Ron DeSantis and the Fight Club Conservatives

By Philip Klein

Friday, April 22, 2022

 

The most significant line dividing the modern conservative movement is more tactical than ideological.

 

On one side, there are those on the right who see conservatism as a set of clear and timeless principles that should be consistently adhered to, regardless of whether they lead to preferred short-term outcomes in every circumstance.

 

Those on the other side of that line may be sympathetic to many of the same principles, but they believe that any principle that gets in the way of achieving their preferred outcomes should be discarded without remorse.

 

This isn’t to say that important ideological disagreements on economic, social, and national-security policy (or the relative importance of each) do not still divide conservatives into various factions. And no doubt, the overarching tactical disagreements end up leading to substantive policy differences — for instance, when it comes to the debate about regulating Big Tech.

 

That said, if we look at the battles on the right that in recent years have ended friendships, severed institutional relationships, and pitted long-time conservative allies passionately against each other, they all, at their core, come down to the same disagreements over the proper approach to politics.

 

Conservatives who embraced Donald Trump — or at least made their peace with him — ultimately viewed him as a disruptive force who was willing to mercilessly take on liberals and their media allies, and fight battles that other Republicans fled.

 

While many people have tried to define this faction of conservatives as MAGA or Trumpist, the reality is that the movement has broadened beyond Trump. It has been described as populist, or as the New Right. But given the emphasis on pugilism, I like to describe them as Fight Club Conservatives. This strikes me as especially apt given all the talk about the crisis of masculinity that is common in these circles.

 

Ever since Donald Trump left office, Florida governor Ron DeSantis has been carving out a place for himself in a fractured Republican Party as somebody who can be acceptable to a broad cross-section of conservatives. He has largely united Trump’s willingness to take on the Left with more intelligence, discipline, focus, and follow-through.

 

But if there was any uncertainty before about where DeSantis truly stood, this week’s targeting of Disney in Florida should leave no doubt that he wants to side with the Fight Club Conservatives.

 

Before calling for legislative action going after Disney World’s “special district” status, DeSantis claimed a victory that was satisfactory to conservatives of all stripes. He brushed off objections by Disney to the parental-rights education bill, signed it anyway, and gave a passionate speech declaring that woke corporations would not set the agenda of Florida. This was a message that was broadly cheered by conservatives.

 

However, he did not leave it at that. By using a special legislative session to revisit an arrangement with Disney that has existed in Florida for over 50 years, DeSantis has veered beyond advancing a clear policy goal. Instead, he is demonstrating an eagerness to punish a corporation whose top executive spoke out against the law.

 

There are many arguments that could be made about whether the special-district status is an unfair carve-out for Disney. My colleague Charlie Cooke has argued that the status is actually a sensible arrangement that allows Disney more freedom to control the area that encompasses Disney World in exchange for paying for all maintenance costs. Charlie notes that there are 1,844 special districts in Florida, and that DeSantis actually made his announcement about Disney at one of them — the sprawling senior-citizen community The Villages. There are fair arguments to be made on the other side.

 

But the substance of that debate is beside the point. Fight Club Conservatives spent this week defending the DeSantis-led actions of the state legislature by arguing precisely that it was important to pummel Disney — not just to punish the company, but to send a message to other woke corporations.

 

They don’t get to claim this and call everybody who disagrees with them weak-kneed, and then turn around and argue that this was all about a sudden concern with fairness in Florida’s zoning practices.

 

Josh Hammer argued that “this is a perfect example of the kind of fighting Right now required: a Right, that is, which is willing to wield political power in muscular fashion to reward friends and punish enemies within the confines of the rule of law.”

 

Using the state as a vehicle to reward friends and punish enemies is something that conservatives once excoriated, for good reason, as Gangster Government. Government policy toward individuals and businesses should be neutral to whether or not those in government agree or disagree with a given person or entity. Conservatives cheering on the idea of the government splitting the populace into friends and enemies should also recognize that there are times when they will end up as enemies of the state.

 

There will be plenty of debates in the coming years over the manner in which conservatives should pursue their goals — but it’s pretty clear that Ron DeSantis has chosen to cast his lot with the Fight Club Conservatives.