Florida’s DeSantis Takes Aim at America’s ‘Ruling Class’

ORLANDO, Fla.—President Joe Biden and the “entrenched political class” are ruining America with the help of a corrupt and partisan corporate media, says Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who promised to lead the fight against the current regime.

In a 40-minute speech Thursday to about 800 conservative supporters of The Heritage Foundation and its grassroots partner, Heritage Action for America, the Florida governor tackled a range of issues where Biden and his left-wing allies want to transform America. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.)

DeSantis reserved some of his strongest criticism for the “elites” and “globalists” who he said have led America astray.

“Biden really represents potentially the culmination of—or, I mean, hopefully, the coup de grâce of—this entrenched political class that has really ruined a lot about our country over the last generation. It’s not limited to just Democrats,” DeSantis said. “There’s a uni-party in Washington, D.C., and they look out for themselves more than the rest of the American people.”

He added: “Our ruling class doesn’t think [there’s] anything distinctive about American citizenship. That’s why they would consider paying reparations to people that came across our border illegally, because they think people have a right to come, regardless of the laws and Constitution of the United States.”

Biden recently acknowledged his administration was considering payments to illegal immigrants who were caught illegally entering the United States. The Wall Street Journal reported the payments could be as much as $450,000 per illegal immigrant.

“You deserve some kind of compensation, no matter what the circumstance,” Biden said Nov. 6, while disputing the $450,000 figure. “What that will be, I have no idea.”

DeSantis cited Biden’s open-border policies, rising gas prices, soaring inflation, supply chain crisis, Afghanistan-withdrawal  disaster, and COVID-19 failures as some of the “daily humiliations” confronting the current administration.

“He’s failing across the board,” he said, “and I think it’s causing more and more people to look and recognize the failures of leftist governance.”

Despite Democrats’ having control of the White House and Congress, Biden’s party is struggling to enact its agenda. DeSantis said it’s a blessing their numerical margins are so narrow in both the House and Senate. Otherwise, lawmakers would be attempting to pack the Supreme Court, abolish the Electoral College, federalize our elections, and grant D.C. statehood.

“If we go to kitchen tables throughout Middle America, and think about what the families are talking about, they’re not talking about making D.C. a state,” the Florida chief executive said. “They’re not talking about federalizing election procedures. They’re talking about inflation. They’re talking about gas prices. They’re talking about all these other things that are so important.”

The disconnect between the American people and their representatives in Washington has far-reaching consequences, DeSantis warned, and not just domestically. He said Biden’s policies would embolden our foreign adversaries, particularly China.

“These elites have done more than anybody to facilitate the rise of China,” he said. “You look at the next three years. What’s China’s going to do? They watch Biden floundering around. These people are really tough. They’re going to make sure that they exact a huge amount of price based on Biden’s failures.”

Unfortunately, DeSantis said, there’s no accountability in Washington, D.C.—a problem he blamed on media outlets. He singled out Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to Biden and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

“If you’re in the club in D.C., there’s no accountability. How the hell else does Fauci still have a job?” DeSantis said. “Part of the reason that’s true is because we have a very corrupt and partisan corporate media in this country, and they really serve as the Praetorian Guard for these elites.”

Several years ago, conservatives could turn to social media to bypass these media outlets. Today, some of those companies—particularly, Facebook, Google, and Twitter—now routinely censor alternative viewpoints.

As governor, DeSantis worked with state lawmakers to hold those companies accountable. The law, signed May 24, gives Floridians the power to sue technology platforms.

“Big Tech is something we have to take head-on, and I’m not somebody who believes that because they’re private, they can do whatever the hell they want to,” he said. “They are hurting our country, and they’re hurting our society.”

DeSantis promised more action to counter the Biden administration and other left-wing politicians. He vowed to stand up for traditional American values and against the teaching of critical race theory in schools.

“We’re not spending tax dollars to teach our kids to hate our country, or to hate each other,” he said. “That is not going to happen here.”

And when Florida enacted election reforms earlier this year, DeSantis made clear he wouldn’t be intimated by the left’s threats or corporate protests. He told CEOs they could become political actors, but would face pushback for doing so.

“The result was the legislature passed the bill. I signed the bill. The left had a spasm; the media had a spasm. But the businesses didn’t say anything in Florida, because they understood I’m not going to let them smear my people, my legislators, or me with these false narratives,” he said. “Virtue signaling has a cost in the state of Florida, and the cost is me fighting back.”

DeSantis said the results have been positive for Florida—and politically positive for conservatives.

“When I got elected governor November of 2018, there were almost 300,000 more registered Democrats in the state of Florida than Republicans,” he said. “As I stand here before you today, three years later, for the first time in the history of the state of Florida, there are more registered Republicans than Democrats.”

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0. Article cross-posted from Daily Signal.