The Battle of Reedy Creek could be the Gettysburg of America’s culture war crusades.
Today, in the first wave of the battle, the Florida Senate hastily approved General Robert E. DeSantis’s demands to attack and dismantle the Disney grounds in Orlando.
Even for Floridians, Reedy Creek is dark; a weird little legal fiction created by the state of Florida for Walt Disney World in 1972. It was an absolutely esoteric holdover in state law until the governor. rum desantis he set his sights on making Disney submit to his will.
DeSantis’ attack on Disney will cost Florida taxpayers at least $2 billion, and residents of the two counties where Disney resides an average of $2,200 more per household annually in local property taxes. DeSantis is working hard to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs of tourism in Central Florida.
This hack is all about giving DeSantis more ammunition in his non-stop culture war as he prepares for elementary school. donald trump in 2024, and the Florida Legislature has covered itself in infamy for playing their game. Just as Republicans in Washington lived in fear of the Trump horde, Republicans in the Florida House and Senate live in fear of DeSantis and his mob, including those who prey on taxpayer pennies.
As America’s curious new dictator, DeSantis signed an instantly notorious “Don’t Say Gay” bill this spring as part of his nascent 2024 presidential campaign. Like almost every Republican trolling and moral panic operation (but I repeat myself) , was a divisive legislative fire put forth in response to an imaginary threat.
Through the incessant tweets and statements of cristina pushawhis top strategic adviser, DeSantis characterized any opposition to the bill as “barbers” and “pedophiles” aiming to abuse Florida’s children.
Having abandoned all of its previous ideological predicaments under Trump and giving in to the sweet seductions of the quest for absolute power, today’s Republican Party believes in nothing and can therefore turn any issue into a campaign weapon… the more lurid and conspiratorial, the better.
DeSantis has been a very successful fundraiser for corporate titans like Disney. They think they have bought a relationship, as has been done since time immemorial. The leaders of these companies felt that giving contributions to DeSantis’s campaign would buy his favor. Disney thought that too.
Disney was wrong, and DeSantis’ major corporate backers are wrong, too. They just don’t know yet.
With an overbearing bully, the old transactional dance with corporations, super PACs, and right-wing politicians is over. Disney’s massive decades-long investment in the Florida Republican Party bought them nothing.
If you’re a major donor to DeSantis or the Florida Republican Party, that’s fine…until you’re not. They are the best of friends… until they are sworn enemies. DeSantis is a radical populist and the seething, snarling hatred stoked in his base by the political propaganda machine about anything and everyone who disagrees with the Dear Leader’s plans is his only real weapon.
Republican leaders once at least expressed the right devotions about free markets, free speech, and keeping government out of the running of private business. Today, the message is the opposite. Government control of corporate speech, internal politics, and behavior is precisely what DeSantis’ attack on Disney’s rather nondescript objections to his “Don’t Say Gay” bill represents.
DeSantis and Co-Governor Pushaw understand that the great masses of unwashed MAGA would rather hear about Ron DeSantis, warrior against the vast and dangerous, and imaginary – army of pedophile barbers, instead of seeing DeSantis respecting the free speech rights of a corporation and its leadership. As much as Florida Republicans complain about the imaginary threat of communism, which exists almost entirely in college dorm shit sessions and sleepy dreams of old Bernie Bros, they love its tactics.
It doesn’t help that Disney still thinks they’re playing the old game.
Disney lobbyists in Florida and Washington assured them that they could donate their way out of this crisis. Their PR people tell them that the brand is strong and that DeSantis will be stopping soon. They are convinced that they can wait for him.
Always hit back at the stalker, twice as hard.
Disney should put their money, media, and creative muscle against him, changing the “Don’t Say Gay” argument and making DeSantis and his enablers feel real pain. They are the largest employer in the state and generate billions in tax revenue.
It’s time for Disney to call Ron’s bluff.
How? One idea is to go hard on DeSantis in the race for governor of Florida, but I would argue against it. As a general in this war, it is difficult to kill him politically. So why not take some of his enablers off the battlefield?
Disney should identify a dozen Florida House and Senate races and invest $25-$30 million to break the Republican majority in the state. For the Florida Republican Party, that amount of money is a significant boost; for Disney, it’s a rounding error. Make all the senators from Florida who sponsored this monstrosity get up from their normally cool and easy re-elections and suffer.
Bullies rarely fight alone. DeSantis needs a compliant majority in the Legislature to make the threat of bankrupting Disney a reality. He breaks, or even reduces, the Republican majority and he is a loudmouth, not a threat. Given the massive and crushing costs of this stunt, a Legislature with fewer Ron acolytes will think twice before playing this game again.
It is almost certain that Disney will not follow this advice. They will double down on doing more than what brought them here; fawning over the Republican Party of Florida and the Governor who wants to destroy them.
“Going to get along” is political poison when it comes to authoritarians.
Disney is on the front lines of the culture war right now, and unless they fight it hard, it’s a war DeSantis has every intention of taking all the way to the White House.
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rick wilson He is the author of two New York Times bestsellers, an award-winning ad creator, co-founder of The Lincoln Project, and a fifth-generation Florida Man.
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