American democracy is full of black holes. One of them goes by the abstruse name of gerrymandering, a practice by which parties redraw electoral districts to maximize their political gains and minimize their rivals'. A partisan manipulation that was launched at the dawn of the new republic by one of its founding fathers, Vice President Elbridge Gerry, who, being governor of Massachusetts, approved a new electoral map tailored to him in 1812: he merged the districts where his rivals won into one so that they would get fewer representatives. The resulting drawing was vaguely reminiscent of a salamander (salamander) and thus was caricatured by the press, who called it Gerrymander.
In the US, every ten years the states can review their electoral maps to adapt them to the evolution of the population, an opportunity that can be used by whoever controls power to manipulate the composition of the districts. Republicans have been gerrymandering a lot lately.
One of them has been the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump's perceived rival for the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential elections. In 2021, taking advantage of the fact that Florida won a seat in the House of Representatives, he redrew the districts increasing the with a conservative white majority, changing the configuration of others and suppressing the only one with a black majority: thanks to this, the advantage of the Republicans over the Democrats in last year's elections went from 16-11 to 20-8. A judge stayed the reform, but the Supreme Court of Florida – three of whose members were appointed by de DeSantis – upheld it.
Welcome to Florida, The Sunshine State (the sunny state), baptized as DeSantislandia, a wink that alludes to the Disneyland amusement park in Orlando, with whom the Republican politician maintains a hard pulse and who has copied the spelling. With a PhD in Law from Harvard, a member of the Army legal service -where he served in Guantánamo and Iraq-, congressman and since 2019 Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis is, at 44, one of the rising conservative figures, whom some sectors of his party would prefer as a candidate for the White House next year. He sells the political formula that he applies in Florida as a model to be exported to the entire country.
More serious and solid than Trump, it is not clear, however, that the governor of Florida will be better. DeSantis "may not be as narcissistic and sociopathic as Trump, he is more intelligent and subtle, but he has no moral values," commented political scientist Norman Orstein, of the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, in a report by the Los Angeles Times. And he added that asking if Trump or DeSantis is better, "is like asking if syphilis or gonorrhea is better."
DeSantis's democratic sensibility, as has been seen, can clearly be improved. But there is much more. The characterization of the governor of Florida – an ultra-conservative with accommodative ethics – could not be simpler. His actions do not deceive. In international politics he hasn't had many opportunities to compromise, but he has already made it clear which foot he stands on. Autocrats shouldn't be too concerned if he made it to the White House, starting with Russian President Vladimir Putin – for DeSantis, the invasion of Ukraine is a “territorial dispute” that does not represent a “vital national issue” for the US – and ending with Israeli Prime Minister Beniamin Netanyahu –whose authoritarian reform of the judiciary he minimizes as an “internal matter”–.
But it is in Florida where DeSantis has given a clear example of who he is: self-erected as a champion of a war against the woke culture – a movement that fights against racial discrimination and injustice, and that is behind the cancellation culture –, the governor Florida has prohibited teachings on the history of racism and on sexual orientation or gender identity – the so-called Don't Say Gay law –, reserving the power to veto certain books; he has cut to six weeks the limit to be able to abort freely (a period in which many women do not even know they are pregnant); he has authorized all Florida residents to carry weapons at any time and situation; has sent irregular immigrants on state-chartered flights to the island of Martha's Vineyard (Massuchusetts) –the historic stronghold of the Kennedys and a Democratic benchmark wherever they exist– to provoke their adversaries...
In his conservative cultural crusade, DeSantis has chosen a major enemy: none other than the Walt Disney group – Florida's largest employer – whom he targeted for daring to criticize his Don't Say Gay law. The governor decided in retaliation to cut the autonomy that the Orlando park enjoys and threatened to raise fees and taxes, in addition to building a jail in the vicinity of Disneyland... "I will not allow a woke corporation from California to run our been," he thundered, before adding cockily, "There's a new sheriff in town." The problem, for DeSantis, is that Disney, far from being intimidated, has filed a lawsuit against him for what he considers revenge for having exercised his freedom of expression. The risks for the governor of Florida, in case of losing this pulse, are very high. As some critics point out: if he can't beat Mickey Mouse, how can he beat Putin?
