Chris Rose: DeSantis is politically impotent against legislators

Letter to the editor

Monday evening, I was in the kitchen with my family when the phone rang. “It’s the RPOF,” I exclaimed as I read the screen. “Should I take this call?” I figured it was another telephone town hall by the governor, and, sliding the button over, discovered I was indeed correct.

Ron DeSantis has found his bully pulpit once again. This time, it’s not to implore people for help voting down a ballot initiative. Ron was fired up, all right, and ready to hurl brimstone as expected—but not at the usual suspects. 

For the past 6 years, “America’s governor” has demonstrated his ability to spar with Democrats: taunting them with one-liner quips, mocking their stances on the 2nd Amendment, and ridiculing those who implemented COVID restrictions—all the while crowing on national news about being “open for business” in his “Free State of Florida.” A 2023 debate with California governor Gavin Newsom exemplified his “Tactful Trump” persona. Hypocritically, he attacked Newsom on gun-free zones, while his own campaign drew national scrutiny for the exact same thing. His requirement that the 20th annual Ronald Reagan Black Tie and Blue Jean event be gun-free sparked protests, with one protester being arrested just prior to DeSantis arriving. 

Alas, the great presidential run fell flat. Americans prefer Donald over Ronald, so perhaps tact isn’t what is lacking in national politics after all. The new year brings an old administration to Washington, and DeSantis is chomping at the bit to accommodate the man he recently ran against—yet whose endorsement in 2018 catapulted him to a primary victory over Adam Putnam. If ya can’t lick ‘em, re-join ‘em… eh, Govnah?

And so, DeSantis wasn’t gouging the reputations of Democrats on Monday night, or even theme park executives. In a 40-minute rant that was closed to the press, Governor Alligator-wrangler pleaded for folks to encourage the legislature to come back to the immigration bill he gave them.

The legislature initially rebuffed the governor’s call for a special session at all. When he forced them to convene, they responded by overriding his veto of their budget and crafting their own immigration bill. A bill that, the governor cried, was “weak” and “robbed him of power.” If the legislature voted to name Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson the immigration czar, he threatened, he would challenge them on constitutional grounds. Later in the evening, the governor took his cause to the national news media, desperately trying to drum up support. 

I wish folks all the luck in attempting to curb their representatives because this is the same legislature that has repeatedly denied DeSantis what he wants on 2nd Amendment issues. Open Carry will not be heard this year either, declared the Senate President back in November—even if Florida is the only Republican state to disallow it and one of only five states in the union that outright ban it in everyday public—the others being California, Illinois, New York, and Connecticut. Not exactly “Free States.”

No matter how many times the governor is a guest on the Bob Rose show promising we’ll get this, the legislature isn’t budging. We should also expect them to not repeal the gun control measures approved in 2018. Wilton Simpson won re-election to the senate later that year, campaigning as having authored the bill—which gave us Red Flag laws, banned bump stocks and binary triggers, allowed counties to expand the waiting period, and stripped adults under 21 of their ability to purchase long guns. DeSantis has expressed support for keeping Red Flag laws, but the legislature has opposed his polite and subdued requests for them to roll anything else back. There have been no town halls or brimstone over this. 

This same legislature also sat quietly as DeSantis issued lockdown orders in 2020, signing the death warrant for untold numbers of small businesses—only gradually walking these back in three agonizing phases after Georgia governor Brian Kemp opened our neighbors to the north.

In 2021, when DeSantis declared Florida “open for business,” the legislature closed the capitol to the public, refusing to allow constituents to speak on bills heard in that year’s regular session. Simpson was heard relishing how much he enjoyed doing business without the “leeches” around. I guess it was curtains for the first amendment. DeSantis exited stage left. There was no fired-up monalogue on Fox News from the governor about that, either. 

Oh, the legislature has been known to throw Ron a bone or two—on their own terms, with restrictions: when the so-called “constitutional carry bill” was announced in 2023, fans of the governor cheered. A campaign promise that at first it appeared he was poised to deliver. Soon thereafter, though, it was discovered that the bill was nowhere near the version that other states had passed. Governor Free State limped around the issue, telling his supporters that he wanted more, but the legislature wouldn’t comply—and he would merely “sign whatever they gave him.” The watered-down bill made it through to his desk, with no telephone calls appealing to voters to bring their representatives in line. 

In the town hall on Monday night, I was fortunate enough to be one of the few the secretary asked if I would like my question answered by the governor. She typed up the following on my behalf: “Governor, given this rift between your office and the legislature, which seems to be spurred by Commissioner Simpson, is this the reason why you haven’t used your bully pulpit to call for Open Carry?” Before the call ended, with maybe a half-dozen brief questions read, the moderator stated he could find no more submitted, and DeSantis said goodnight. 

I am amused and entertained by this feud between the governor and the commissioner. Perhaps a small insight for people to realize who’s been actually pulling the strings. Republicans have had a majority in the legislature my entire life, a supermajority the past few years. Florida is only getting more expensive, and citizens of a majority of other states regularly enjoy more freedom.

It’s apparent that the largest priority for the RPOF is to keep themselves in power and play tiddlywinks with those across the hall. When you control a supermajority, there’s not really anyone else left you can fight with. I had high hopes for the governor like most of his supporters—but after seeing him each year railroaded by veterans of the legislature, I no longer believe the illusion. 

Ron DeSantis, whether campaigning or punking the liberals, is a smooth-talking showman. In matters that require wrangling members of his own party in the Florida legislature, he is politically impotent. 

Chris Rose II, Waldo

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