Of course DeSantis flouts the law -- he learned from the master

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Amanda Marcotte
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The GOP commentariat wants to believe that DeSantis is how they get Trump without all the scandal-mongering. But his willingness to use taxpayer dollars for human trafficking shows there is no such thing as a corruption-free fascism.

salon.com
Of course DeSantis flouts the law — he learned from the master
Some Republicans see DeSantis as a cleaned-up Trump. But their contempt for the rule of law is exactly the same
10:25 AM · Sep 19, 2022

https://www.salon.com/2022/09/19/of-course-desantis-flouts-the-law-and-human-decency---hes-just-following-example/

When the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago in early August, looking for classified or top secret documents Donald Trump had stolen from the White House, many in the Republican commentariat openly longed for a new leader who could bring all the fascism (or the "semi-fascism," if we must) without all the law-breaking. Fox News host Laura Ingraham complained that Americans were "exhausted" by Trump's constant swirl of crimes and scandal, and plaintively asked for "someone who has all Trump's policies, who's not Trump."

As I argued at the time, this fantasy about authoritarianism with clean hands is ridiculous: Corruption is an inseparable from fascism as golf carts from Palm Beach resorts. Nonetheless, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been dangled before the Republican faithful as the potential Boy Scout Mussolini, a man who can dish out all the bigotry and authoritarian crackdowns, without getting distracted by role-playing a mafioso. In large part, this is because DeSantis is perceived as having even less of an internal life than a pickle-brained sociopath like Trump. DeSantis has the look and feel of a prototype politician-robot, who doesn't explode in angry tirades but has been programmed to think exclusively in right-wing grievances. Robots lack the complicated human motives that lead to criminal actions, after all, and DeSantis feels "safer" for those who dare to imagine a fascist regime free of corruption.

After last week's Martha's Vineyard stunt, however, it's time for Republicans to set aside their longings for an evil-but-lawful leader. As any sci-fi geek could tell you, those AI-powered robots invariably evolve to be worse than their creators. Most of Trump's crimes are rooted in ordinary human impulses, like outright greed and ego gratification. But programming DeSantis to care only about right-wing trolling didn't prevent him from playing Trump-like games with the law. In this case, he appears to have defrauded these immigrants not for financial gain, but solely to create a political spectacle that would play well on Fox News.

DeSantis used taxpayer funds to charter a plane carrying about 50 immigrants from Venezuela and Colombia to Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, in what was effectively a proof of concept of a Stormfront-derived talking point about alleged liberal hypocrisy. He didn't receive the "get off my lawn" response he was hoping for. Residents of the island instead rallied to help the new arrivals. (Which didn't stop Fox News from simply pretending that locals responded with the racist reaction DeSantis was hoping for.) Because of the speedy help offered by the people of Martha's Vineyard and the state of Massachusetts, in fact, lawyers brought in for pro bono assistance swiftly discovered the unbelievable levels of fraud that DeSantis' people had employed to make this stunt happen.

*snip*