(LifeSiteNews) – Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis sat down for an interview recently with conservative commentator Glenn Beck, during which the presumed presidential candidate articulated a vision of society that married traditional conservatism’s focus on freedom from government control with concern for threats to freedom from other institutions the American Left has come to dominate in recent years.
The wide-ranging interview covered a broad range of topics, including the federal government’s mishandling of COVID-19 and the Florida response that propelled DeSantis to national prominence, his war against ideological indoctrination in public education, and the various problems currently presided over by the Biden administration.
At one point, DeSantis summarized what freedom means to him on a practical level and how that understanding has manifested in his actions as governor:
DeSantis explains the New Right in 60 seconds. He knows What Time It Is: “We’re creating a model for what a free society should be. Yes: freedom for you to not be constrained by government—all conservatives have always believed that—but also, freedom for you to live your life… https://t.co/LPK0iz3azv pic.twitter.com/fqzl5NrSLU
— David Reaboi, Late Republic Nonsense (@davereaboi) March 17, 2023
“We’re creating a model for really, I think, what a free society should be,” he told Beck. “Yes, freedom for you to not be constrained by government — all conservatives have always believed that — but also, freedom for you to live your life without having the pathologies of the Left imposed upon you from all the other institutions in society.”
“And maybe that’s a woke corporation, maybe that’s a, maybe [George] Soros funds a woke DA [district attorney] in your community, and then this DA says he’s not enforcing the law, putting you and your family at risk,” he continued. “We had a Soros DA in Tampa that said he wasn’t gonna enforce the law. I removed him from office, and he’s litigating, but I’m winning the cases, and you know, you just have to recognize that the threats to freedom are more than just whether someone’s gonna come in and raise your taxes or pass a piece of bad legislation.”
“So I think Florida, we’re fighting full spectrum, I think more conservatives now across the country are recognizing we need to fight full spectrum,” DeSantis said.
The governor was referring to his removal of State Attorney Andrew Warren, who had publicly declared he would not enforce Florida’s 15-week abortion ban despite the U.S. Supreme Court having restored states’ ability to decide their own abortion laws. Warren’s 2016 election campaign had been financed by Soros, a billionaire known for spending his fortune on a wide range of left-wing causes.
More generally, DeSantis was articulating the theory behind his record of protecting Floridians not just from government agencies but from actions by public and private entities that are harmful to individual freedoms, such as leading a multi-state coalition to oppose the manipulation of state pension systems to pressure corporations into left-wing activism, proposing reforms to make it easier for private citizens to sue media outlets for defamation, purging ideological indoctrination from all levels of state education, and proposing a Digital Bill of Rights to prevent tech giants from violating users’ data privacy or censoring views and information on the basis of political preference.
Such actions have reinforced DeSantis’ record as arguably the most proactive conservative governor in the nation, which has generated significant interest in him as a likely candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 – interest that has not sat well with his chief rival for the nomination, former President Donald Trump.