<p>Ron DeSantis and First Lady Casey DeSantis.</p>

Ron DeSantis and First Lady Casey DeSantis.

NEWBERRY — Presidential candidate and Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis, came and spoke about the election, his campaign and his plans as commander in chief at a rally in Prosperity on Friday, December 1.

“If you look at the direction of our country and how we’re going on the wrong path, and continue to do this for another four years, they’re going to try and do what California has gotten and do that for the entire country,” said DeSantis, opening the rally by discussing his debate with California Governor Gavin Newsom. “And that will not end well for us.”

DeSantis praised California for its good weather, beautiful scenery and lack of bugs, saying it would be hard to mess that up.

“Newsom has managed to screw it up,” DeSantis claimed. “I mean, it’s unbelievable! It shows you cities, counties, states, governed by leftist politicians and posing a leftist agenda, fail!”

He backed his claim of the state failing by referencing the San Francisco poop map, made by Open The Books and Arcgis, that charts the areas where people have defecated in public, whether it be on sidewalks, roads, or parks. He said that the only time it was cleaned up was when President of China Xi Jinping arrived in San Francisco for a summit meeting in November. DeSantis also used the high rate of drug use and the open-air drug markets as proof of a failing state.

“They’ll do these massive, open-air drug markets. You’re walking down the street and you’ll be harassed by some drug addict or some criminal,” said DeSantis.

He did not elaborate on what part of the leftist agenda has allowed for public defecation or drug markets to be rampant. He also did not mention that this year, San Francisco law enforcement has cracked down especially on the drug markets, seizing hundreds of kilos of narcotics and fentanyl. San Francisco recently launched Operation Overdrive, a federal initiative to crack down on criminal drug networks and disrupt the flow of narcotics.

“You’ve sparked a mass exodus out of the state…because these are destructive policies that are not just inconvenient for the people, they really tear at the fabric of society,” DeSantis said.

He did not elaborate on what specific destructive policies have led to the mass exodus, the poop on the streets, the drug markets, or any other issue California faces that the nation would face is “leftist politicians” were to win the election next year.

“While Newsom was locking people own during COVID, we were lifting people up in Florida. We have a 50-year low on the crime rate,” DeSantis claimed.

The crime rate data for Florida was incomplete. Half of the agencies that police a majority of the state population are missing. Furthermore, only 49 agencies (representing less than 8% of departments) were included in the FBI database. Over 500 police departments and law enforcement agencies, that include the larger agencies that cover Miami, for example, are missing from the national context. With that much data missing, it is impossible to say if Florida’s crime rate is at a 50-year low, also making it impossible to compare Florida to other states.

Florida, like the rest of the country, is seeing a decline in crime overall. The comment made by DeSantis was not entirely false because the state is seeing a decline, but omitted the fact that they do not have the data to say whether it is at the level he claimed. The missing data came as a result of the FBI’s decision to change how crime data was collected, leaving agencies to rely on estimations rather than concrete numbers as they transitioned.

“We’ve gotten woke ideology out of our schools and even took on Disney to get sexualization out of the elementary schools,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis was referring to the “Stop WOKE (Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees) Act,” a measure that would prohibit the teaching of anything that could cause anguish, guilt, or psychological distress due to discussions on race, color, sex, gender and/or national origin if it passed. Although it was struck down by a Florida judge, its effects are being seen across the state as DeSantis continues pushing for it with teachers avoiding certain topics. It also targeted Critical Race Theory, a subject that is taught at the university level rather than K-12.

The act is purposefully written confusingly to push teachers into self-censoring, rather than the government censoring the teachers. With jobs and livelihoods at risk, the vague language of the act makes it so that teachers are always on edge when discussing controversial subjects. Under “Stop WOKE,” teachers cannot discuss race and gender in a meaningful and genuine way. How can the Civil War be talked about without specifically mentioning racism and slavery, two major parts of the subject? On that same token, it could make other subjects, such as the Trail of Tears, which could upset Native American students. It could make the Holocaust difficult to talk about as the subject could cause anguish, guilt and distress for Jewish students and German-American students. Or discussing 9/11 as it could cause distress for Arab-American students. It is a slippery slope that could lead to more problems rather than solutions.

The act also dances the line of restricting free speech, especially in college universities, where discussions that go against “Stop WOKE” are a major part of many classes. DeSantis has already come for free speech in his state, pushing for the deactivation of universities pro-Palestinian organizations, like Students For Justice In Palestine, a group on the University of Florida’s campus. Currently, DeSantis is being sued by these groups on the grounds of restricting free speech.

“He [Newsom] wants to grind people down. I want to lift people up and I want people to have opportunities,” DeSantis claimed.

First Lady Casey DeSantis spoke with Governor DeSantis about schools removing pornographic material from schools, using Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer” as a jumping-off point in discussing protecting children. The book was banned in Florida (and many other states) schools for “graphic images” of masturbation, sex, periods and the rest of the normal things that teens (the target audience of the book as said by the author) experience, question and think about as they grow older.

“Particularly, if you’re in a public school, you have a right to know what’s being taught in your kid’s school,” DeSantis said. “So having some of the pornography when the parents have access to know they can raise objections, it’s not age-appropriate and then it gets taken out.”

DeSantis emphasized that the book is not banned in libraries and stores, highlighting that anyone and everyone still has access to read it if they please, just not through the schools anymore. He continued speaking about parent’s rights and protections, incorrectly citing a California law.

“In California, you can have one of your kids here in South Carolina, or grandkids, go to California without parents knowledge or consent and get transgender operations, puberty blockers, hormone stuff, as an unaccompanied minor,” DeSantis claimed, questioning how that is protective of parental rights, adding that parents who don’t “indulge” can lose custody of their kids.

What the bill DeSantis is talking about is AB-957 Family Law, which says nothing about surgery but does focus on custody. The bill states:

“Existing law governs the determination of child custody and visitation in contested proceedings and requires the court, for purposes of deciding custody, to determine the best interests of the child based on certain factors, including, among other things, the health, safety, and welfare of the child.

This bill, for purposes of this provision, would include a parent’s affirmation of the child’s gender identity or gender expression as part of the health, safety, and welfare of the child.”

In other words, the bill is specific to custody cases and instructs judges to consider the parent’s support of the child’s gender or identified gender, in addition to other factors, when determining which party gets how much custody. All it means is that the judges have to identify whether or not a custody-seeking party respects the child’s identity and self and take it into consideration. It is not the sole deciding factor when it comes to custody. If anything, it bolsters parental rights to custody as another layer to ensure that a child goes to the proper home and receives proper visitation opportunities.

“I don’t mind someone being on the debate stage and lying to me, you know? But when they’re lying to you, I take offense to that because they simply think you’re that stupid,” DeSantis said. “They think if they repeat it enough and the media repeats their lies, that somehow, we’re going to just believe it.”

DeSantis prided himself on “beating the left” on every single issue, such as banning colleges and universities from spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion programs and ending “woke indoctrination” in schools. He claimed that on day one of his presidency, he would get rid of all the woke policies in place.

“On day one as commander in chief, we will take all the social experimentation, all the political agendas, all the woke ideologies, rip it out and throw it in the trashcan,” said DeSantis. He did not say what woke policies or political agendas he would rip out.

“I’m going to be the president to end the border crisis once and for all,” DeSantis claimed. “On day one, we’re going to declare a national emergency, we’re going to mobilize all our available resources including the U.S. Military, to be on the border, stop the invasion, implement different policies like ‘Remain in Mexico.’ Yes, we will actually build the wall and we will do that because Mexico is supposed to pay for it.”

DeSantis said that Mexicans, as well as other immigrants in the country, will pay for the wall by imposing fees on the remittances they send to their families back home. The decision would impact millions of Americans with families around the world. Although it could generate billions, it comes nowhere close to the billions that are required to finish the border wall. The cost of the wall would fall, still, on the American taxpayer.

“Then, finally, look at the sex trafficking, the human trafficking that’s happened. That’s being facilitated by the Mexican Drug Cartel,” he said. “They’re invading our country, poisoning our population with fentanyl. We have tens of thousands of people being killed with this and yet people like Biden shrug their shoulders. I think if a hostile group invades your country and kills your people, as the president, you not only have the right, you have the obligation to fight back.”

That obligation has been, historically, not allowed for Arabs, South Americans, Middle Americans, Africans, African-Americans, Native Americans, Asians and anyone who is not European or American.

He related the cartels to terrorist organizations, like other politicians have, which is why he, and other republicans, believe that military force needs to be used, a move that Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has called irresponsible. Furthermore, it has sparked debates about the racial element of the plan with the use of “invasion” regarding to Mexicans trying to immigrate to the country. DeSantis also seeks to end birthright citizenship in the United States, bringing an end to the 14 Amendment. Another slippery slope proposed by the presidential candidate, as the removal of the amendment can mean removing everyone’s right to equal protection of the laws in the country.

At the end of the rally, DeSantis took questions from the crowd, answering one targeted at keeping the United States out of illegal foreign wars. He said the only way to prevent the wars was through deterring them by peace and that he, unlike others in congress, seeks to deter conflict rather than get involved.

“I think the goal for the United States is to be a strong country that deters conflict from happening in the first place, And the way you deter conflict is through strength…You need peace through strength,” DeSantis said, echoing Roosevelt’s idea of speaking softly while carrying a big stick.

Governor DeSantis did not have time for press questions since he had to make his way to Charleston for the next rally.