Despicable Florida demagogue Gov. Ron "DeSatan" DeSantis' human trafficking stunt (and, let's not forget fellow Republican demagogues Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey are in the same dirty business) is of a pattern of made-for-Fox spectacles that, while having initial shock value, are soon being exposed for what they are -- public cruelties designed to elevate DeSantis as the heir to Christofascist Trumpism.
Jamelle Bouie sums it up:
The conceit of this dehumanizing bit of political theater was that the liberal denizens of Martha’s Vineyard would reject the migrants out of hypocrisy, thus proving that Democrats aren’t actually interested in welcoming immigrants into their communities. To DeSantis and his amen corner, asylum seekers are disposable, and they believe that liberals will want to dispose of them too.
What happened, instead, was that residents of Martha’s Vineyard rallied to provide food, shelter, clothing and services. The asylum seekers are now on their way to Cape Cod, to receive further assistance. The stunt failed to make its intended point.The same was true of a previous stunt, in which DeSantis touted the arrests of 20 former felons for election fraud. The intended message was that Florida, and presumably the entire country, needed to be on constant alert to block fraudulent voters. But in the days and weeks after the arrests, an investigation by The Tampa Bay Times found that the state had actually cleared those residents to vote. As far as they knew, they hadn’t broken the law. If anything, they had been entrapped as part of a scheme to make DeSantis a more attractive candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination...
DeSantis and his fellow sadists want to demagogue this into another election season "OMG the caravans are coming" manufactured immigration crisis that the Republicans trotted out in the 2018 mid- terms. Unsurprisingly, immigration is one of the few edges they have over Democrats, but it likely won't resonate the same way when voters see the pictures of migrants getting dumped off planes and buses, with their children and all their worldly belongings, having been used as pawns for a smarmy politician's benefit.
DeSantis is running slightly ahead of former Governor and Congressman Charlie Crist. Crist has a new ad out that leans into DeSantis' casual cruelty and pivots into the extremism of DeSantis' position on abortion -- an issue that's highly motivating Democrats and swing voters. Well done. Watch:
You can donate to Crist's campaign here and end the demagogue's political ambitions.
(Photo: Let's wipe that smirk off his face.)
