11 months ago
45
So-called populist politicians are uniformly bullies by nature, but there aren't many politicians out there who are both bullies and so visibly, relentlessly gutless as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
DeSantis gave the keynote speech on Saturday night at the anti-abortion group Florida Family Policy Council's annual dinner. This is the usual stuff of political campaigning; DeSantis' staff undoubtedly scheduled his appearance to show support for the far-right movement currently pressing for nationwide abortion bans. The message the audience is supposed to take from the speech: “See there, I am one of you.”
In DeSantis' case, however, that message has to remain almost entirely subliminal. DeSantis may have been speaking to one of the most prominent anti-abortion groups in the state, for the express purpose of polishing, yet again, his fringe-right bona fides, but The Washington Post reports that during DeSantis' entire 40-minute speech, he mentioned abortion only once, and only by euphemism, and for a grand total of ... 20 seconds.
