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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has a book coming out Tuesday titled, “The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival,” and it sure has all the appearances of the first salvo in a presidential campaign. The title of the tome says it all—DeSantis isn’t just working toward a Florida renaissance, he’s looking for an American resurrection.
Or maybe he’s angling for a VP spot on the Trump ticket. It’s hard to tell because DeSantis has been pretty coy about his plans.
The book’s imprint, HarperCollins, describes the governor’s output thusly. I must point out, however, that this is his publisher, and their job is to be as glowing and effusive as possible so you’ll buy the book:
No American leader has accomplished more for his state than Governor Ron DeSantis. Now he reveals how he did it.
He played baseball for Yale, graduated with honors from Harvard Law School, and served in Iraq and in the halls of Congress. But in all these places, Ron DeSantis learned the same lesson: He didn’t want to be part of the leftist elite.
HarperCollins (interestingly owned by Rupert Murdoch, who as I’ve reported is against another Trump run) continues lauding DeSantis:
When he implemented COVID-19 policies based on evidence and focused on freedoms, the press launched a smear campaign against him, yet Florida’s economy thrived, its education system outperformed the nation, and Florida’s COVID mortality rate for seniors was lower than that in thirty-eight states. When he enacted policies to keep leftist political concepts like critical race theory and woke gender ideology out of Florida’s classrooms, the media demagogued his actions, but parents across Florida rallied to his cause. Dishonest attacks from the media don’t deter him.
I point out the glowing nature of the description not because I don’t like DeSantis—I do—but just to point out that their goal is to sell books. Not everyone was so kind. The Guardian took a far nastier tone:
For the moment, he [DeSantis] expects us to be content with The Courage to Be Free, a memoir-cum-288-page-exercise in sycophancy and ambition tethered to a whole lot of owning the libs. It is a mirthless read, lacking even the gleeful invective of Never Give an Inch, the former secretary of state Mike Pompeo’s own opening shot on the road to 2024. Predictably, DeSantis berates the left as unpatriotic and ruinous, all while prostrating himself before his former patron.
That’s some serious (unnecessary) savagery from the British press.
I’ve written before that I have no desire to see a Trump-DeSantis deathmatch, because in such a contest the fighter who comes out ahead will emerge bloodied and battered, and we’ll then end up with Biden or one of his loser minions like Buttigieg, Harris, or God forbid, Gavin Newsom. That being said, I’m just reporting what I’m seeing, and this hardcover certainly has all the appearances of a campaign statement.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis & Mark Levin on Covid restrictions and vaccine mandates: 👇 🔥
"It's not about the medical, it's about the control … They wanted to exercise power over other people … Entrenched bureaucrats need to be cleaned out because they totally failed." pic.twitter.com/ICt9IZFsyO
— Scott Morefield (@SKMorefield) February 27, 2023
DeSantis appeared on “Life, Liberty and Levin” with Mark Levin on Fox News Sunday night. Here are just a few snippets of what he had to say. On the sexualization of minors in schools:
So you talk about things with like the young kids and and with Disney and I see that not just through the eyes of a governor, but also through the eyes of a dad. You know, we have a a four and a two year old at home and we just believe as parents we should be able to send our kids to school, have them watch cartoons without having somebody’s sexual agenda shoved down their throats. And so when this issue came up with the sexualization of the curriculum, of course, in Florida, we think that that’s inappropriate.
On Critical Race Theory, DeSantis clapped back at those who claim he’s trying to erase black history from the curriculum:
[In] Florida, our standards require teaching all aspects of black history and we think it’s important. We also when we ban critical race theory, which we were right to do, we also required in that same bill that schools have stories of inspiration about great Floridians and great Americans from a variety of different backgrounds. I want students to be inspired, that they can do well in Florida. … Critical race theory is basically saying some are oppressors or some are oppressed. What kind of a message is that sending to these very young kids?
They actually were trying to impose… effectively Neo-Marxism. And so the question is, is if that’s something you want to do on your own time, you’re free to go pursue that. But for our taxpayers to be supporting that type of indoctrination, that is not something that we want to do.
DeSantis had lots more to say, and I’m sure we’ll have more commentary here at RedState. Meanwhile, his new book is sure to send liberals into paroxysms of anger as he says things that actually make sense. The media will keep distorting his message, of course, just like they did with Trump.
I think he and Trump are both effective warriors in this battle for the future of our country. I still hold out the hope that they both can continue to be potent leaders—and find a way to coexist.
