Ron DeSantis So Disappointed Black Republicans Don't Know How Good Slaves Had It
Keep digging, Ron.
There are five — count ‘em, five — Black Republicans in Congress, and not even they have sunken in place enough to defend Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s Lost Cause, which is not just his sputtering presidential campaign but his racist assertion that enslaved people might’ve picked up a few skills while in bondage, such as blacksmithing and, I guess, long distance running.
Wednesday, Rep. Byron Donalds remarked, most diplomatically, “The new African-American standards in FL are good, robust, & accurate. That being said, the attempt to feature the personal benefits of slavery is wrong & needs to be adjusted. That obviously wasn't the goal & I have faith that FLDOE will correct this.”
The backlash was swift: DeSantis spokesperson Jeremy Redfern called Donalds a “supposed conservative,” and Christina Pushaw, his campaign’s rapid response director, asked snidely, “Did Kamala Harris write this tweet?” (Obviously not.)
DeSantis, ever the master politician, responded in the most insulting way possible. He said Thursday, “At the end of the day, you got to choose: Are you going to side with Kamala Harris and liberal media outlets or are you going to side with the state of Florida?”
But Donalds is a Black man from Florida so if he has concerns, maybe someone who’s not a Jim Crow racist would listen? Of course, this only further bolstered Donalds’s vocal support for Donald Trump, who’s crushing DeSantis nationwide and in the state they both pollute.
Sen. Tim Scott, who’s actually gained ground on DeSantis in some polls, told reporters in Iowa, “There is no silver lining in slavery. The truth is whatever benefits you could’ve learned … you would’ve had as a free person. What slavery was really about was separating families, about mutilating humans and even raping their wives. It was just devastating.”
He added, “So I would hope that every person in our country — and certainly running for president — would appreciate that. Listen, people have bad days. Sometimes they regret what they say, and we should ask them again to clarify their positions.”
This was a gift for Scott, who showed Republican donors his far more appealing brand, compared to DeSantis’s personal style of “let me press this asshole right into your face.”
Scott was also far more generous to his primary rival than, say, Hillary Clinton was when Barack Obama had his “bitter” gaffe.
Yet, National Review writer Dan McLaughlin claimed that Scott was the one who “committed a major unforced error … that will win him friends only with people who don't vote in the primaries.”
Presumably the error here is “siding” with Kamala Harris over Ron DeSantis, but it seems as if McLaughlin thinks affirmatively stating “slavery is bad” will alienate Republican primary voters. That’s morally repulsive but also bad politics: Trump has a lock on the drooling racist demo. DeSantis is stalling precisely because he’s losing support from college-educated Republican voters, who’d rather not publicly wear white hoods.
More Black Republicans spoke out against DeSantis. Freshman Rep. Wesley Hunt from Texas said on the platform laughably known as X, “As the direct descendent of a slave, I have a hard time understanding Governor DeSantis’ position that transferrable skills learned in bondage are somehow a net benefit.”
“If Ron DeSantis spent more time doing the job the people of Florida elected him to do and less time on his failing Presidential campaign,” he continued, “perhaps Florida’s curriculum on slavery would more accurately reflect the pain and heartbreak experienced by millions who suffered through the original sin.”
Hunt is hardly a moderate. He otherwise spends his time ranting about the “Biden crime family” and elevating unhinged kook Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
But apparently the siren call of Jezebel VP Harris has these Black Republicans straying from the path. Yeah, that barely coded rhetoric isn’t going to help DeSantis in the suburbs.
Freshman Rep. John James from Michigan also called out DeSantis Friday:
#1: slavery was not CTE! Nothing about that 400 years of evil was a “net benefit” to my ancestors. #2: there are only five black Republicans in Congress and you’re attacking two of them.
My brother in Christ… if you find yourself in a deep hole put the shovel down. You are now so far from the Party of Lincoln that your Ed. board is re-writing history and you’re personally attacking conservatives like [Tim Scott] and [Byron Donalds] on the topic of slavery. You’ve gone too far. Stop.
This is very good advice that DeSantis is too pig-headed (and pig-faced) to accept.
[Politico]
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"...such as blacksmithing and, I guess, long-distance running."
How I know I'm back in the SER-iverse.
I find it so interesting that Republicans have to balance "The Democrats were the party of slavery and Republicans ended it" with "Actually slavery wasn't all that bad." There's such a political schizophrenia involved with being Republican.
Republicans: "Democrats were the party of the KKK."
Also Republicans: "We need to preserve statues of those heroic [Democratic] Confederate leaders."