According to longtime political observer Jonathan Chait, no one should be surprised that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has gotten into a highly public war with the Walt Disney Company since the move is right out of the Donald Trump playbook.
At issue is the controversial "Don't Say Gay" bill that DeSantis signed into law and that the Disney company has publicly stated it will seek to overturn it with pressure on the state's legislature.
The columnist claimed that DeSantis, like the former president, is a big fan of massive corporations until they cross him -- and then the threats begin.
Noting that DeSantis "has pitched himself to the Republican elite as the candidate of 'competent Trumpism'" according to Chait, the columnist asserted that there is actually little difference between the two Republicans' authoritarian tendencies.
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Labeling DeSantis' threats aimed at Disney as a "thuggish effort to bully" the company "into supporting, or at least refraining from opposing, his 'Don’t Say Gay' law," Chait added, "DeSantis is trying to establish an understanding that major corporations can expect favorable treatment from the government as long as they play along with the ruling party’s political agenda. They are allowed — nay, encouraged — to get involved in politics on the condition that they take the correct position. But should they take the wrong position, they will find themselves under legal scrutiny. Suddenly, the regulatory noose will tighten."
"This is the method Donald Trump used to intimidate firms with employees who gave him a hard time. Amazon lost a lucrative Pentagon contract in retribution for Jeff Bezos’s ownership of the Washington Post, and Trump attempted to block a merger by CNN’s parent company to finish the network," Chait accused.
"This is also a method that Trump’s favorite dictators — like Viktor Orbán and Vladimir Putin — use to control the political debate in their countries," he added before warning, "When American conservatives tell us Orbán’s version of competitive authoritarianism is the form of government they aspire to, then show us what it would look like in practice, we’d best believe them."
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