Ron DeSantis Vowed to “Destroy Leftism”.

Imagine if a left wing politician said the same about the conservatism.

Photo by Joshua Sukoff on Unsplash

With Florida Governor Ron DeSantis finally entering the Presidential race after months of buildup and speculation, the Republican primary is officially in full swing. Given he’s got a significant mountain to climb in the polls and has the charisma of a soup can, it should come as no surprise that he’s trying to think of ways to appear tough and make some headlines. Naturally, the left was the target.

Martin Pengelly with The Guardian writes:

“Predicting two terms in the White House should he defeat Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination next year, Ron DeSantis said he would go on to “destroy leftism in this country”.

“I will be able to destroy leftism in this country and leave woke ideology in the dustbin of history,” the Florida governor told Fox News.

DeSantis declared his long-expected run last week, in a glitch-filled appearance on Twitter with its owner, Elon Musk.

The widely panned launch followed a long phony war period in which DeSantis toured early voting states and launched a campaign-oriented book but nonetheless fell further and further behind the former president in primary polling…”

Well, a far right wing ideologue vowing to destroy leftism is certainly a strong indication about where we stand as a nation, isn’t it?

I get that he’s simply trying to appear tough. I know he wants to make an impression and garner a few national headlines that his base is going to like. But therein lies the problem, right? He wouldn’t have said this if he didn’t think thirty-forty percent of the country would love it. This is how polarized we have become, and I’m not sure how it’s sustainable.

And then of course, there’s the other frustrating aspect to it.

Could you imagine if someone on the left said this? Could you imagine if AOC went on MSNBC and vowed to “destroy conservatism”? I’m not sure the right wing would stop talking about it until she was out of office. She would be condemned by her colleagues and potentially nudged out of office via primary challenger that the entire corporate wing of the Democratic Party would rally behind. This is the type of rhetoric we have just come to accept on the right wing with virtually no strong counter, and that’s inarguably a dangerous place to be in.

Luckily, I still don’t think DeSantis has any chance whatsoever of getting the nomination and I’m genuinely looking forward to seeing him get demolished in the debates. But he’s going to remind us many times on the way of just how dangerous he is, and what’s in store for the state of Florida.

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