Florida has become a place of longing for conservatives. Some would rather see Governor DeSantis with his tough course in the White House than Trump – who is clearly ahead in the US-wide polls.
Bonita Springs, a seaside resort on Florida’s Gulf Coast, located about halfway between Fort Myers and Naples: In “Mel’s Diner” Kim Tolkien treats himself to a cheeseburger for lunch. The decorative art deco diner, candy-colored with lots of chrome, looks like a relic from the 1950s.
When Ron DeSantis keeps wooing the residents of California to move to Florida with him, if things on the west coast are too progressive, too left-wing, too “woke” for them, then he has people like Tolkien in mind.
“I clearly see myself as a California refugee”
“I clearly see myself as a California refugee,” she says with a smile. They’re totally crazy over there, much too liberal. After many years in Los Angeles, the digital marketing expert is now back in Bonita Springs.
Tolkien says she is infinitely happy “to have a red governor again”. Red is the party color of the Republicans. Blue represents the Democrats. DeSantis has done amazing things for Florida, she enthuses over lunch at Mel’s Diner.
Shaking her head, the mother of a daughter thinks back to Los Angeles. “The city administration couldn’t get the high crime rate under control any more than the riots after the death of George Floyd,” she says. “Homelessness is also completely out of control.”
That’s no wonder, because all left-wing city administrations almost lured travelers with far too generous social programs.
Hard hand against illegal immigrants
You rarely see homeless people in this part of DeSantis’ affluent tropical paradise: certainly not in the luxurious gated communities like “Tarpon Gardens” in Cape Coral, a half-hour drive north of Bonita Springs.
Here, between golf courses, marinas and sandy beaches, live people like Bob Turner, who has just turned 90. After retirement he moved to Florida from New Jersey because of the tropical climate.
Bob also appreciates the political climate that DeSantis has created. “Before he took office, this was neither a red nor a blue state,” says the tanned pensioner. DeSantis changed that with a conservative recipe: low taxes, little regulation, hardly any Covid restrictions, a hard hand against illegal immigrants.
“DeSantis knows people bring together”
Turner and his neighbor John Baker see DeSantis, who was re-elected in a landslide last year, as a pragmatic integrator. And not the ideological splitter he’s often portrayed as outside of Florida. Baker, the retired orthopedist and surgeon, cites DeSantis’ lax Covid requirements as an example: “This is how Florida has become very attractive for people from the democratically governed states who have been in lockdown for much longer.”
In Illinois, where the 78-year-old amateur pilot lived until seven years ago, when he moved to Florida, Baker would have been housebound for much longer. The doctor also liked the disaster management after hurricane “Ian” devastated the area around Cape Coral in September 2022: “DeSantis did a good job.”
That’s why Turner would rather see his governor in the White House than Donald Trump, whom he elected the last two times. “DeSantis has a better chance against Biden,” he believes. “He can bring people together and doesn’t divide like Trump.”
DeSantis as a reconciler?
DeSantis as Reconciler: How Does That Fit With His Constant Provocations? His feud with Disney, deporting illegal immigrants to liberal states, interfering with school curricula? Another neighbor in “Tarpon Gardens”, Mike Hudson, also a DeSantis fan, waves his hand: “It was all blown up by the Democrats to distract from the real problems.”
He cites inflation, the cost of living and illegal immigration. “One million Mexicans; if one million Turks came to Germany illegally, there would be a civil war,” believes the retired pilot. He is convinced that the next presidential election will not be decided on the basis of socio-political issues. “The Democrats have completely inflated the abortion issue,” says Hudson. If you want an abortion in the US, you can get it, he claims.
For its neighbor Turner, Florida is a prime example of how Republicans always benefit when there is too much discussion about “woke” ideology and too little about concrete issues. He also appreciates DeSantis for his tough stance in the Kulturkampf, bundled in the slogan: “Florida is where woke goes to die” – “Florida is where ‘woke’ doesn’t survive”.