This review of Gov. Ron DeSantis' The Courage to Be Free, a presidential resume that reads more like a job application to the S.S., is, as the book reviewer notes, "scary."
I thought about writing a review of the review — I have not read the book, nor do I intend to squander a day doing so — but that would have robbed you of book critic Jennifer Szalai's gently written disembowelment of the Florida governor's scribbling ego. So rather than offer a review's review, I have decided to pluck a few representative passages from her labors. (Note: I have not excised any favorable comments about DeSantis' book, which even the worst of works sometimes earn. Fact is, Ms, Szalai had nothing favorable to say.) Here you are:
"All the culture war Mad Libs can’t distract from the dull coldness at this book’s core."
"The Courage to Be Free is courageously free of anything that resembles charisma, or a discernible sense of humor."
"[It] reads like a politician’s memoir churned out by ChatGPT."
"Much of it is given over to laying out what he calls 'Florida’s blueprint for America’s revival' ... looks an awful lot like thought policing."
"All the bland platitudes do serve a purpose. DeSantis’s blunt-force wielding of executive power might sound like a good time for hard-core social conservatives, but ... you can see the gears turning as he tries to make his message palatable for the national stage."
"His 2011 book contained numerous tributes to 'limited government.' Now, he says, in his typically windy way, anything he does that looks suspiciously intrusive is in fact a cleansing measure, purging public life of excess politicization."
"Fewer than 20 pages later, DeSantis proposes making about 50,000 federal employees — currently apolitical civil servants — into 'at-will employees who serve at the pleasure of the president.' By any measure, this would amount to politicization on steroids."
"What DeSantis seems to be doing in The Courage to Be Free is to insist that Americans should just stop worrying and let him do all the thinking for them."
"Any criticism of his policies gets dismissed as 'woke' nonsense cooked up by the 'corporate media.'"
"The bullying sense of superiority is unmistakable, even when he tries to gussy it up in a mantle of freedom."
"He may have been able to 'withstand' the 'indoctrination' of being exposed to ideas he didn’t like, but he doesn’t seem to believe the same could be said for anyone else."
"Take out the gauzy abstraction, the heartwarming clichés, and much of what DeSantis is describing in The Courage to Be Free is chilling — unfree and scary."
Bold mine.
In short, what Gov. DeSantis proposes in "Florida's blueprint for America's revival" is nothing more than the authoritarianism that demagogues have proposed for centuries.
When he writes that he is merely fighting "political factionalism," one is reminded of Hitler's early 1930s agenda; what was needed was a nation of One Voice — all those communists and social democrats were but muddying a true, clear vision for Germany.
Only one-party rule could impose order and progress, added henchman Hermann Goering. On the Nuremberg witness stand just days before his suicide, he was still arguing that National Socialism's singular state power — and its brutal repression of all other parties and ideologies — was not only necessary but logical. After all, since only Naziism had all the correct solutions for his troubled nation, he testified, why would it permit any other political faction to survive?
One can say this much for Goering. Unlike DeSantis, he never bothered with "gussying up" his bullying or obscuring it with "gauzy abstractions" and "heartwarming clichés." He was straightforward and honest about National Socialism's authoritarianism.
If DeSantis possessed "The Courage to Be Frank," he would do the same about his brand of Republicanism.