Ron DeSantis: an Honest Pinocchio, a Real Podestà

After President Trump's chaos and President Biden's anemia, Governor Ron DeSantis looks ready to deliver the best of both worlds in a more youthful, steady appearance. American voters proud of their democracy and diversity may now move from two Catholic First Ladies and a liberal Catholic to a conservative Catholic who will be sworn in by a majority Catholic Supreme Court. It's as if Vietnam and Iraq--particularly Guantanamo Bay--have been forgotten by the Catholic Church, Federalist Society, and United States military, all blinded by their would-be savior. The result? An intellectual midget who talks and acts like a politician but who will never be a real national politician.

DeSantis appears reasonable only because of set-ups elevating his opposition to extremists. You may be pro-choice, but if governments allowed mothers to throw eight-months-old fetuses in public garbage bins, you'd compromise after the hundredth such story--whether true or false. People forget civil society requires civility, and when political operators exploit humanity's visual and emotional instincts, conservatism wins absent a fair playing field. Call it the "Jordan Peterson Effect": a terrible writer and lazy thinker who seems smart only because he's constantly tearing down strawmen. Softballs pitched at DeSantis include biological men competing in women's sports; "queer theory" in an African-American history course far beyond, one assumes, James Baldwin, Bayard Rustin, Emile Griffith, plus a few others; and intrusive, arbitrary COVID19 restrictions. Even DeSantis's Florida numbers look rigged--they result from contesting a twice-divorced former Republican who switched political parties and who had substandard support from the Democratic Party. 

New Orleans, once America's largest slave market

Lawyers, the least accessible, most complex cog in the political machine, were supposed to advocate fair play and honorable candidates, but Guantanamo is still open, the CIA still favors destabilization, and WMDs have never been found in Iraq. As such, propaganda naturally rules the roost when about half of federal discretionary spending enters the military and over half of mandatory spending favors senior citizens, rendering unaffiliated interests a sideshow. If Congressional spending were transmogrified into an easily understandable form, it would be two septuagenarians reviewing recently bought advanced weapons while using illegal surveillance to keep their racially and economically segregated neighborhood safe. (My mind's eye: Fred shakily holds a bazooka on his front lawn while Edna collects her monthly government checks, all while being recorded without consent.) Given immovable pre-existing obligations, plus the triumph of technology over privacy, propaganda and circuses are necessary for political parties who  desire relevance, and history is fertile ground for every decent propagandist. 

On that topic, DeSantis sincerely believes a version of American history preceding an empire's end, where exceptionalism and nationalism are the same and everyone can access a level playing field if sufficiently talented. In reality, every American textbook is deficient if it excludes the following details: NYC banned the Catholic Church, unintentionally creating a private sector more dynamic than the public sector because of its disregard for laws; the founders set up the United States as a republic to prevent Catholic political influence; and the founders were religious but against established religion, mirroring attitudes of the French Revolution, itself an anti-Catholic revolt. Today, a country founded on the belief that established religion causes intolerance gives tax advantages to political movements as long as a Christian cross is somewhere to be found. (Interestingly, California, settled by Spanish Catholics and home to substantial Catholic real estate holdings, embodies Catholicism as political movement--all non-gay and non-African-American state officeholders are Catholic or private Catholic high school graduates, and all governors since 1999 have been Catholic.)

Because DeSantis' rise is inseparable from the Church's political influence, we must analyze his understanding of history to determine his competence. Before we embark on a simple lesson, note that outsiders are always the ones who provide more complete historical information because they are not selling you a version of history that promotes staying in power. Caveats aside, neither Malcolm X nor Martin Luther King seemed to understand the term "Negro" derives from the Spanish word for "Black," an unusable term outside areas colonized by Catholic Spain because of the richer color palette possible when racial segregation is not enshrined in laws upheld by Roman columns. In addition, few American high school students know "Republican Party" comes from the term "republican," i.e., anti-monarchy, anti-papist, and in favor of individual rights protected by checks and balances.

"The great body of our *native* citizens are unquestionably of the republican sentiment."(Source: Thomas Jefferson to James Sullivan, 9 February 1797)

"He [General George Washington] has often declared to me that he considered our new constitution as an experiment on the practicability of republican government, and with what dose of liberty man could be trusted for his own good: that he was determined the experiment should have a fair trial, and would lose the last drop of his blood in support of it." (Source: Thomas Jefferson to Walter Jones, 2 January 1814)

Stated succinctly, American government was an anti-establishmentarian experiment in which populism would be promoted then balanced with individual morals and other guardrails. That this experiment saw no contradiction between chattel slavery and its ideals exposes the pernicious racism endemic in all non-minority Christian thinkers at the time as well as the significance of economic output dependent on slave labor, particularly in humid southern territories. (Lest you think humidity a reasonable excuse, the Arab prophet Muhammad freed an African slave, Bilal, and banned chattel slavery--though not indentured servitude, which was tempered by usury prohibitions. His habit of freeing slaves made him one of Arabia's most hated men, forcing him to leave Mecca to Medina and Abyssinia. The world's first mosque is in Medina, not Mecca.)

I do swear by this city of Mecca, even though you, O' Prophet, are subjected to abuse here by everyone, including children... Do they believe no one has power over them?... Have we not given them two eyes, a tongue, and two lips and shown them the two paths of right and wrong? If only they had attempted the challenging path of goodness instead, and if only they understood what attempting the challenging path is? It is to free a slave, or to give food in times of hunger, to an orphan, or to a poor person in distress, and--above all--to be one of those who have faith and who urge each other to perseverance and urge each other to compassion. -- Qu'ran, Al Balad, verses 7-17, revealed in the 7th century A.D. [In contrast, the Bible lacks direct prohibitions against slavery, preferring to speak generally against oppression and greed.]

Benjamin Franklin: "the Number of purely white People in the World is proportionably very small. All Africa is black or tawny. Asia chiefly tawny. America (exclusive of the new Comers) wholly so... why should we in the Sight of Superior Beings, darken its People? why increase the Sons of Africa, by Planting them in America, where we have so fair an Opportunity, by excluding all Blacks and Tawneys, of increasing the lovely White and Red? But perhaps I am partial to the Complexion of my Country, for such Kind of Partiality is natural to Mankind." (Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, 1751)

Thomas Jefferson: "I advance it, therefore, as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time or circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind." (Notes on the State of Virginia, 1785) [FYI: Jefferson also seems to say only an Orangutan would prefer a black woman over a white woman. It is unclear whether he made such comments before or after copulating with one of his black female slaves. As strange as it sounds, one gets the sense Jefferson was sincerely interested in racial differences and wanted personal knowledge on the subject before forming definite opinions.]

Abraham Lincoln: "While I was at the hotel today an elderly gentleman called upon me to know whether I was really in favor of producing a perfect equality between the negroes and white people. [Great laughter]... There is a physical difference between the white and the black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together... while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any man am in favor having the superior position assigned to the white race... I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races." (Debates with Stephen Douglas, 1858)

If most Americans do not understand a term as simple as "Negro," it should not astound you they also do not realize their founders were wary of established religion, which had incited violent conflicts and purges in their European brethren. Consequently, the First Amendment protected individual religious practice rather than government-funded religion: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free [individual] exercise thereof."

The Lutheran is the reigning religion here and is equally intolerant to the Catholic and Calvinist, excluding them from the free corps. (Source: Notes of a Tour through Holland, March 3, 1788)

Ironically, though many American settlers had been driven out by religious intolerance, when they arrived in the colonies, some doubled down on religious beliefs, perhaps a logical choice in a time when government services did not include community centers, food stamps, and sports leagues. Conflict between theory and practice is nothing new, but the founders would be shocked at the Catholic takeover of American government because they designed a republic--checks and balances included--to prevent any established religion from having undue influence in government. (All but one signatory to both the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were Protestant, the term coming from the act of "protesting" the corruption of the Catholic Church in Europe.)

In 1790, Catholics in America numbered approximately thirty five thousand out of a population just under four million. (Source: "The Enigmatic Founder: Liberalism, Republicanism, and the Thought of James Madison" by John S. Witherow, Portland State University, 1990)

"Liberal suspicions of authority simultaneously divided Protestants among themselves and united them against Rome." (Source: Separation of Church and State: A Theologically Liberal, Anti-Catholic, and American Principle, by Philip Hamburger, 2002)

As recently as 1821, John Adams was asking Thomas Jefferson, "Can a free Government possibly exist with a Roman Catholic Religion?" (Source: Letter of John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 19 May 1821 from Montezillo) If chattel slavery steeped in racism was the backbone of the American export economy and  if the founders were wary of any established religion's undue influence, how did Americans get here, to the land of fake news and a Catholic governor's attempt to ban more inclusive history?

First, from 1991 until recently, the United States lacked competition. If you are the sole holder of power, you may conjure any narrative you want, and no one will dispute your version. Moreover, as the sole holder of power, hubris is unavoidable, and a historical version encompassing exceptionalism more likely than not. Second, the founders' written output was prodigious. Thomas Jefferson alone penned over 19,000 letters and regularly referred to French writers, requiring some knowledge of French and French history in order to understand him. Also, like most of us, Jefferson and other founders changed their opinions over time or mollified their tone depending on the recipient or occasion. As a result, if you look long enough, you can find sentences that support any opinion you wish to attribute to the founders, and the only honest method of approaching American history is to study European history, which requires an understanding of multiple languages. (Jefferson once referred to a French document when asked to define "government.")

"Liberty then I would say that, in the whole plenitude of it’s extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will: but rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will, within the limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law’; because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual." -- Thomas Jefferson  (Source: Thomas Jefferson to Isaac Tiffany, 4 April 1819)

What does this have to do with Ron DeSantis, who is not a teacher, nor in charge of the Department of Education? For America to aspire to a shining "city upon a hill," it must see itself as a nation of Christian refugees--not immigrants--who accepted racism out of economic necessity and who were more than a thousand years behind Muslims on racial matters. (Side note: anyone believing Muslims and Jews are vastly different does not understand science, circumcision, or pork, nor "Ben," "bin," and "Ibn.") For America to reverse decline and truly embrace globalization, it must acknowledge its European colonization, particularly by Spain, France, and England. (Americans walk across High Street every morning in eastern/southern America and do not see a British connection.) Today, America's social disunity results from its refusal to admit historical shortcomings, an unfortunate pattern by politicians who refuse to recognize Islam's more progressive approach towards slavery (which hindered Muslim-majority countries' economic development) and Russia's primary role in saving Europe from Nazis. (FYI: Russians marched into Hitler's Berlin, not Americans. WWII could be summarized as follows: “Russian blood, British intelligence, American steel.”) If domestic tranquility within an increasingly interconnected, multi-polar world is the goal, history matters, and politicians matter because they are our representatives and, for better or worse, our voice. 

DeSantis's actions on African-American history in his state indicate his voice will unite everyone not dependent on America against Americans. And so, perhaps we can finally see why DeSantis is as honest as he is flawed. In his mind, banning the 1619 Project from K-12 schools promotes social unity the same way a cleaner makes it easier to set a table by removing blemishes. Yet, the cracks are still there, as judges have already noted: DeSantis not only claimed a new kind of gubernatorial privilege, he advanced the "Framework for Freedom" budget while violating the First Amendment. According to a motion upheld in federal court, "The Stop W.O.K.E. Act is... so vague that instructors lack fair notice regarding how to comply with it, while the state retains unbridled discretion regarding how and when to enforce it."

Regarding African-American history, "'It’s just cut and dried history,' DeSantis said." -- CNN, Steve Contorno, February 5, 2023

Jackie Robinson: "I cannot stand and sing the anthem. I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a black man in a white world." [Stamford, CT, I Never Had It Made (1972)]

Ironically, DeSantis's anti-Project 1619 stance means he is draping himself in truth even as he opposes the very institutions that educated America's founders. 

"The history of African Americans began in 1619 when a ship carrying around 20 slaves arrived in the English colony of Virginia. The exploitation of free labor allowed the colony to boom and grow, opening a gateway to a new economy... Slavery was first legalized in 1661 with The Barbados Slave Code... Eventually, the slave code was adopted in other colonies and shaped slave laws throughout the mainland. In the following year, it was declared that children born in Virginia should be slave or free according to the condition of the mother: the son or daughter of a slave was automatically a slave. In 1669, the Virginia legislature defined a slave as property, a part of the owner’s estate." -- Renata Morresi (2021-2022)

George Washington received a surveyor's license in 1749 from The College of William & Mary (1693) and later became its chancellor. Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and John Tyler also attended the College. The College of William & Mary supports the "1619 Initiative." (The NYT may have studious journalists, but they rely on experts with Ph.D.s.) 

In high school, I thought history began with tea and taxes in 1773, then revolution in 1776. (I knew of Jamestown, but that was a British, not American, settlement.) Yet, a whole history existed before 1773, and I slowly realized the farther back we traveled, the more European influence had to be acknowledged--as well as that "peculiar institution" passed down by the British Empire. When DeSantis seeks to whitewash history, he is acting the same as every empire before him; unfortunately, empires deploying executive powers to silence experts, whether by force or "lawfare," signal the end of their soft power even as they project peace through strength.

My teenage self also remembers columnists debating the best ways to combat inequality. Mainstream political writers might have favored different methods, but whether the right lacked idealism or the left lacked common sense, one thing was certain: we were all on the same team, and our goal was to make the country better. Today, I cannot say the same thing I could have said in 1993. In a mere thirty years, the elites and intellectuals who captivated me, who made me proud to pick up an English dictionary and improve a language I was not born into, have lost their allure as well as their prestige. Nothing in American politics works, and when it does, one suspects shenanigans or shoddy accounting. Our political decline can be seen in Naomi Osaka's relinquishing her U.S. citizenship; the DOJ targeting scientists of Chinese descent, reminiscent of Joseph McCarthy's purges; Congress escalating the Ukraine-Russia war; and President Biden rubber-stamping military action against a balloon.

"The United States government has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continental United States right now... The balloon... does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground. Instances of this kind of balloon activity have been observed previously over the past several years... Currently we assess that this balloon has limited additive value from an intelligence collection perspective... our best assessment at the moment is that whatever the surveillance payload is on this balloon, it does not create significant value added over and above what the PRC [China] is likely able to collect through things like satellites in Low Earth Orbit... Does it pose a threat to civilian aviation? Our assessment is it does not. Does it pose a significantly enhanced threat on the intelligence side? Our best assessment right now is that it does not." -- Department of Defense, February 2, 2023, before shooting down the weather balloon

All of this points to the military-industrial complex, which has overwhelmed its sister branches and, increasingly, private sector spending. (Modern R&D spending almost always involves digital technology and therefore surveillance.) Notwithstanding current imbalances, military and civilian legal establishments were meant to cross paths, the better by which regulation could be effectuated. In fact, lawyers and judges were intended to be independent, apolitical, and open-minded so as to correct the executive branch, which was expected to err because a hands-on presence requires spontaneous discretion. When both parties in Congress, a den of lawyers, favor military action against a non-threatening civilian balloon, there is no need to belabor a metaphor so tragically obvious. DeSantis, a military man guaranteed to destroy diplomacy, may personify American hard power, but it is the kind of power Jeffrey Sachs explained best in 2018: "Power doesn't stick. You can try to impose your will on other countries and peoples, but without legitimacy what you end up with is unrest, instability, turmoil and the 'need' — quote unquote — for violence to repress that turmoil." In trying to suppress acceptable discourse, DeSantis is destined to take Americans on the wrong side of history, where his former military service already took him. When Americans were similarly situated during the Vietnam War, they elected a mafia-connected Catholic president who promised to uphold America's ideals and who was skilled enough to make you believe him. Sadly, DeSantis is no JFK, nor does he aspire to be.

In the end, despite DeSantis's best efforts, Florida isn't where "'woke' goes to die"--it's where American ideals go to sleep. If DeSantis, through voter apathy, prevails in 2024, it would complete the United States' descent into controlled madness. (Even the Germans never elected a former Esterwegen official as Chancellor.) Establishment Republican voters deeming Trump evil rather than a mafia-connected businessman harassed by Democratic Party lawyers and protected by incompetent American judges are in for a shock. Compared to DeSantis, who will never be a real national leader, Trump was practically a hippie.

© Matthew Mehdi Rafat (February 2023) 

Dedicated to Guillermo del Toro, who understands the effects of military action better than politicians and generals 

Bonus: as usual, Molly Ivins said it best: 

I have recently noticed a number of mis-explanations of separation of church and state being spread by fundamentalists. "It's not in the Constitution," they cry. Actually, it is, even though the words "separation of church and state" do not appear therein.

The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment is what separates church and state. The founders were perfectly clear about what they were doing: It was put best by James Madison, in that magnificent 18th century prose of which we are no longer capable.

The purpose, he wrote, of the separation of church and state, "is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries."

And still does. In Bosnia, a considerable amount of that blood reportedly comes from Muslim virgins who are being raped as a matter of policy by their Serbian Christian neighbors.

(Washington Post, March 7, 1993, reprinted from Fort Worth Star-Telegram)