So yeah, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is still running for president. Every morning I wake up with a vague hope that maybe that won’t be the case anymore, yet every day it still is.
His campaign so far has been as weird and repulsive as his governing style. Last month, he released a campaign ad, now deleted, that was a bizarre mashup of homophobia and homoeroticism mixed with footage from Peaky Blinders and American Psycho. Before that, DeSantis started a feud with Disney over its support of LGBTQ+ rights. He then threatened to build a prison next door to Disney World and got slapped with a lawsuit for trying to undo a contract the park had with the state of Florida. Oh, and DeSantis is also the guy who apparently eats pudding with his bare hands. Great work, no notes.
Now, DeSantis has announced that if he’s elected president, he’ll start his term by “slitting throats.”
“On bureaucracy, you know, we’re going to have all these deep state people, you know, we’re going to start slitting throats on day one and be ready to go,” DeSantis said during a campaign event in New Hampshire. “You’re going to see a huge, huge outcry because Washington wants to protect its own.”
Announcing that you’re going to cut people’s jobs is bad enough. Accusing government officials and civil servants of being “deep state” operatives—a common conspiracy theory among the far-right—is even worse. Leaning into a metaphor as violent as “slitting throats?” It’s like DeSantis watched Patrick Bateman commit unthinkable atrocities and took notes. We can only hope it is a metaphor and not some authoritarian fantasy that DeSantis is hoping to make a reality.
DeSantis’ remarks have been widely condemned, with American Federation of Government Employees president Everett Kelley calling them “dangerous, disgusting, disgraceful and disqualifying.” Except, with the current state of the Republican party, nothing is disqualifying. Nothing at all. There is absolutely nothing that a Republican candidate can do that is vile and depraved enough to cost them an election.
Case in point: DeSantis is currently polling second in the Republican primary. Who’s in the lead? Why, the man who claimed he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it. When it comes to the Republican party, this simple truth can’t be overstated: the cruelty is the point.
(featured image: Scott Olson/Getty Images)
