Tales of absurdity from Tallahassee

Part I of an expected series

Apr 21, 2022

It did not take Florida Republicans long to lash out at DisneyWorld.

In response to Disney opposing Governor Ron DeSantis’s “Dont say Gay” bill, the Florida State Senate passed a bill to remove DisneyWorld’s self-governing status1.

The Disney/Florida GOP row began when Disney, which did nothing while the bill was being debated, suddenly remembered it has “Gay Days”2 in the Magic Kingdom and its labor force tended to be very supportive of the LBGTQ community.

After stating their opposition to the law, Disney also took the time to announce they would not be contributing any more money to DeSantis. Since DeSantis has gotten over $200,000 from Disney since his election in 20183, this amounts to a considerable political loss — fundraising-wise.

So now in a twisted reversal of “pay to play” politics (in this case, “you stoppped paying, so now you have to pay for that”), DeSantis and his GOP legislature want to punish Disney. Ron DeSantis may want to rethink that absurdity.

DisneyWorld and the rest of central Florida’s theme parks generate about $5 billion in local and state tax revenue. DisneyWorld is the state’s largest employer; and tourism in the greater Orlanda area employs nearly 500,000 people and pumps over $75 billion into the economy4.

DeSantis and the rest of the Sunshine State’s GOP are going all-in to teach a company worth over $237 billion a lesson. What lesson?

If Disney leaves Florida, it won’t suffer a bit financially. Dozens of states will clamor to be home to a new Disney theme park. And Disney can write off the cost of closing its business in the Sunshine State for years to come.

Central Florida, if Disney leaves, will have a crater in the form of an abandoned amusement park, a devasted economy, and massive unemployment.

The “Don’t say Gay” law is hardly worth it, but it is not DeSantis’s first foray into controversy since being elected. He’s shown up at racist events, insulted Puerto Ricans, supported lynchings, ran a racist Facebook page, supported neo-nazis, and bashed immigrants5. He also bungled the COVID pandemic and went out of his way to make sure former felons could not vote despite a referendum allowing them to do so that passed with nearly 65% of the vote in 2018.

For a politician to be so far to the Right, one would think DeSantis had been elected with a sizable majority — somewhere in the high 50s/low 60s percentage-wise — to justify playing to his base versus the political middle.

Nope. DeSantis won with 49.6% of the vote with a razor thin margin (32,463 votes) over his Democratic opponent in 2018. His reelection race is likely to be just as close — DeSantis is polling right at the 50% mark which is rather low for an incumbent.

Right now, the leading Democrat in the gubernatorial race is polling in the low 40s, but the primary is 4 months away. The leading Democrat is former Governor and former Republican Charlie Crist6. It won’t be Crist’s first run for governor as a Democrat — he lost to Rick Scott 48.1% to 47.1% in 2014.

The Florida GOP seems comfortable with alienating nearly half of the state’s voters — a bad move in a state that has not elected a governor with over 50% of the vote in 16 years (and that was Crist).

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