By Trying To 'Move On,' DeSantis Admits His Fight With Disney Was a Political Stunt All Along
It was never a principled fight against special privileges granted to a private company.
The fact that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is now trying to back away from his fight with the Walt Disney Company should confirm at least one thing about the whole ugly mess.
It was never a principled fight against special privileges granted to a private company. It was a political stunt meant to raise DeSantis' profile on the national stage.
That mission having been accomplished—and with the prospects of a legal battle against Disney looming—DeSantis told CNBC on Monday that he has "moved on" from the issue. He also encouraged Disney to "drop the lawsuit" that it filed in April against his administration.
In that lawsuit, Disney claimed that DeSantis led a "targeted campaign of government retaliation" after the company's then-CEO, Bob Chapek, had spoken out against DeSantis' decision to sign a bill limiting the discussion of gender and sexuality in grade school classrooms. (The ban was later expanded to include nearly all public school classrooms in the state.) DeSantis responded to that criticism by launching a crusade against Disney's special self-governing district, the Reedy Creek Improvement District, culminating in the passage of a state law that gave the governor the authority to appoint a new board to run the zone.
DeSantis and his allies have framed that maneuver as a strike against corporate special interests, but Disney's lawsuit makes a compelling case that the governor specifically targeted Disney to punish the company for Chapek's comments. The complaint draws from numerous public statements and from remarks made within DeSantis' recently published book to argue that DeSantis sought to punish Disney for constitutionally protected speech.
It makes a lot of sense for DeSantis to try to walk away from this fight, in no small part because getting his butt kicked in federal court over a fairly fundamental constitutional issue wouldn't be a good look for a guy who is hoping to become president. Even if he doesn't lose, the lawsuit will be an ongoing source of bad news for DeSantis and will give reporters the opportunity to ask questions he'd rather not have to deal with—like the newly uncovered ethical issues surrounding one of the people DeSantis appointed to the Reedy Creek board. Ending the fight would also save taxpayers from having to foot the legal bills for DeSantis' defense, which is nice.
Still, getting out of this mess is probably not as simple as asking Disney to drop the lawsuit and move on. Does DeSantis intend to ask the state Legislature to undo the governor's control over the Reedy Creek board? If not, then why should Disney back down?
Short of that, it would be useful for reporters to ask DeSantis whether he would take similar actions against other businesses whose executives criticize his policies. Disney obviously has the power to fight back, but others might not be able to do so. Is DeSantis willing to admit he was wrong to retaliate against Disney? The answer would be instructive for voters weighing his candidacy for higher office.
Ultimately, though, DeSantis' attempt to "move on" from the fight with Disney reveals how unserious the whole thing was. If this were a principled stand against corporatism, as DeSantis has claimed, it would be worth seeing the fight through to the finish. That was never the case, however, and it looks like DeSantis simply wants to end this political stunt before it blows up in his face.
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With everything else going on I was concerned that Reason wouldn’t have enough pixels left for a hit piece on Floridaman today. Bravo Eric! You alone saw the urgency and stepped up.
Did you know he’s forcing Florida students to learn that slavery was a NET BENEFIT for black people?
Did you know he literally made it illegal to SAY GAY anywhere in the state?
Did you know he’s guilty of HUMAN TRAFFICKING for sending immigrants to blue areas that boast about their immigrant-friendly policies?
#WorseThanHitler
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I know it. I mean, how dare they give their opinion on something he said yesterday. Reporting on a man who keeps himself in the news is so unfair. They should be talking about what isn’t in the news.
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I wonder why the MAGAts don’t just go to The Federalist and American Greatness, where they’d feel more comfortable.
Humblebragthreatpromisewish – n. When you assert that supposedly losing a 1A battle would look bad for a GOP Presidential Candidate hoping that no one will notice that the DNC candidate you reluctantly voted for has, and had, lost several. Synonyms: projection, journalism.
And is presently prosecuting his chief political rival over speech, cannot forget that little nugget of principled libertarianism from Boehm.
And they are pursuing a “crime” with zero limiting principle.
Why would they not prosecute ANYBODY who questioned the 2020 election? We would ALL be part of the “conspiracy”, no?
No one is being prosecuted for questioning the 2020 election, MAGAt.
Trump isn’t being prosecuted for speech, MAGAt.
Yep. More Boehm bullshit.
What exactly is your argument? That this isn’t newsworthy? That its newsworthy but Reason’s take is wrong?
https://twitter.com/Oilfield_Rando/status/1691446350993625088?t=alLEWgsFuOO7O9xuC1Bd0A&s=19
Don’t worry about all these norms being destroyed by democrat zealots.
Republicans are going to preserve our norms by doing absolutely nothing about it.
Please to tell: what are “our” norms? Which “us” are you declaring for?
Hey, Jeffy, Shirke, or is it n00bdragon? It’s hard to tell with so many socks there.
I’ve come to the conclusion that the people who accuse others of running socks are themselves running socks.
Dude, there have been a lot of socks outed today in the Roundup thread. It looks like a sock farm instead of just one puppet master.
Start here and educate yourself: https://reason.com/2023/08/15/trump-and-18-others-charged-with-election-related-crimes-in-georgia/?comments=true#comment-10198745
I made a list of them here, however, I need to add Tony: https://reason.com/2023/08/15/trump-and-18-others-charged-with-election-related-crimes-in-georgia/?comments=true#comment-10198934
Your first link takes me to a sea of grey, so I’ll assume it’s ML. You know the story about Mother’s Lament accusing me of running socks for years only to discover muting the supposed socks did not mute me. He’s terrible at judging who is a sock. Spent most of a year trying to convince people that me and Squirrely are the same person.
Your second link brings up a list that, from what I can tell, are different people. Either that or someone is a great actor. Because they are all consistently different in what they say and how they say it.
I believe that not only are the people who accuse others of running socks themselves running socks, but more importantly it’s how they cope with multiple people saying the same thing. They accuse others of running socks to change the subject and make the conversation about them, not whatever the conversation was about. That’s ML and JesseAz in a nutshell. Turn the topic to the person, not whatever the topic was.
Don’t be like them. Rise above their childish, boorish, idiotic pettiness, and behave like the intelligent man you are.
You might want to try unmuting people for just a bit.
https://reason.com/2023/08/15/trump-and-18-others-charged-with-election-related-crimes-in-georgia/?comments=true#comment-10198745
Spiritus Mundi 2 hours ago
Have you tried mike, sarc, buttplug, or kirkland?
Brandybuck 2 hours ago
They don’t seem to work, but Brandybuck does.
Sarah Palin’s Buttplug 2 2 hours ago
Woah! What the fuck is going on here. I’ve snagged the pedo’s nick.
chemjeff radical individualist 1 hour ago
Seriously, what the fuck? Is everyone just one guy?
I couldn’t snag Sqrlsy or sarcasmic’s so it’s not a glitch.
Tony 40 mins ago
Tony works.
I’m starting to think that this is a couple of different sockfarms, rather than one master socker.
That’s Tulpa or someone else being a sock and accusing others of what they are doing.
If you mute someone and more than one name disappears, you’ve proved that person is running socks. Or unmute and see multiple names appear. Same thing. Happens now and then, and the puppet master is usually the accuser.
Even if someone is running multiple handles, as long as they’re not being a dick who cares?
“The List” is mostly Tulpas. Dozens. Ever see me say “Hi Tulpa!” to someone? That’s because it’s Tulpa with a new account. Can’t imagine how many throwaway email accounts he has created. I immediately mute it. That’s the sock guy. And he’s a dick.
Regulars don’t do that shit.
Check this out. I can’t mute myself. You can’t mute yourself. But I can mute this guy.
https://reason.com/video/2023/06/14/should-trump-go-to-prison/?comments=true#comment-10110125
That’s what impersonating someone looks like. I’ve been accused of doing it. Never have. Though it’s happened to me more than I know about. Much of the hatred directed at me is because of conversations where, if you mute ‘sarcasmic,’ it doesn’t mute me.
I get how difficult it is for you to realize almost everyone who puts up with your bullshit is really just jeff. It’ll be okay buddy.
So, if you muted me then you could see the socks!
Explains why certain people say to never mute me… Mute Squirrely, but don’t mute sarc. Why? Because then you’d see he’s being socked! We’d get caught!
Goes to show just how shit Reason’s comment board is designed and operated.
Also shows the dearth of honesty among those who insist I’m the sock master. They know who they are.
test
And you failed, Sarc.
You do it! Copy and past my name into your account and make a comment.
In addition, it’s not Mother’s Lament nor JesseAz figuring out the sock farm(s). It’s not me either.
Crawl back into you poss soaked garbage can pussy. Keep hiding from me, just like you have for six months now.
Nadless Nardless the Nasty NAZI, when saying “we” or “our”, etc., means Nadless Nardless the Nasty NAZI, all of the many MAGAts, and all of the many-many MANY maggots eating the brains of Nadless Nardless the Nasty NAZI!!!
Do you have a norm about murdering people out of hand or, at least, a general expectation as to how others would behave as a result of your being murdered?
DeSantis is so awful that if he gets the nomination, I expect Koch-funded libertarians to vote strategically and reluctantly for Biden.
(Or Harris. Or Newsom. Or Michelle Obama…)
#ImmigrationAboveAll
DeSantis is so far out of normal parameters it makes me shudder.
Yea, he’s totes threatening to the swamp.
Just look at how virile this response is…
https://twitter.com/DeSantisWarRoom/status/1691525952998715392?t=XqCT9x-C6tMFD_77vmrvlg&s=19
DeSantis reacts to Trump’s indictment in Georgia in response to questions from New Hampshire media:
“So, I haven’t had a chance to read it all. But I will tell you, Atlanta has huge problems with crime right now. And there has been an approach to crime which has been less than exacting. I think there have been criminals that have been let out that shouldn’t have been let out. And so they’re now doing an inordinate amount of resources to try to shoehorn this contest over the 2020 election into a RICO statute, which was really designed to be able to go after organized crime, not necessarily to go after political activity. And so, I think it’s an example of this criminalization of politics. I don’t think that this is something that’s good for the country. But I think a lot of Republican voters are looking at some of the things that have happened, whether it’s the Department of Justice, whether it is some of the things that have happened locally, and I think the question is, okay, ‘what are we going to do about it?’ And I’ve already said, as president, we are going to end the weaponization of federal agencies like the DOJ and FBI. We’ll have a new director. We will have new leadership in the DOJ. We’re going to make sure that there’s a single standard of justice in this country. Now, in terms of some of these local DAs: in Florida, we’ve actually suspended two — one in Tampa and one in Orlando — over the last year for failure to follow their duties and responsibilities. And as President, we will lean in against some of these local prosecutors if they are not following the law or if they are abandoning their duty to enforce the law evenly. So I think that — I don’t know how it’s going to affect anything politically. For me, at the end of the day, it’s about ‘let’s get this country in a good direction.’ We need to have confidence in our justice system again, but before we get there, we need major, major accountability.”
[Video]
https://twitter.com/Styx666Official/status/1691471946267942912?t=Q2Bz82ujSHY167Q1l_ViKw&s=19
“I’m voting for the guy the establishment clearly doesn’t fear enough to break two centuries of civic precedent.”
Real win that one.
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Ultimately, though, DeSantis’ attempt to “move on” from the fight with Disney reveals how unserious the whole thing was. If this were a principled stand against corporatism, as DeSantis has claimed, it would be worth seeing the fight through to the finish.
So unless DeSantis is laser focused on Disney, he must not really care about Disney; not like the MSM would claim he was obsessed with Disney if he did as Eric suggests.
Also, how could anyone criticize DeSantis ending a grotesque form of corporate welfare in the form of Disney being a government onto itself? Disney should be subject to the law just like any other business.
Disney was subject to the law. It followed all the rules which existed. All the CEO did was disagree with DeFascist’s rolling back the clock in Florida a couple hundred years.
PS: There’s something like 1300 other special interest districts in the state. DeFascist went after *one*.
And the Florida state government changed the law.
So?
Lol, no, there were several others as well. Disney was the only one to try that Mickey Mouse bullshit with the board, and they keep getting smacked around in court on top of that.
Combine this with the L farm they’re harvesting in their media releases tanking, their cast members shitting on the IPs and classic movies, their declining park attendance, their dyke DIE commissar departing, and Disney plus bleeding subscribers, it’s pretty clear OrangesMan is offering them a chance to save face.
It was never a principled fight against special privileges granted to a private company. It was a political stunt meant to raise DeSantis’ profile on the national stage.
That was pretty obvious from the get-go.
You guys got him this time! This is it! He’s done for.
A recent headline indicated Gov. DeSantis is polling lower than former Gov. Christie in New Hampshire (or a similar state).
I hope this inclines slack-jawed, pudding-fingered clingers to send more money to the DeSantis campaign.
You also hoped Barrett replacing Ginsburg would create a 7 – 6 liberal majority on the Supreme Court “during the first half of 2021.”
Then mid-2021 passed. Then mid-2022. Then mid-2023. And all Biden has done is replaced an old liberal justice with a younger one. Still 9 in total.
Meanwhile Roe got overturned.
Also race-based college admissions got nuked.
By a Supreme Court you told us would have a 7 – 6 liberal majority.
Honestly, Art, how ridiculous do you feel? To have a prediction fail that spectacularly – will namedropping Harvard Law 1,000,000 more times be enough to restore your credibility?
Honestly, Art, how ridiculous do you feel?
The only things the Reverend feels are the rhythmic pounding of his lemon party compatriots and vertigo from the cheap hobo wine they gave him.
He misses being head boy for the fellatio team his uncle coached.
I feel like a guy on the winning side of the American culture war, the stronger side at the modern American marketplace of ideas, and the right side of history.
Like a guy who enjoys watching the mainstream shove even more progress down the whimpering, obsequious throats of right-wingers, faux libertarians, half-educated bigots, and disaffected culture war roadkill.
So carry on, clinger . . . but only so far as your betters permit. You get to whine about it all you like, but you will continue to toe that line. And knowing culture war roadkill like you will continue to comply with my preferences makes me feel great.
How about you? Have you enjoyed the most recent five or six decades of liberal-libertarian dominance in the culture war? I know I have. Especially when misfits like you are whimpering about all of this damned progress, reason, science, modernity, education, and inclusiveness.
This reads like the screed of a waffling nincompoop transposing chicken scratch. Clearly, even you aren’t persuaded by your own baloney laden vomit.
Apparently Boehm thinks that anyone who wants to move on from an issue is admitting fault. So when both sides of a lawsuit decide to move on by settling, does that mean they’re both at fault?
When one side wants to move on and the other doesn’t, the side that wants to “move on” is usually the losing side. Duh.
Feel free to list all the Ws Disney has been racking up, you dumb bitch.
Engaging in name-calling is an admission that the person you are calling names has the better argument.
Reason brings down its wrath upon DeSantis for banning the teaching of gender identity fantasies to gullible children when these fantasies are used to encourage child mutilation, but nothing about the attempts to ban math in high schools because it’s “racist”.
Apparently, destroying the lives of children is OK, but producing competent scientists and engineers is not.
What hierarchy of values can justify these actions?
Get back to us when you are grounded in reality.
That has never happened and you’re gullible as fuck for believing a word of it.
Ground yourself, Jeffy, or is it Nelson, or is it Foo_dd?
Please, beat yourself to death with a hammer.
Film it, so we can all laugh.
The “wrath” of Reason? Really?
The closest Reason ever gets to “wrath” is when Gillespie goes on a snarky rant.
On a wrath scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being God on Sodom and Gomorrah, Reason’s full wrath would require very sensitive instruments to detect it. It’s why I used the word, kinda like describing a mouse fart as a biological weapon.
Don’t be sure sure it isn’t:
https://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/index.html
DeSantis’ decision to sign a bill limiting the discussion of gender and sexuality in grade school classrooms.
What? When did he do this? I’ve never heard such a thing. Was it around the same time he signed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill which made it illegal to talk to gay people? (Or talk about gay people, or something, I was never too sure about what exactly it said.)
It said that if you’re gay, you can’t talk to yourself.
https://twitter.com/AJiazhang/status/1691538392637382656?t=KCs9hZP1QEL7_YzLhaj7-A&s=19
Almost no one seems to realize what time it is. People out here talking about the GOP primaries like it’s 1996 or something. “He’s electable” “he has good policy”… bro they’re going to try and arrest the a guy who got 76 million votes.
Like anyone talking about policy, tax rates, or electability when someone with 76 million million votes in 2020 is under 20 investigations is just NGMI.
Last “honest” election was in 2016.
And it wasn’t honest, they just underestimated Trump’s performance and didn’t get enough vote rigging in place in time
“…they’re going to try and arrest the a guy who got 76 million votes.”
and lost by 8 million votes to a guy who hid in a basement and showed signs of impending senility. Trump then screwed up the runoff elections in Georgia by demanding that the Republicans insist that the election was stolen. He then backed 6 major candidates in 2022, 5 of whom lost in massacres including one who literally lost to a brain-damaged opponent. He couldn’t have done a worse job it the Democrats had hired him to do it.
DeSantis committed political suicide, Vivek Ramaswamy talks fast in the hopes that no one will notice that he’s just another statist, Tim “My grandfather picked cotton and now, I’m a senator” Scott has nothing but a great backstory, Chris Christie just passed DeSantis in a poll but for him, it’s a bridge too far. Nikki Haley’s time has passed without a single new idea to her name.
The Republican party has two types of politicians, one who can’t admit that he lost an election, and the rest who are afraid to say that he lost the election for fear of losing his supporters.
Aside from sheer cowardice, the only thing that Republican candidates have in common is that they will never talk about liberty, free trade or individual rights. No matter who gets the nomination, they will lose to a brain damaged Obama puppet ( Biden or Harris or Susan Rice? Why not? She seemed to be running the country already)
Free trade is a myth. Has never existed.
If a country is willing to eliminate ALL tariffs, we should reciprocate. But only when that happens.
Franklin Roosevelt negotiated dozens of reciprocal trade agreements that pretty much did just that. They helped temper the horrors of the Great Depression. Eisenhower was the first free trade advocate the Republicans had ever nominated for President. Trump returned the Republican Party to it’s protectionist corporate welfare roots.
“and lost by 8 million votes to a guy who hid in a basement and showed signs of impending senility. Trump then screwed up the runoff elections in Georgia by demanding that the Republicans insist that the election was stolen. He then backed 6 major candidates in 2022, 5 of whom lost in massacres including one who literally lost to a brain-damaged opponent. He couldn’t have done a worse job it the Democrats had hired him to do it.”
You’re literally repeating the regime media narrative, so you’ll forgive us for ignoring your thoughts as the worthless garbage they are.
Facts are worthless garbage? You seem rather triggered.
No way. A politician did something political? WTF!!!?
What’s the alternative to “moving on” Mr. Reason writer? Life isn’t about a single event that happened years ago. Is it?
“The Fact that DeSantis hasn’t Moved On from his fight with Disney proves it was political all along” was the other story you might have also written.
https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1691291790643539968?t=OQPBGWGK6w2RLLYLDFIxKQ&s=19
Understand where we are: they inked a secret deal with Joe Biden’s bagman son to keep him out of prison for money laundering, bribery, tax evasion, and influence peddling, and they’re criminally charging Trump for tweeting at people to turn on the TV.
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One case was in Delaware the other was in Georgia. Reason can’t be expected to cover every little local story that pops up on wingnut.com. Meanwhile an old lady had her local daily raided by the local cops. But it was an egregious attack on 1A. We’re not talking about some guy on the internet posting parody ending up in a federal penitentiary. Meh. This was a real fucking newspaper and some people had a rough day. Nobody wants to hear your conspiracy theories about bagmen and Twitter posts by some has been politician. Floridaman is the real threat to liberty.
I dunno. I think that Hunter Biden breaks out into a cold sweat every time he sees a bus go by. Some in the press must be ready to say that Biden, like God, sacrificed his son to save humanity from sin, or Trump, those being much the same to the press.
It would be funny if he weren’t the second choice. Seriously, what the hell is up in Republican land when meatball Ron and the orange traitor are the leading candidates?
No shame at all and certainly no principles beyond “make libs mad.”
Seriously, you’re one to talk about shame, Shrike?
Seriously, what the hell is up in Republican land when meatball Ron and the orange traitor are the leading candidates?
Agreed, but meanwhile the Democrats are running whom?
I’m predicting at some point Gavin Newsom and his hair will enter the race, and win.
Dude, your guy is Biden. Not sure I would be doing a lot of mocking of the other team based on that alone.
People would like him better if simply said he made a mistake
Both DeSantis and Trump are incapable of admitting error.
Shocking revelation from Reason: A politician does something for political purposes.
This has long past the point of absurdity. Nobody in their right mind was saying Ron DeSantis wasn’t targeting Disney for political purposes. The question is whether he was justified in doing so. The defense of DeSantis was that he was because what he was taking away from Disney wasn’t some universal right, but an undue extension of privilege.
You can argue against that claim. I don’t know how much luck you’d have. But, at least don’t argue against a strawman.
Desantis is such a loser. He is completely dislikable and doesn’t even believe in free speech. He wants the heavy hand of government involved in everything
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. The problem with DeSantis is that he’s an unremarkable and completely normal political critter pretending to be a nut job, and the Republican base can smell the fakery. They want an actual bona fide wackadoodle crazy person, not this poser.
Eric is still on the anti-DeSantis talking points. He must not have noticed Vivek Ramaswamy moving up in the polls. Quick, Eric, go back to the DNC and collect your set of anti-Vivek talking points or you’ll cease being useful to Biden.
What’s there to “admit”? Disney engaged in politics and tried to push radical leftist ideology on Floridians. Of course this fight was political, and unapologetically so! Companies that engage in political partisanship shouldn’t be getting special privileges.
Republicans have ALWAYS favored corporate welfare since the party was founded in 1854. Remember that the law creating the Reedy Creek Improvement District was signed by a Republican Governor. DeSantis and Trump are basically fascists wanting to dictate to businesses. The MAGA crowd who shout “freedom!” are hypocrites.
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lol Reason shilling for the big D once again.. or does this count as attacking the bad man?
That is one way to reframe the argument. He’s giving Disney one last chance to drop the stupidity before getting BTFO legally with the whole admitting to things they shouldn’t have debacle.