Ron DeSantis Wants to Make America Florida (w/ Gillian Branstetter)

Gillian Branstetter (of the ACLU's Women’s Rights Project and LGBTQ & HIV Project ) returns to Know Your Enemy for an episode on the strange case of Ron DeSantis: what is his ideology and vision for America? And why do his political aspirations involve inflicting wanton cruelty upon LGBTQ children and adults in his home state? For our sins, we read DeSantis's new book — a campaign book, though he has not yet formally announce his presidential run — The Courage to Be Free: Florida's Blueprint for America's Revival. (You heard it here: it sucks.) Along the way, Gillian provides an update on the conservative war on so-called "gender ideology" and "wokeness," how organizations like hers are fighting back, and why superficial expressions of sympathy for trans people by major corporations and banks — which so outrage the right — are themselves a trap and a means of evading real justice. We also discuss Sam's New York Times piece on DeSantis as an anti-woke technocrat , an embodiment of the twin cults of expertise and meritocracy, even as he disavows and demonizes the "ruling class" and it's irksome cultural mores. Finally, we identify the violent underpinnings of DeSantis's political imp…