Two planes carrying immigrants from Venezuela arrived in Massachusetts on Sept. 14, 2022 after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) arranged for their transport from Texas to the island Martha’s Vineyard. Shortly after news of the incident broke, liberals took to social media and news outlets to express their disapproval, and conservatives were quick to share their opinions, too. However, conservatives were not rebuking Gov. DeSantis. The Florida Governor’s actions, and the responses by his ilk, prove this revolting act was cold and calculated. So why, so close to the midterms, would Gov. DeSantis carry out such a hideous plan?
Lessons from Trump
Donald Trump is often credited with unleashing the worst of the GOP. However, Donald Trump was not Epimetheus opening Pandora’s box. Trumpism was always inside the box waiting to be released. Many republicans tried to shove the former President back inside, but his appeal to the worst of the GOP was too strong. Xenophobia, racism, transphobia, and white supremacy rebounded during Trump’s 2016 campaign. Rather than continue to try and thwart Trumpism, the GOP embraced MAGA, and America has been sorting through the resulting devastation ever since. Once Trumpism took over as the prevailing conservative ideology, republicans like Ron DeSantis started taking notes.
DeSantis’ recent actions suggest two things: he is positioning himself as a frontrunner in the 2024 presidential election, and he has been a keen-eyed student of the former president. Donald Trump, possibly to the detriment of his own 2024 ambitions, created the playbook for DeSantis. Trump’s bullying antics, such as when he refused aid to democrat-governed states during the COVID-19 pandemic, were masterclass courses for Ron DeSantis. Below, are the lessons he learned from the Trump presidency, which he is now using to rally conservatives.
Cruelty is the Point
I’m not the first to say this about the Martha’s Vineyard stunt. That said, it is undeniable that DeSantis wishes to impress the MAGA crowd with moves they will see as bold and decisive. If Donald Trump’s constituents have proven one thing, it is that they will forgive the most egregious, repulsive actions if those actions were made in an effort to “own the libs” or if Trump claimed the actions were a hoax to take him out. Making fun of disabled reporters? Pass. Inciting an insurrection? Pass. Attacking opponents for their appearances instead of their actions? Pass. Stealing classified documents? Pass.
The important thing to note here is that cruelty was the driving factor behind DeSantis’ human trafficking stunt. The pleasure taken by MAGA after migrants were lied to about job opportunity, housing opportunity, immigration procedures, and even where these families were headed, is sickening. However, it’s this cold, calculated approach that appeals to DeSantis’ base. What we used to think of as the extremist side of the Republican Party is clearly more than that. The depth and breadth of hatred within the party for anyone they see as a threat to their world-view (be it economic, religious, or otherwise) is much larger and deeper than anyone would have thought prior to Trump’s presidency. That said, cruelty for cruelty sake is not the goal in most cases. In order for a stunt like the Martha’s Vineyard incident to resonate with conservatives, conservatives must draw the conclusion that the cruelty was necessary and that the victims of said cruelty were somehow deserving of it. In other words, conservatives must find a defense for the indefensible. DeSantis and the GOP are hard at work to try and give them that defense.
Flipping the Narrative
It’s not surprising that liberals were outraged over the cruelty inflicted on innocent people for the purpose of grandstanding and posturing. It should not be surprising that Governor DeSantis and the GOP knew this political stunt would be met with backlash. In fact, it was a known constant in their calculations. They knew they could draw out anger from the democrats and were prepared to rewrite the narrative. As President Biden and Vice President Harris were just turning the corner on the economy, as they pointed out the failed policies of the Trump administration, as they capped insulin prices, as they started focusing their rhetoric and energy on rebuilding the middle class and unions, conservatives took this opportunity to redefine liberals to conservative voters. Taking focus away from the current administration’s efforts to rebuild blue-collar America, DeSantis’ stunt gave the GOP opportunity to caricature liberals as rich, inauthentic elites. Conservatives took to Twitter, Truth Social, and Fox News to blast the democrats’ response. While doing so, they carefully left out the vile details of the event and chose to echo one another with disingenuous critiques of America’s liberals. During the writing of this article, representative Lauren Boebert (Colorado) tweeted the following: “Any residents of Martha’s Vineyard who have a “Coexist” bumper sticker on their car are hereby required to remove it.”
It’s clear that the conservative establishment’s sole interest is to manipulate the narrative. There are no mentions by republican politicians about the response of residents of Martha’s Vineyard to assist these migrants. Conservative media doesn’t show the photos of residents embracing these families, playing with the children, comforting the parents, providing the migrant families with legal help, or helping these victims meet their basic needs. (https://www.wbur.org/news/2022/09/16/migrants-edgartown-massachusetts-immigrants-photos)
Their intent is to take this moment and pretend it is a “gotcha” to liberals. While using migrant families as political pawns, conservatives are accusing democrats of not caring for refugees and using them as political pawns. What conservatives can count on, what they learned from Trump, is that their constituents have been groomed to not question leadership. If conservative media praises the actions of DeSantis as a clever gambit because GOP politicians are doing the same, then constituents have little incentive to look into the details of the event. Conservative voters won’t look at this human trafficking and see the lives of the people who fell victim to deceit. They won’t ask themselves if there is a moral deficiency within their party or their leaders. They simply won’t care. What they will do is echo the baseless accusations made by politicians like Boebert and champion DeSantis as an ingenious leader.
What’s Next?
If there is one thing America has learned from the Trump presidency and the aftermath of his 2020 loss, it is that there is no bottom to the depravity of the modern GOP. Anything they can do to impress their base and “own the libs”, they will—no matter whose lives are affected or what American values are betrayed. Conservatism in today’s political landscape is not an altruistic ideology. What the GOP establishment want, what the GOP constituents want, is power. Be it the power over women’s bodies, over peoples’ sexual identities, over education, or to deceive innocent people, the GOP wants to wield it ruthlessly. So what do we do, now?
It may seem obvious, but. . . we must vote, we must speak up.
There is little we can do to stop the conservative establishment from attempting to take our appropriately-directed anger and twisting it to fit their narrative. We can’t reason with conservative voters who wish to ignore facts. We can’t win them over with hate; neither, (sorry Martin Luther King Jr.) can we win them over with love. Not at this point. Our only recourse is to speak truth to the lies, light to the darkness. Perhaps a few minds can be opened along the way, but that should not be our focus. We are never going to lead a horse to water when the horse has hobbled its own legs. Our best hope is to inspire young liberals to vote and to reach moderate republicans by speaking up and calling out the GOP’s lies. The Democrat Party is not a perfect party with perfect constituents, but it’s time to draw the lines of comparison between the two parties in such a way that no reasonable voter could ever sit out an election again.
Ron DeSantis has his eyes on 2024, and I’m certain this will not be the last time he finds a way to hurt people in order to position himself as Trump 2.0.
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