Ron DeSantis’ 'context-free, cherry-picked' Founding Fathers book scrubbed from publishers’ website: report

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to formally enter the 2024 GOP presidential primary this Wednesday, May 24. The far-right MAGA governor has been way behind former President Donald Trump in polls, but his supporters are hoping that he will start to close the gap with the announcement.

DeSantis has been promoting himself with his new book "The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America's Revival." This isn't his first book; DeSantis' "Dreams From Our Founding Fathers: First Principles in the Age of Obama" was released in 2011 — seven years before he was elected governor.

Journalist Gillian Brockell analyzes DeSantis' previous book in an op-ed published by the Washington Post on May 21, arguing that his grasp of history has major flaws and noting that the publisher removed the book from its website.

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"DeSantis' thesis is twofold: that (President Barack) Obama was conducting a dangerous power grab, and that the Founding Fathers would have been appalled if they were still alive to see it," Brockwell explains. "According to DeSantis, evidence of Obama's power grab includes the auto-industry bailout, the 2009 stimulus package and Obamacare."

Brockwell stresses that DeSantis used "cherry-picking" of history "to bash Obama." Whether discussing Madison or Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., she argues, the governor's use of quotes from historic figures is often "context-free."

"DeSantis devotes a chunk of his book to the sacredness of property rights and Obama's alleged disrespect for them — regulations on credit-card companies, the individual mandate — but in doing so, he commits a much bigger cherry-picking blunder on slavery," Brockell notes. "He describes an elderly James Madison heroically lifting his creaky bones from retirement to speak at Virginia's 1829 Constitutional Convention.… The 1829 Convention was called because in Virginia, only white men who owned property were allowed to vote, and a bunch of white men who didn't own property wanted to vote, too. Madison didn't want such men to have the right to take away his slaves or make slavery less profitable."

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Gillian Brockell's full Washington Post op-ed/essay is available at this link (subscription needed).