An opinion piece from Politico senior media writer Jack Shafer Thursday predicted the destructive hurricane that tore through Florida had only "temporarily tamed" Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
According to Shafer, as Hurricane Ian approached, "the Republican Party’s excitable boy, Gov. Ron DeSantis, suddenly started acting like a normal politician."
"The New York Times was among the many who observed DeSantis’ speedy transition from a red-toothed biter into a fuzzy lapdog," Shafer noted.
The writer slammed DeSantis as "[o]rdinarily a political opportunist" and "the sort of guy who flies asylum-seekers to Martha’s Vineyard to score points, beats up on Disney for using its First Amendment rights, retaliates against the Special Olympics and lowers the boom on drag show bars."
He followed by suggesting DeSantis had done an about-face when he "responded to Ian with the sort of governance you’d expect from Mitt Romney or any other governor who doesn’t consume a pail of bile for breakfast," and seemed to be surprised "The governor is actually governing."
The article suggested DeSantis was acting uncharacteristically cooperative by putting political differences aside while dealing with a destructive hurricane.
"The most obvious shift comes in his dealings with President Joe Biden, whom DeSantis previously savaged as a ‘fella who just hates Florida.’ Now he’s telephone buddies with Biden, thanking the administration for its disaster assistance," Shafer wrote.
He wondered if DeSantis’ reputation as a brawler over America’s culture-war issues is merely a persona to corral a voter base.
"One way of looking at DeSantis’ current retreat from acting like a loon is that it indicates that most of his previous stunts were for show — to appall Democrats, remake him as a national figure and rile the GOP base," Shafer said before deciding, "The better way to view it, of course, is that DeSantis’ new courtly manners are only the latest example of his opportunism."
He continued, "The remaining question is whether Hurricane Ian truly tamed the tarnation out of Ron DeSantis or if he’ll revert to the guy he was."
To answer his question, Shafer found "[e]vidence that he has made only a temporary adjustment to his political style and will return to culture warfare once Ian’s waters recede" in a tweet by DeSantis Rapid Response Director Christina Pushaw to a reporter, then concluded the piece by rhetorically inquiring, "Do we have to ask?"
