Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis slammed fellow Republicans for acting like “potted plants” as an alternative of fighting against the left’s “woke ideology” during an event Thursday, in line with a report.
DeSantis made the accusations as he touted the Sunshine State because the country’s recent “leading red state” during a speech at a three-day event hosted by the political group Club for Growth — which dozens of the largest GOP donors attended, Fox News reported.
“If woke ideology takes over it can destroy this country. We are usually not going to let that occur within the state of Florida,” he said during his 40-minute speech at a Florida seaside retreat called The Breakers.
The governor, who’s a possible candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, said the most effective strategy to defeat the so-called “wokeness” is to take the offensive.
“Republicans must not shrink back from these fights simply because the media and the left’s going to call you names,” DeSantis said.
“A few of these Republicans, they simply sit back like potted plants, and so they let the media define the terms of the controversy,” he added. “They let the left define the terms of the controversy.”
DeSantis, 44, said he hasn’t been afraid to stomp down the “pernicious” woke ideology in Florida, which has made his state a political success story for Republicans.
“You may fight back, and you may beat these people,” he said. “Because in Florida we’ve beaten them time and time again — on education, on lockdowns, you name it — we’ve come out on top. And never only have we come out on top in policy, we’ve transformed the state into the nation’s leading red state.”
One such battle the Republican won was against media behemoth Disney which had lobbied against the governor’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
On Monday, DeSantis signed laws that put Disney’s self-governed Reedy Creek Improvement District under state control.
“I don’t think it really works in the event you say corporate America can advance the left’s agenda with no check and balance if we’re just going to act prefer it’s none of our business, since it’s affecting our county,” he said during his speech Thursday.
“My polices are helping to guard people from having the woke ideology shoved down their throats in institution after institution,” he later added.
The Florida governor didn’t address a possible White House bid during his speech, but as an alternative spoke of how his work within the sunshine state could function a blueprint for the remainder of the country, in line with Fox.
“The perfect defense is offense sometimes, and I feel for a man like me and other Republicans that’s definitely the case,” he said.
Earlier within the week, DeSantis bragged that Florida’s Democratic Party has effectively develop into a “dead, rotten carcass” in what was long considered a swing state.
