Rather than question the former president’s actions against Covid, DeSantis is going after Anthony Fauci, “one of the most destructive bureaucrats in American history,” an official whose “intellectual bankruptcy and brazen partisanship” has affected major U.S. cities. hollowed-out “Faucivilles” changed. Fauci is the book’s supervillain by DeSantis, the destroyer of jobs and freedoms, the architect of a “Faucian dystopia.” It seems that Trump was not in charge during the early months of Covid, but Fauci wielded irrepressible and inexplicable power – until a courageous governor finally had enough. “As the Iron Curtain of Faucism descended upon our continent,” writes DeSantis, “the state of Florida stood firmly in the way.”
In “The Courage to Be Free,” DeSantis shows just enough courage to rebuke Trump by proxy.
In fact, DeSantis’ broadest attack against Trump is also his most slanted. In the governor’s various references to Trump, the former president emerges not so much as a political force in his own right, but rather as a symptom of pre-existing trends that Trump was lucky enough to exploit. Trump’s 2016 nomination stemmed primarily from the failure of Republican elites to “effectively represent the values” of Republican voters, the governor writes. DeSantis even gets some credit for Trump’s rise to power: The House Freedom Caucus, of which DeSantis was a member, “identified the failings of the modern Republican establishment in a way that paved the way for an outside presidential nominee who could see the perpetuation of the stale DC threatened. Orthodoxy of the Republican Party.”
Trump has argued with good reason that he enabled DeSantis’s election as governor with his own recommendation late 2017 — and now DeSantis is suggesting he helped pave the way for Trumpism. The governor even notes the “star power” that Trump brought to American politics, the kind of thing critics used to say when they rejected Barack Obama as a celebrity candidate.
If Trump’s success was not unique to him, but stemmed from larger cultural or economic forces that made him viable, someone else could probably channel those same forces more efficiently, if only Republican voters had the courage to be free of Trump. And who could that alternative be?
DeSantis not only presents himself as a culture warrior, but also a competent culture warrior. The culture warrior who stood up for parents and stood up to Disney (yes, the Magic Kingdom is judging its own chapter here). The culture warrior with the real heartland vibe (the DeSantis family roots in Ohio and Pennsylvania often come to the fore). The culture warrior who is “God-fearing, hard-working, and America-loving” in the face of enemies who are oppressive, disbelieving, and unpatriotic. The culture warrior who takes “bold stances,” shows “courage under fire,” is willing to “lead with conviction,” “speak the truth,” and “stand for the good.”