All anyone’s talking about at the moment is Florida governor Ron Desantis, and specifically his decision to use state funds to send two planes full of Venezuelan immigrants fleeing communism from San Antonio, Texas, to Martha’s Vineyard, a small island off the coast of Massachusetts. 

The immigrants were told that they were being sent to Boston, where there would be jobs and shelter waiting for them. Massachusetts officials were given no notice of their impending arrival whatsoever.

How Martha’s Vineyard – a heavily liberal community with virtually zero structures in place to handle a large influx of immigrants – and the Republican governor of Massachusetts responded was a master class in shutting down a troll. They took in the immigrants, made sure they had healthcare, food, and shelter, and implemented a plan for their future. 

Desantis’ stunt was an obvious effort to “own the libs,” thereby securing his November reelection and hopefully galvanizing a 2024 presidential run. His goal was to trigger outrage, but all he did was provide the state with an opportunity to demonstrate their values…which don’t, apparently, include using human beings as expendable political props. 

This is obviously…disgusting. But let’s say for a moment that we understand that the border cities are being critically strained by immigration, that the situation is untenable. There are mechanisms in place through which Desantis could have alerted officials as to the coming influx of immigrants. 

In other words: Border states can be mad about how immigration is being handled, mad about how immigrants arrived in their state – they’re entitled to that, and they’re entitled to vote accordingly – but to stoop to the level of dehumanizing people who are fleeing a dictatorship is….

I mean, it’s straight out of the Trump playbook. And therein lies the even greater problem. 

If Trump doesn’t run in 2024, Desantis is far and away the favorite to be the Republican nominee. And Desantis’ stunt is concrete evidence that Republican leadership in the MAGA era  is about demonstrating a willingness to hurt others on behalf of the base. A willingness to employ any means necessary in an effort to keep our country from becoming more diverse and more progressive. In other words, a willingness to do whatever it takes to keep America as white as possible.

Cruelty is openly on the menu now.

There are many in the Republican Party who abhor Trump, and who are of the opinion that anyone who is “better” than Trump is OK. The bar has been lowered, my friends. 

But Desantis is not better than Trump. If anything, he’s more dangerous, because he’s smarter, and more palatable. He has 100% demonstrated a willingness to utilize the Trump playbook, with all of its deeply immoral and inhumane tactics. Desantis is yet another dangerous authoritarian trying to secure power – and the fact that he’s a bit less vulgar on Twitter than Trump should make him more frightening, not less.