Gov. Ron DeSantis promised to continue his "anti-woke" crusade that has made him popular among his constituents, the Washington Examiner reported. The Florida Republican said that "freedom is under assault" from the radical left.
"I'm the only guy running who's been very clear about that issue," DeSantis said in an interview Monday on "The Morning Answer" with South Carolina state Sen. Josh Kimbrell. In May, DeSantis announced his candidacy to become the 2024 GOP presidential nominee and is up against the very popular former President Donald Trump.
A major selling point for the popular governor is his unwavering willingness to push back against the "culture wars" being waged by the radical left. "This woke ideology impacts the economy, the military, criminal law, everything," DeSantis said.
The governor was criticized for his very bold move against the Walt Disney Company when it pushed back against his legislation aimed at protecting schoolchildren from learning about sexual perversion. To the chagrin of some conservatives, DeSantis revoked Disney's special arrangement with the state after that, NBC News reported.
"Every Republican presidential candidate, including Donald Trump, has attacked me for standing up against Disney regarding the sexualization of children," De Santis said. "In Florida, we said, 'It's not appropriate to be doing this in school,'" the governor explained.
"They opposed us — they were trying to jam this curriculum into our school. And traditionally, in Florida, if Disney weighed in, they would get their way," DeSantis continued.
"But I was willing to stand up. We said no," he added.
DeSantis likens opposition from conservatives to "standing with a woke corporation based in Burbank, California, over parents and children," he said. The governor said children in Florida take precedence over business interests in his state.
"If we can't draw a line in the sand and say, you know what, the kids are off limits, do not bring your agenda to our kids. When they go to school, they have a right to have a traditional, normal education without having a teacher telling a first grader that they may have been born in the wrong body," DeSantis said.
"It's totally unacceptable," he added. Trump has used this decision as a negative against DeSantis and said the popular governor was being "destroyed" by Disney.
"Disney’s next move will be the announcement that no more money will be invested in Florida because of the governor," Trump said. "In fact, they could even announce a slow withdrawal or sale of certain properties or the whole thing," he predicted.
"Watch! That would be a killer," Trump said. It's absurd to believe that Disney will pick up its massive theme parks and move elsewhere, but Trump has doubled down on siding with the left simply to oppose DeSantis using his anti-wokenism.
"I don’t like the term ‘woke’ because I hear, ‘Woke, woke, woke.’ It’s just a term they use; half the people can’t even define it," Trump said during a campaign speech." They don’t know what it is," he claimed.
While Trump enjoys a comfortable lead against DeSantis, he is making a grave miscalculation if he thinks voters are against what the Florida governor is trying to accomplish. The left has wrecked America's fundamental institutions, and the nation needs a president who will face that fact head-on.
