Pro-DeSantis Ad Includes Boast About Passing Laws That "Literally Threaten Trans Existence"
The ad also has homoerotic overtones and compares DeSantis to a mass serial killer/cannibal. This is a PRO DeSantis ad, mind you.
If you are wondering where on the political spectrum the Republican party is currently situated, look no further than the political ad promoted two days ago by the “DeSantis War Room”, which includes the statement that Florida’s governor is passing laws with the goal of wiping out an entire group of marginalized Americans. This is offered as a selling point. Then listen to the deafening silence from every single other member of his party, an absence of criticism that signals their whole-hearted support for the complete eradication of transgender human beings.
(He also wants to use cancer-causing radioactive mining waste as highway construction material. No shit. Seriously.)
Tim Miller, The Bulwark, July 1, 2023
The [Ron DeSantis] ad, which seems to have been originally produced by anonymous Twitter user ProudElephantUS, was repurposed by the “DeSantis War Room” with the following message: “To Wrap up ‘Pride Month,’ let’s hear from the politician who did more than any other to celebrate it…”
The video begins with a sizzle reel of Donald Trump promising to protect LGBT Americans, saying that he doesn’t care what bathroom Caitlyn Jenner uses, telling Barbara Walters that transgender women would be allowed to compete in the Miss Universe contest, and contrasting his views on gays favorably with how the group is viewed by Islamic terrorists.
From there the ad takes a hard turn, with a deep house beat and images that work very hard to depict Ron DeSantis as the country’s most-based, faggot-hating, alpha male. The “pro-”DeSantis portion of the ad compares him to fictional serial killer and cannibal Patrick Bateman . . .
The ad’s intended message is that, unlike Trump, DeSantis will not show any humanity to gays and will be significantly more effective at targeting LGBT Americans by advancing the most “extreme slate of anti-trans laws in modern history.”
But there is one line from this portion of the video that deserves particular notice.
Mike Figueredo of the Humanist Report is quoted, saying DeSantis “just produced some of the harshest, most draconian laws that literally threaten trans existence” (emphasis added). . . .
Given that context, the inclusion of Figueredo’s line about how DeSantis’s policies “literally threaten trans existence” is deeply disturbing. That this line would make it into a product put out by one of the leading contenders for the presidency is a scandal. It ought create a total and complete repudiation from the campaign just to have any hope of surviving. . . .
Are the voters in the Atlanta suburbs who have abandoned the GOP in droves excited to come back for someone who is running to Trump’s right on anti-gay bigotry? Do you think the McCain/Flake/Ducey voters who rejected creepy Blake Masters in Arizona are going to be interested in supporting someone who compares himself to Patrick Bateman and brags that trans people feel their very existence is threatened by his policies?
I promise you the answer is no.
Despite a disquieting turn in public opinion on trans issues, Americans are not looking for an edgelord Nazi who winks at the radicals hoping to eradicate trans people.
In a just world, DeSantis’s latest attempt to get to Trump’s nutball right would result in a backlash so severe that it eradicates from the GOP primary the notion that there is any purchase in signaling to America that your biggest problem with Trump was that he was just too kind and inclusive.
Alas, I doubt we live in such a world.
Why is DeSantis unable to act like a normal person? His handlers have been trying to teach him to laugh, so he can better bond with the common man. It’s not working. (He also has no clue how to eat a slice of pizza.)
@Acyn: “Buttigieg on DeSantis video: I’m going to leave aside the strangeness of trying to prove your manhood by putting up a video that splices images of you in between oiled up shirtless body builders..”
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