President Biden has joined the recent tensions brewing between Disney and Florida Republicans.
During two fundraisers on Thursday, Biden out against the Florida GOP stance on Disney’s special tax haven.
“I respect conservatives. There’s nothing conservative about deciding you’re going to throw Disney out of its present posture because, Mickey Mouse?” Biden said.
“In fact, you think we should not be able to say, you know ‘gay’?” he continued.
“What’s going on here?” What the hell is going on here? And it’s just, it’s so, I don’t think this is where the vast majority of the American people are.” Biden concluded.
Here’s the background, per New Conservative Post:
“Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has shown that he’s unafraid of taking on the big guys. Disney has run the Sunshine State, getting millions in subsidies, for a very long time. Democratic and Republican governors, including former governor Jeb Bush, have bent backward to protect them. The megacorp could do anything it wanted.”
…
“DeSantis then issued a proclamation calling for the special session to be expanded to include consideration of terminating all special districts enacted in Florida prior to 1968.”
“Minutes later, Republican State Rep. Randy Fine from Brevard County filed the legislation and tweeted: ‘Disney is a guest in Florida. Today, we remind them.’”
Biden is not alone in siding with Disney. National democrats, including the likes of Colorado Governor Jared Polis has called the Florida GOP’s stance an “authoritarian socialist attack”.
However, many conservatives argue Florida GOP’s move to remove special tax carve outs for the Mickey Mouse dynasty is anything but socialist.
John Daniel Davison wrote for The Federalist that DeSantis’ move is appropriate in a political world where the Dems always expected the GOP to back down to corporate pressure:
Gov. Ron DeSantis says Disney’s self-governing status should be subject to review, to ensure that it is still “appropriately serving the public interest.”
Good. Disney is reaping its just reward for inserting itself into the political debate about Florida’s parental rights bill, which Disney lost in spectacular fashion. Republican governors and lawmakers across the country should be taking notes.
This is how you deal with big corporations that try to throw around their weight and force woke policies on voters and families. You punish them, not just because they deserve it, but also, as Voltaire famously put it, pour encourager les autres.
Disney was no doubt betting that DeSantis and Florida Republicans would do what Republicans have almost always done in the face of woke corporate pressure: simply back down. That’s what South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem did last year when at the behest of the NCAA she vetoed a bill that would have protected girls’ sports from trans ideologues.”
If Davison is correct this is not only the beginning of a battle between Florida Republicans and Disney, but this is the beginning of the culture war being played on entirely new battlefield.
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