Horowitz: DeSantis has instilled fear in leftist culture warriors by enforcement, not just talk

The rule of law in this country is dead. We’re governed by the most forceful men, not the most forceful pieces of legislation. This is why the most consequential limitations on our lives are unelected edicts, while some of the most foundational laws on the books are ignored. Democrats are the only ones in this country who exercise political will to enforce edicts not rooted in law, while Republicans won’t harness the courage to enforce laws that are duly passed. That in a nutshell explains why red states aren’t nearly as red as blue states are blue. It also explains why Florida, for the first time in modern history, is bucking that trend.

Last week, several organizations sponsoring grooming rallies of half-naked men twerking their bodies around the streets throughout the month of June abruptly canceled their parade of Gomorrah. Every year, the month of June gets more disgusting (why did June deserve this?!) with these parades of promiscuity and gender-bending, and it seemed like there was no floor to the degree of decadence our kids would be exposed to as they enjoy the beginning of the summer. But that came to an end in Florida with passage of HB-1438 and, importantly, the expectation of its enforcement.

The new legislation allows the state to “fine, suspend, or revoke the license of any public lodging establishment or public food service establishment if the establishment admits a child to an adult live performance.” Interestingly enough, it did not ban these events wholesale, just the exposure of children to adult performances. But given that grooming is the main point of these groups’ insidious agenda, they felt it was not worth the effort. No grooming, no parading!

Much like everything Governor DeSantis has passed in Florida, there is nothing novel about this legislation. Indeed, most of the bills he signed have companions in a few other states, although no other state has passed quite so many of these bills. However, what is different about Florida is the expectation that DeSantis will actually enforce the law and is not just signing it to get conservatives off his back, as other Republican governors do. There is a broad expectation that DeSantis will stick the landing and actually follow through with enforcing these laws.

The “Tampa Pride on the River” event boasts attendance levels of 15,000 every year. Its organizers openly brag about “famous Ru Paul drag queens that come in for the event.” Yet the day after the bill was signed into law, they abruptly canceled the event. They know what everyone else knows – that for once we have a governor who is willing to follow the laws passed by the legislature rather than the broad popular sentiment in the media.

Several other events have been canceled, such as those in St. Cloud, Port St. Lucie, and Lake County, despite months of planning. The rainbow jihadists decry a culture of “fear” and how the performers don’t feel safe. When was the last time you’ve ever seen the Rainbow Jihad fearful of anything?

This is what we’ve been lacking in the Republican Party for years. We need law changes, but many existing laws are not enforced. Nowhere is this more evident than with immigration. We tell people they can’t come here illegally, but then offer them jobs and benefits out in the open. On this front, Florida is not the first state to pass E-Verify, but all the others that have a requirement clearly don’t enforce it on the agriculture sector. In Florida, there is now a wide expectation that it will actually be enforced.

The same dynamic played out with COVID. Although the blue localities in Florida did try to fight for masking of children, DeSantis followed through and threatened to punish those schools. They are now either deterred up front or DeSantis’ gumption to follow through against their defiance wins the day, as we are seeing with Disney.

One of the most remarkable examples of sticking the landing was when Florida became the first (and still the only) state to recommend against jabbing children with the COVID shot. Publix, which is the largest corporation based in the state, decided to side with Florida over the CDC and announced last year the stores would not be administering child vaccines.

We simply don’t see this level of follow-through, deterrent, and cultural transformation of the business world reflected by red-state governments anywhere else. Walmart rules Arkansas; Sanford Health controls the politics of the Dakotas, and the plethora of corporations in Texas’ big cities prevent Texas from enacting E-Verify even during the worst invasion of the state’s history.

There’s a strong lesson to be harnessed here. We all complain that Republicans don’t do enough to protect our values, security, and economy from the truculent woke culture warriors. The reality is that if we are ever going to make red states red again, it will require leaders willing to make sacrifices and risk temporarily losing business opportunities to change the culture. Most governors don’t think it’s worth it. But what Florida has demonstrated is that, much like barking chihuahuas, woke corporatists won’t even put up that much of a fight if they know the political leaders mean business. Their support is a mile wide but only an inch deep, and one governor decided to poke at it and see what would happen.

Now, it’s quite obvious that regardless of what happens with the presidential election, we should have 20-25 states that are like Florida. In fact, if we had multiple governors doing the same thing as DeSantis, we could make the policies even more conservative than Florida because they will have power of deterrent against woke corporate policies in larger numbers. But that requires elected governors with conviction, intellect, courage to follow through, and the acumen to appoint department heads willing to vigilantly enforce the policies.

Personnel is policy. In so many states, governors will claim to ban critical race theory, grooming, and anti-American curriculum in public schools, but there is no follow-through because their appointees at the departments of education are either feckless or downright supportive of these policies. In Florida, however, they have actually either rejected or forced modifications into most of the textbooks. The College Board was forced to change its African-American Studies curriculum because administrators knew DeSantis wouldn’t back down on his concerns and wasn’t just grandstanding for an audience.

Likewise, the bill banning the teaching of sexuality to schoolchildren wasn’t just a talking point. Teachers are being investigated by the Florida Department of Education for violations. There is immediate follow-through and enforcement.

As Republicans consider their vote for president, rhetoric vs. results make a dichotomy that must be factored into that decision. But whoever you choose for president, we should all be asking: Following the experience in Florida, why have we not raised the bar in every other red state? Why is every other red-state governor groveling for woke businesses rather than standing firm and making them change their behavior to comport with our values?