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Credit: Inside the MagicIn a recent interview about his battle with the Walt Disney Company of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis claimed that Disney is “waging a jihad” against the “Don’t Say Gay” Law and that their corporatism is a danger to all of Florida.
First, a quick recap: the DeSantis/Disney feud began when the company spoke against the controversial “Don’t Say Gay” Bill. The Governor then made motions to remove the board in charge of Walt Disney World’s special Reedy Creek Improvement District to ensure he controlled them. Disney responded to the new board by creating a contract with the former board, giving the company control of the Reedy Creek Improvement District until the last living descendent of King Charles III, two-year-old Princess Lillibet of Sussex, passed away.
DeSantis has since gone on a tear against the company by threatening to open a prison right next to Disney World, nullifying the contract in the Florida legislature, taking control of Disney’s monorail, and putting forward the potential of placing a lien on Walt Disney World.
Related: Trans Americans Terrified to Visit Disney World as DeSantis Threatens Kidnapping Kids
The Walt Disney Company has responded by suing the Florida Governor for punishing them when they practiced their first amendment rights. DeSantis and the new board have answered with a countersuit while DeSantis and his constituents continue to write more bills into law that only affects Disney.
Disney CEO Bob Iger has called DeSantis’ moves “un-American” and even vaguely threatened the Governor by saying, “Does the state (Florida) want us to invest more, employ more people, and pay more taxes or not?” Surprisingly, there are plenty of Republicans who agree, including former President Donald Trump and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
However, DeSantis made sure his motivations were evident in a recent interview: this isn’t about retaliating against a corporation that had previously supported the Governor speaking out against him. It’s a fight about what it means to be American.
DeSantis Explains His Position Against Disney
Related: Few Americans Invested in the DeSantis Crusade Against “Woke” Disney
In an article for The American Conservative called “The Rat Catcher,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis began by interrupting the interviewer’s question about how his battle with Disney works against the Republican principles of a free market with a question: “What is a free market?
The Governor elaborated, “Does an absence of government necessarily mean a free market? I would say, sometimes, absence of government could just devolve into corporatism, and I think too many people on the right have basically been corporatists over the years.”
Governor DeSantis also addressed his Libertarian critics, saying, “If you’re a libertarian, how do you justify Reedy Creek? That’s the opposite of libertarianism. It is corporate welfare. We are under no obligation as a state to continue that arrangement.”
DeSantis continued, explaining that if he didn’t retaliate when a massive company with “quasi-governmental powers” vows “to wage a jihad against this bill legislatively means we’re subsidizing that activity.” He added, “Why would we want to subsidize that?”
Related: “Woke Disney” Faces New Christian Challenger
“If you look at some of these companies, like Google, and look at the footprint that they have, they don’t necessarily offend historical antitrust law because the antitrust law is focusing on jacking up prices on people,” DeSantis admitted. “But I would say they’re exercising way more power than Standard Oil ever did or any of the trust of the early 20th century. So the question is, is it okay to have a handful of private power centers that really, really dominate our society? And is it appropriate to have something like an antitrust principle applied there? I think it probably would be appropriate.”
The Florida Governor ended his interview by explaining that “protecting what we believe is a free society” means preventing “social transformation without representation.” DeSantis continued, “We’re a distinct country. We have a distinct people, and that needs to mean something. We have an identifiable culture. We have identifiable traditions. And I think a lot of [the left’s] project is to really undermine a lot of the institutions and traditions and values that have stood the test of time.”
“A lot of these fights are really foundational fights about what it means to be an American. So, it’s something that we fight for.”
Do you think DeSantis successfully defended that his motions against Disney weren’t politically motivated? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below.