On Wednesday, the political world set itself alight thanks to the comments of Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate Rep. Ron DeSantis. Appearing on Fox News, DeSantis made the case for why Floridians shouldn’t vote for his opponent, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, who won an upset victory in the Democratic primaries.
DeSantis stated:
Florida elections are always competitive, and this is a guy who, although he’s much too liberal for Florida, I think he’s got huge problems with how he’s governed Tallahassee, he is an articulate spokesman for those far-left views, and he’s a charismatic candidate. I watched those Democrat debates, and none of that is my cup of tea, but he performed better than those other people there. So we’ve got to work hard to make sure that we continue Florida going in a good direction, let’s build off the success we’ve had on Governor Scott, the last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state. That’s not going to work.
Gillum, of course, is black. The phrase “monkey this up” immediately generated accusations of “dog whistling” from DeSantis — the implication that DeSantis was engaging in a subtle form of racism, telling Floridians not to vote for the black candidate. Yes, in the midst of praising Gillum as a highly competent and articulate candidate, DeSantis supposedly just decided to remind closet racists that Gillum is black by using a phrase everyone understands to mean "mess things up."
This is wildly dishonest stuff. Take, for example, this headline from The Hill:
DeSantis: Florida voters shouldn’t "monkey this up" by voting for black candidate
Poster Comment:
#1: misterwhite To: IbJensen (#0)
Now hold on. Isn't "hanging" another dog whistle when talking about a black man?
misterwhite posted on 2018-08-29 21:06:27 Reply Private Reply
#2: misterwhite To: IbJensen (#0)
Starting at 15:00
misterwhite posted on 2018-08-29 21:25:39 Reply Private Reply
#3: IbJensen To: misterwhite (#2)
www.youtube.com unexpectedly closed the connection.
IbJensen posted on 2018-08-30 07:24:24 Reply Private Reply
#4: IbJensen To: misterwhite (#1)
yes. It would seem as though another case of junk journalism has been revealed.
IbJensen posted on 2018-08-30 07:25:58 Reply Private Reply
#5: misterwhite To: IbJensen (#3)
If it still doesn't work, go directly to PBS:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/august-29-2018-pbs-newshour-full-episode
misterwhite posted on 2018-08-30 09:54:37 Reply Private Reply
#6: Deckard To: IbJensen (#0)
I find the entire kerfuffle petty and the knee-jerk reaction to an off-hand comment made by a politician to be quite niggardly.
Deckard posted on 2018-08-30 10:18:54 Reply Private Reply
#7: misterwhite To: IbJensen (#0)
Meaning DeSantis is a dog? Is he calling white people dogs?
misterwhite posted on 2018-08-30 10:45:08 Reply Private Reply
#8: IbJensen To: Deckard (#6)
IbJensen posted on 2018-08-30 22:11:54 Reply Private Reply