Sometimes people say things that they don't mean in the privacy of their own home, and sometimes people say things that they don't mean in the full view of the public eye. However, Ron DeSantis did neither of those things when he told Floridians not to "monkey this [election] up" by electing Andrew Gillum as Governor in November.
As much as people do not want to admit it, racism is still alive and thriving in 2018 because people like DeSantis are being elected to public office. And if the guy that you voted for said it, then obviously that means that you can say it as well. Even after the crazy two years, we have had with President Trump, people are still voting for candidates that are fully proud of the fact that they are supported by him.
It is unbelievable that people like DeSantis are still able to not only run but also win the races that they are running for - even when they spew senseless hate speech like the words that DeSantis said about Gillum.
Gillum is the first black nominee to run for Governor that has won the primary, and that is a huge win for the Democrats in Florida. He was also a big upset candidate as he was polling in fourth place just last week behind other candidates that included Gwen Graham, who was actually expected to win the primary.
However, the fact that DeSantis won the Republican primary only further validates the things that he said after winning because he feels that his voters will back him no matter what he says.
So why is DeSantis a problem for Florida? Well, if what you've read above hasn't told you anything yet, then I'm not sure that anything that you could read would convince you. However, DeSantis has opposed restrictions on gun control since 2012, and with the newest mass shooting in Florida, the state needs someone who is willing to fight for tighter gun restrictions so something like that has a lower likelihood of happening again. In 2014, he said we didn't need an EPA expansion on regulated waters, and with the growing red tide issue that is garnering more and more attention from Floridians, we need someone who can work with the EPA to protect more of our waters so the wildlife has a safe place to live and we can continue to safely fish out of those waters as well.
On the other hand, Gillum wants to look into clean energy for Florida because he feels that is the safest way to keep us from polluting our state too much. With the red time issue, we need to be able to reverse the damage that we have done to the water that surrounds our state so that our beaches are clean again - since they are our biggest source of tourism.
It isn't just the problematic things that DeSantis says that are bad for our state. Our state's ocean health is declining rapidly, and if that continues for too much longer, we will lose so much tourism revenue that taxes will have to be increased in order to help pay for the infrastructure.
When November comes, it is important to vote for who you think will be best for the state of Florida. But if you want this state to continue to succeed in the future, then Gillum needs to be our next Governor.
