The End of DeSantis? and Moms for Liberty Dumb Down America
Hollywood Is Quiet-Quitting Diversity, Books I'm Reading, Steven Feifke Plays Jazz
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The End of DeSantis?: His Latest Attack Ad Reveals His Admiration for Serial Murderers, Fraudsters, and Brad Pitt
DeSantis has never looked more like road kill. The desperate flop sweat emanating from him as he tries to claw his way out of the political quicksand he’s slowly sinking into has never been more evident than his recent anti-Pride Month ad (which you can watch in its entirety here.) With his approval rate falling 19 points in the past couple of months, putting him significantly behind Trump, the DeSantis campaign has decided to abandon any pretense of rational arguments and embrace open hatred and contradictory messaging. This ad is like a monkey at a zoo throwing feces as the onlookers, hope it hits at least one person.
I’ll get into some specifics of the ad shortly, because no synopsis can fully describe the insanity, cult worship, homoeroticism, self-aggrandizement, and middle-school mentality on embarrassing display. It’s the equivalent of us catching DeSantis licking his reflection in a mirror.
The ad is so bad that I might believe that, even though it slams Trump for comments supporting LGBTQ+ rights, Trump’s people covertly did the ad just so the backlash would further bury DeSantis. But, no, he’s fully capable of doing that himself. Technically, the ad was produced by the DeSantis War Room, who claim to be his “rapid response Twitter operation.”
Condemnation of the ad has been swift and firm from both Republicans and Democrats. The Log Cabin Republicans, the largest Republican organization supporting LGBTQ+ rights, criticized the ad as “homophobic” and complained that DeSantis has “alienated swing-state and younger voters.”
Here’s just a sample of the weirdness from the ad: It starts with clips of Trump saying he will protect LGBTQ+ people. Then suddenly, a black and white photo of DeSantis appears with lightning shooting from his eyes with the word NO. He’s supposed to look like some kind of superhero, but his emotionless expression makes him look demonic. This is followed by a bunch of clips of stereotypical manly men, including Christian Bale playing a deranged businessman in American Psycho who may or may not be a mass murderer (the implication is he’s a DeSantis kind of guy), Brad Pitt as Greek warrior Achilles glaring at us in disapproval of our tolerating anything not ultra-manly, a shirtless muscular guy, DeSantis in a helicopter for some reason, a guy in an old-timey motoring hat and smoking a cigarette (maybe from Peaky Binders), a headline that says, “DeSantis seems unstoppable” (which is laughable given his rapid circling of the toilet), more Brad Pitt, more helicopters, a Top Gun-style banner saying “Top Guv,” Leo DiCaprio as a Wall Street huckster who defrauds his clients, another oiled-up muscle guy. All to the soundtrack of men with deep voice singing, “Dum…dum, dum.” Or maybe “Dumb…dumb, dumb.”
Analysis: DeSantis wants us to associate him with the old-fashioned idea of beefy, kick-ass manly men—including psychopathic murderers and criminals—while boasting about how he is oppressing the LGBTQ+ community, and at the same time giving us homoerotic pin-ups. Talk about mixed messages.
Christina Pushaw, the rapid-response director for DeSantis' campaign, tweeted about the criticism: “We wouldn't support a month to celebrate straight people for sexual orientation, either... It's unnecessary, divisive, pandering. In a country as vast and diverse as the USA, identity politics is poison.” The logic of this statement matches the logic of the ad itself—which is to say, the kind you’d find at a Flat-Earthers convention. So, let’s break it down:
“We wouldn't support a month to celebrate straight people for sexual orientation”: What Ms. Pushaw and the “DeSantisnistas” refuse to understand is that the point of a month to celebrate a particular group is to promote the positives that have been historically ignored or suppressed—by people like Pushaw and DeSantis. No need to celebrate straight people since they’ve been celebrated in movies, songs, plays, art, and all forms of culture. They are celebrated every single day by a majority of our arts, laws, and traditions.
“It's unnecessary”: It’s unnecessary only if we’re okay with far-right conservatives, which form a small minority, dictating social norms. It’s unnecessary if we don’t wish to protect children and adults who are currently being denied basic civil rights as well as being harassed, beaten, and killed. Americans who believe in the Constitution will find it necessary.
“It's…divisive”: When we all join in supporting Pride Month, we’re welcoming a marginalized group, which actually lessens divisiveness. The fact that so many anti-LGBTQ+ laws have recently been passed, despite polls that show most Americans don’t support those laws, increases divisiveness (“U.S. Same-Sex Marriage Support Holds at 71% High”).
“In a country as vast and diverse as the USA, identity politics is poison”: Identity politics is a phrase with no real meaning except to get a rise out of the bigoted. Here’s the dictionary definition: “Political positions and activism based on an aspect of identity (e.g. ethnicity, religion, sex, or sexual orientation) shared by a group which feels that its concerns are not adequately represented.” Not surprisingly, that’s exactly what DeSantis and Pushaw are doing. They ignore the popular point of view to promote a religion-influenced identity-based political position. Sadly, they assume their followers are too dumb, lazy, or biased to look it up. Even sadder, they’re probably right.
Will this ad be DeSantis’ “jump-the-shark” moment that pokes the fatal hole in the already leaking hot air balloon that is his campaign? Maybe now everyone can see that Top Guv is just Prop Guv.