Even The Mighty Fall

Greed Brings Down The DeSantis Empire

I want to take you back to my home state for a moment for an object lesson that may give you a little heart in these dark days.

In Tallahassee’s dark and dismal swamp (I’m exercising some literary license here; we’re in the paradisical humidity, blue skies, and low-80s days right now), a story is unfolding about how corrupt, seemingly untouchable, and impervious autocrats are brought low by their greed and arrogance.

Ron DeSantis (R-Boulevard of Broken Dreams) and his wife, Casey McBeth DeSantis were, just two years ago, the all-powerful political enterprise of Florida. For the Florida Legislature, he was the power center of all power centers: Florida’s enormous (and enormously wealthy) lobbying class, elected officials at every level. He was the kingmaker, the all-powerful political colossus bestride the state’s every issue. Billionaires flooded him with money. Reporters gushed over his soaring intellect.

The Usual Suspects

Ron and his team’s high-handed arrogance was grudgingly spoken of behind closed doors, but never to their faces. They were contemptuous of the press on a good day. They used their campaign and the Republican Party of Florida as their piggy bank. They’ve used the state jet for over 650 trips since the beginning of 2023.

Further, the DeSantii were surrounded by an online amen chorus of trolls, bots, and freakshow screechers who, for a time, made the most red-in-tooth-and-claw Very Online MAGA types look tame by comparison. Even Tucker Carlson called them “…the nastiest, the stupidest, and the most zero-sum people I’ve ever seen.”

DeSantis, we were confidently and constantly reminded, was DeFuture.

Yes, the cringe is very, very real.

His campaign against Trump in 2024 was always doomed, but its failure didn’t cool his ambitions.

Why do I bring up the crashout of the DeSantis family’s political fortunes?

The Tallahassee rumor machine is in white-hot overdrive because the story breaking now isn’t just generic corruption. We’re fine with that in the era of GOP supermajorities in Florida.

Florida's corruption is less campaign donations of the usual transactional sort, and more layers upon layers of interlocking hand-washing, cash-and-property trades, jobs for wives and girlfriends, private jet rides, yachts, favors, sexual indulgences, and so much damn money.

The Florida GOP long ago declared war on transparency, accountability, and basic decency and instead opted for a system of governance that's equal parts Byzantine backroom deal, Ottoman harem intrigue, and Banana Republic coupon redemption scheme. At the center of it all, Ron DeSantis sat like a latter-day Sultan, dispensing favors and cash to his loyal janissaries while the rest of the state burned like a latter-day Constantinople.