HBO’s John Oliver put all the pieces together and exposed Ron DeSantis as an autocrat and bully who only cares about his own voice.
Video:
Oliver said:
When you take it all together, the books being taken down, the inane proclamations to shame trans athletes. Botched attempts to criminalize protests and you combine them with everything from support for restrictive abortion bans to efforts to stop gender-affirming care, it’s really starting to feel like “the most free of America” is only free to the extent that anyone wants to behave exactly as Ron DeSantis thinks he should.
In the coming months, you’re going to hear a lot of DeSantis vs. Trump comparisons, and the truth is, he’ll probably do well in a lot of them more or less by default, but that can’t be the bar here. . It’s important to consider DeSantis in his own right. If Donald Trump never existed, and allow everyone to pause and enjoy this hypothetical just for a second. If Donald Trump never existed and you were forced to discover Ron DeSantis from scratch without any basis for comparison, what you would see would rightly horrify you. Because you would discover a petty autocrat and a tyrant. A man who has no interest in hearing dissent, questions, or even the correct pronunciation of Thai food, and overall, and I don’t use that term lightly, a man who just fucks the meatball.
DeSantis is Trump if Trump had any idea or interest in turning his fascist fantasies into an agenda for government. DeSantis might be a bigger threat to democracy than the guy who tried to overthrow the government. Ron DeSantis is a threat to democracy, and Oliver was right. DeSantis should be considered on his own terms because those terms should disqualify him from the presidency.
Jason is the editor. He is also a member of the White House press pool and a congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason holds a bachelor’s degree in political science. His graduate studies focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the American Political Science Association