desegregation. This is a hateful moment in our country, and we need leaders of all kinds to step up and reveal the hate for what it is.
