We see what you're doing, DeSantis

Florida Representative Ron DeSantis is such a big fan of Donald Trump that he fancies himself as a smaller version of the Trumpster.   And he has already got one aspect of Don's style down -- speaking in code.

Oh yeah, he denies he meant anything by it.  But it's appallingly obvious.  By saying what he says, he gets the voters he wants not just to want to vote for him, but to actually think that he's like them.  Sharing their values (if they can be called that), their beliefs, opinions, and especially, their prejudices.

So here's what he said.

'The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases bankrupting the state. That is not going to work,' he said.

But that's not all he said.

[DeSantis] called Gillum, the Tallahassee major, 'an articulate spokesman for those far-left views' while also referring to him as a 'charismatic candidate.'

Where have we heard that kind of phraseology before? If you don't remember, it was how candidate Barack Obama was referred to.  So what DeSantis is doing here -- and don't worry, I'll support it -- is making the voters he wants think that Gillum is pretty much the same thing as Barack Obama, that he's a black man trying to act white (white people don't like that), and well, that he's not white, implying that he doesn't share the values of white people.

Support  time:

From
An inarticulate kickoff, by the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson, written in 2007.

"I realize the word is intended as a compliment, but it's being used to connote a lot more than the ability to express one's thoughts clearly. It's being used to say more, even, than "here's a black person who speaks standard English without a trace of Ebonics."

Articulate is really a shorthand way of describing a black person who isn't too black -- or, rather, who comports with white America's notion of how a black person should come across."

Or, to put it another way, it means "a well-spoken black man", by which it also means, most black people aren't well-spoken.  Meaning they don't speak like us (the white people).  Meaning that they speak a different language.  Meaning that they are members of a different tribe, a foreign tribe, a tribe and culture that is not white and American.

That's exactly what DeSantis wants his voters to think -- and by thinking that, they will have to vote for him, because he is a member of their tribe.



But wait, I'll provide a second concurring opinion.

Former RNC Chair on DeSantis 'monkey' comment: 'It's how white folks talk about black men who are successful'

“… It’s how white folks talk about black men who are successful,” [Michael] Steele said on MSNBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Steele also criticized DeSantis for calling Gillum “articulate.”

“I heard that he’s ‘articulate,’ that ‘he performs well,’ … he’s checking off those boxes. Why do you have to describe him that way?” he said. "Doesn’t happen to a lot of white candidates," he added, echoing host Chuck Todd's comment.

Steele is also black, and also successful.  He can see exactly what DeSantis is doing.

As can we all.

It's too bad we can't all tell him that trying to emulate Donald Trump is a very bad idea.  But I'm hoping the Florida voters -- the ones that aren't in the Tribe of Trump -- will send DeSantis a message he needs to hear and understand.

(One way of stating the message is this:  "Shut up and get out.")