“I Am Totally Fine to Just Do Nothing”: DeSantis Gives up on Florida After Disney War

For a politician who likes to talk tough about “woke” politics and schoolchildren, Ron DeSantis seems to give up quickly when he gets any pushback regarding his new plans for Florida state parks.

“Glamping,” Golf, and Pickleball

Governor Ron DeSantis became a nationally famous politician by positing himself as an “anti-woke” crusader who wasn’t afraid to stand up to leftist activists and people who want to make sure that outdoor workers have drinking water and breaks during scorching heatwaves.

Although his run for the United States Presidency ended with an embarrassing third-place finish in the Iowa GOP caucus, he has still tried to maintain something of a “strongman” image in Florida.

It turns out that all that it takes for DeSantis to fold to pressure these days is some state park protests and his own party members turning against him.

The far-right governor has quickly backtracked and turned on his own administration’s plans to transform nine state parks across Florida into a series of pickleball courts, disc golf, “glamping” cabins, and golf courses after protests from activists, residents, and even prominent Republicans like U.S. senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott.

Related: Ron DeSantis’ Florida Board Signals Imminent Overhaul of Abandoned Disney World Park

The plans include:

• Anastasia State Park (St. Johns County), construction of a 350-room lodge.
• Camp Helen State Park (Bay County), 10 cabins constructed for lodging and “glamping.”
• Grayton Beach State Park (Walton County), additional 10 cabins constructed.
• Hillsborough River State Park (Hillsborough County), four new pickleball courts and a disc golf course
• Honeymoon Island State Park (Pinellas County), 4 new pickleball courts.
• Jonathan Dickinson State Park (Martin County), a public golf course
• Oleta River State Park (Miami-Dade County), pickleball courts and disc golf courses.
• Topsail Hill Preserve State Park (Walton County), a 350-room lodge, pickleball courts and a disc golf course.
• Dr. Von Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park (Broward County), 4 new pickleball courts.

Earlier this month, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced the “Great Outdoors Initiative,” an extensive plan to retrofit the state’s beloved state parks into lucrative opportunities for construction. The press release for the initiative described it as:

“[I]ncreasing the number of campsites, cabins and lodges on park property, the initiative will increase the number of outdoor recreation opportunities available at Florida’s state parks, including pickleball, disc golf, golf and paddling. Today’s announcement reinforces the DeSantis Administration’s record support for conserving our natural landscapes and commitment to ensuring every Floridian can visit and recreate at Florida’s state parks.”

However, residents and politicians alike were outraged to find that the DEP had scheduled mere one-hour public meetings to hear from the communities that the Great Outdoors Initiative would have impacted; the department has been accused of attempting to quietly push the initiative through resident awareness so as not to trigger any backlash.

Well, that didn’t work out.

Hundreds of protestors showed up at Florida state parks over the course of the week, and prominent Florida GOP members issued a letter publicly criticizing DeSantis, calling the meeting plan “absolutely ridiculous” and that “communities around Jonathan Dickinson State Park are owed a public comment meeting in good faith… on whether golf courses and hotels will be built in our park, and the public deserves the ability to make their voice heard.”

The meetings have since been canceled and not yet rescheduled. In the meantime, culture warrior Ron DeSantis has quickly turned his back on the DEP initiative, basically claiming that he has no idea what the departments under his administration are doing and that he doesn’t actually care if it’s going to bother everyone.

Ron DeSantis: “Nothing Has Been Approved”

In the kind of responsibility-taking suitable for a presidential candidate, Governor DeSantis announced (per News4Jax) that “I never saw [the Great Outdoors Initiative plans.]” He further called the plans, which were fully moving forward before the protests, “half-baked” and not “ready for prime time” and that they needed to go “back to the drawing board.”

DeSantis has gone on to dismiss the voices of local residents protesting against a massive construction project in pristine public land, basically saying that if people didn’t like it, it was because of a leftist plot, and also, he was fine with not doing anything, anyway. He said:

“This was done intentionally, given to a very left-wing group to try to create a narrative that somehow, you know, the state park is going to become a big parking lot or something like that. That’s obviously a phony narrative and was never true to begin with, but nothing has been approved, and they are going to go back and listen to folks…as governor, I am totally fine to just do nothing and do no improvements, if that’s what the general public wants, and that’s fine with me.“

The governor later continued to deflect responsibility for his administration’s plans (per WUSF NPR). According to DeSantis, it’s not his job to know what the DEP is up to or get involved in governmental work that doesn’t involve stripping away arts funding. He said, “Look, I, as governor, I’m not refereeing how big this campsite is or that. I mean, it’s just not things that I’ve been getting involved in.”

Related: DeSantis Hands Disney Millions Meant for Education Spending

This is a far cry from the bold figure that DeSantis wanted to present to the country as the potential 47th American President. A big reason for that is that he just had to deal with a long, embarrassing feud with the Walt Disney World Resort that basically pitted him against the most beloved entertainment company in the world.

While DeSantis and Disney have since settled their differences via an agreement to walk away and agree that no one did anything wrong, it is clear that the governor has not been the same since then.

Ron DeSantis is in his last term as Florida governor for the foreseeable future and has lost his run for the presidency, been forced to settle lawsuits with Disney and LGBTQIA+ activists, and now is being hounded by his own constituents over plans to turn state parks into golf courses.

Whether DeSantis wants to take responsibility or not, it’s happening under his watch. If he thinks he should be in charge of Florida, maybe he should get involved with governing it.

What do you think of the Great Outdoors Initiative? Tell us below!