Sometimes, in the midst of gleefully watching Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign crashing and burning, it’s hard to remember that in his infinite wisdom as current Florida Governor, he picked a fight with one of the biggest companies in the world, Disney. You know, Disney, a company whose market cap (the total value of its shares of stocks) of $159 billion dollars is larger than the GDP of small countries. Uh oh.
Anyway, as a quick reminder, when Disney (finally, after much public criticism over its silence) stated a problem with Florida’s horrific “Don’t Say Gay” bill that restricted the ability to discuss sexuality and gender in the classroom, DeSantis decided to repeal all of Disney’s special tax incentives in the state of Florida. Florida, the home of Disney World. The same Disney World that accounts for $75 billion annually of the Florida economy. Well, surprisingly enough, when you lose privileges because you don’t agree with an administration’s policies, you can sue. The real American pastime!
Obviously, this is something Disney has pursued, and at this point, DeSantis is ready to move on from the whole thing; like a kid who accidentally started a fire in an abandoned building that he never thought would spread, he’d just like everyone to forget who started it and accept what’s happened. What’s done is done. Per CNBC:
“They’re suing the state of Florida. They’re going to lose that lawsuit,” DeSantis said in an interview with CNBC’s “Last Call” […].
“So what I would say is, drop the lawsuit,” the governor said when asked what he would tell Iger if he were to give him a call today.
Well, if DeSantis said Disney’s going to lose, I guess it’s settled, everyone. Nothing to see here.
Given how autocratic DeSantis’ time as Florida Governor has been, I’m not entirely sure he doesn’t understand that’s not how the legal system operates in this country. That he can’t just decree something so, and everyone moves on with their day.
DeSantis’ big argument is Disney needs to play by the rules every other theme park in Florida plays by, in case you were wondering. Per the above source:
“Your competitors all do very well here, Universal, SeaWorld. They have not had the same special privileges as you have,” DeSantis said he’d tell Iger.
“So all we want to do is treat everybody the same, and let’s move forward. I’m totally fine with that. But I’m not fine with giving extraordinary privileges, you know, to one special company at the exclusion of everybody else,” he said.
By treating everyone the same, DeSantis clearly does not mean LGBTQIA+ youth in the Florida public school system. No, they need to be diminished, ostracized, and told their identity is antithetical to the American way of life and cannot be discussed at all. This is Ron “Meatball Ron” DeSantis, after all, a man who allegedly eats pudding with his bare hands. Neither the nickname nor the pudding anecdote has much to do with any of this, but he sucks, so it’s always good to bring it up.
At this point, because DeSantis is no longer mad about the whole thing, everyone else needs to let it go, too, so sayeth the thin-skinned Governor. Per CNBC:
The governor said in Monday’s interview that he and his allies have “basically moved on” from the feud.
“I would just say, go back to what you did well. I think it’s going to be the right business decision, and all that,” he said.
Oh, well, if he says so. Pack the lawyers away Disney CEO Bob Iger, DeSantis has moved on from the feud and, thus, thinks it’s over.
Despite never having wanted to get a glimpse into the crappy mind of Ron DeSantis, his outlook on the situation gives just that, and surprise, surprise, it’s the mindset of a rage monster. Blow up, make everyone else deal with it, calm down, and expect everyone else to just move on. Wash, rinse, repeat. Only he picked a fight with one of the few entities with deep enough pockets to fight back.
It’s rare if ever I side with a mega-corporation like Disney—one that refuses to pay actors and writers fairly, by the way—but it’s never that I side with Ron DeSantis, so really, we should just let them fight. At the very least, it will make DeSantis mad that he still has to engage in this legal battle when he wishes it was over, and any time he’s mad, we should all be happy.
(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
