Ron DeSantis has messed with the wrong mouse. Disney’s announcement that it is suing the Florida governor for his bizarre harassment campaign against the company over policy criticism touches on several important issues — freedom of speech, abuse of official power, free-market independence — all of which should helpfully spotlight just how unfit for the presidency the Florida governor has shown himself to be.
The feud started last year when Disney World’s corporate owners, pressured by its enormous workforce of young people, publicly criticized the “don’t say gay” law that DeSantis signed prohibiting classroom discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity. Whatever you think of that law — and many think it’s the worst kind of pandering to the extreme right as DeSantis mulls a possible presidential run — in this country, such criticism is permitted.
Unless, it seems, you’re Florida’s largest employer. That DeSantis would choose that particular target to vilify and undermine is confirmation that he cares more about stoking the culture-war fires for his own political gain than he does the economy of the state he governs.
Throughout the months-long blood feud that followed, DeSantis has acted with personal vindictiveness and abuse of official authority reminiscent of no one more than former President Donald Trump. Perhaps DeSantis thinks imitating Trump’s antics is the way to appeal to his base in the coming presidential race. And perhaps it is. But anyone outside the dark MAGA realm should recognize this kind of bullying when they see it.
DeSantis’ punishment crusade has included trying to yank away the unusual authority Disney has over the infrastructure in and around the fabled theme parks that make up Disney World — deals that were cut decades ago with state leaders eager for the economic benefits that Disney would bring, and supported since by generations of political leaders in both parties.
Such arrangements certainly aren’t beyond review and debate, but DeSantis’ claim that he was just suddenly determined to “level the field” for other businesses, unrelated to his lambasting of Disney as a “woke” corporation in his fundraising appeals, shows he’s especially shameless. Again, shades of Trump.
When Disney outmaneuvered and humiliated DeSantis regarding its infrastructure control, he furiously speculated that maybe he would site a prison next to Disney World — another petty, personalized threat against his state’s largest employer and taxpayer. Other threats have included suggesting a new regimen of ride-safety inspections that only Disney, not its Florida competitors, would face. How subtle.
True justice would be for Disney to pick up stakes and move out of Florida, leaving DeSantis twisting in the wind of a self-sabotaged state economy. Since that won’t realistically happen, Disney’s lawsuit is the next best remedy. Here’s hoping the mouse bites hard.
