cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/1070394
Gay Republicans are abandoning Florida Gov. and 2024 presidential candidate Ron DeSantis Ā® in droves after his rapid response team shared a bizarre video bragging about his reign of terror against the LGBTQ+ community.
The video opens with several clips of Donald Trump ā DeSantisās top primary opponent ā expressing support for LGBTQ+ people and frames these comments as damning. Most of the comments are from before he was elected president in 2016. Then, the clip abruptly shifts to intense music and a photo of DeSantis shooting lasers out of his eyes, followed by snapshots of headlines about the anti-LGBTQ+ laws DeSantis has passed.
The video proudly shares that DeSantis has been called āevil,ā ādangerous,ā ādraconian,ā and āpublic enemy no. 1ā and even includes a clip accusing DeSantis of passing legislation āthat literally threatens trans existence.ā It also contains images of shirtless buff muscle men inter-spliced with these statements about how DeSantis is hurting LGBTQ+ people in his state.
And despite DeSantisās years-long crusade against LGBTQ+ people, this video, for whatever reason, seems to be the last straw for gay conservatives who had formerly viewed the Florida governor as a palatable alternative to Trump.
āNot only did DeSantis show that he is as anti-LGBTQ+ as the mainstream media has alleged, he made a mockery of any GOP candidate that shows an interest in LGBTQ+ rights, setting the whole party back decades,ā wrote Yvonne Dean-Bailey, former Republican state legislator in New Hampshire, in an op-ed for the Daily Beast.
Dean-Bailey called the video āthe most anti-LGBTQ+ ad in recent history,ā adding that his actions ātarnish the image of the conservative movement.ā
āAs a lifelong conservative, I believe in the principles of limited government, personal responsibility, and individual liberties. Yet, DeSantisā approach to LGBTQ+ issues goes against these very principles.ā
Well-known conservative activist David Leatherwood also shared his disappointment over the ad on Twitter.
āI spent the last 7 years of my life working with Trump to make the GOP a more welcoming place for gays WHILE ALSO being anti-groomer, anti-woke and pro religious liberty. Iāve even worked WITH DeSantis on this agenda. This ad is a slap in the face, and makes any LGBT person supporting DeSantis look like an absolute idiot.ā
Even disgraced gay Rep. George Santos (R-NY) got in on the anti-DeSantis action. Santos ā who is currently facing 13 criminal charges ā told The Hill he āused to think DeSantis was a great governorā but is now āstarting to think differently.ā
Santos has long been on team Trump but spoke out in favor of DeSantisās Donāt Say Gay law. āI still stand by the bill in its nature,ā he said, ābut now it seems that it had a more perverse agenda behind it.ā
āIām starting to see [DeSantis] for what he is,ā Santos added. āHis rhetoric is to diminish and remove rights away from people like myself, and I canāt support that.ā
The LGBTQ+ conservative group Log Cabin Republicans criticized the ad as ādivisive and desperate.ā
āConservatives understand that we need to protect our kids, preserve womenās sports, safeguard womenās spaces and strengthen parental rights,ā the group said in a statement, ābut Ron DeSantisā extreme rhetoric has just ventured into homophobic territory.ā
āRon DeSantis and his team canāt tell the difference between commonsense gays and the radical Left gays. He, sadly, sees them all the same. His naive policy positions are dangerous and politically stupid.ā
And it isnāt just gay Republicans speaking out against the ad. DeSantis has been slammed and mocked from all angles.
The New Republic published a piece positing it could be āthe weirdest ad in American political history.ā
And out Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg pointed out the āstrangeness of trying to prove your manhood by putting up a video that splices images of you in between oiled-up shirtless bodybuildersā before blasting DeSantis for focusing on bullying marginalized groups rather than helping Americans.
Christina Pushaw, the DeSantis campaignās Rapid Response director, defended the video on Twitter after former Trump official Richard Grenell called it āundeniably homophobic.ā
āOpposing the federal recognition of āPride Monthā isnāt āhomophobic.ā We wouldnāt support a month to celebrate straight people for sexual orientation, eitherā¦ Itās unnecessary, divisive, pandering. In a country as vast and diverse as the USA, identity politics is poison.ā
DeSantis is currently in a distant second place in 2024 Republican primary polling, getting an average of 21.5% support in recent polls, according to RealClearPolitics. Trump is first with an average of 52.4%.
How anyone who identifies as LGBTQ+ can associate themselves with the current Republican Party is beyond me.
I know, right? SLUGS FOR SALT!!!
How anyone who identifies as a thinking and compassionate human being can associate with the current Republican party is beyond me. They left conservative behind a long time ago and are now just full-on aggressively regressive.
āConservativeā doesnāt describe a set of values, but rather a method for determining which values are important. Ostensibly, conservativism derives from the idea that we should not change too quickly, and preserving tradition is intrinsically valuable. However, any conservative will admit that not all traditions are worthy of defense, and sometimes change cannot come quickly enough.
So how does a conservative determine which traditions are important and which ones are obsolete? There is only one metric that has been consistently applied throughout recorded history: self-interest.
Do I benefit from the status quo? Then it is a foundational component of civilization. Would I benefit from change? Then it is a necessary component of a path to a better tomorrow. I am good, so therefore anything I want is important, and anything I do is righteous. If you disagree, you are bad, anything you want is stupid, and everything you do is evil.
Thereās a political axiom about how progressives fall in love, and conservatives fall in line. This is because conservatives need to serve a single identity, a single set of interests. The GOP has a massive problem right now because there are too many āselfsā fighting for dominance. Trump, DeSantis, Hawley, MTG, McCarthy, et al, they have competing self interests, and each will say or do whatever they believe will help themselves.
As painful as it is, there are still too many American voters who want regressive policies and social change, and will become diehard supporters of whichever figurehead regurgitates the most offensive talking points. The wider party has already conceded that they need the bigots and sociopaths to accomplish any of their goals, so they will strap in as the pig theyāre riding rolls around in the mud, thinking āI am good, so this is righteous.ā
There is no irony or hypocrisy to it, because it is not a system of values. It is narcissism wearing the coat of a political argument. If the argument fails, the coat is discarded and a new one donned.