Ron DeSantis launches into rambling ‘woke’ rant as he’s sworn in for second term: ‘We seek normalcy’

Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis came out swinging at “the woke mob” in his inaugural address as he was sworn into a second term in office.

In his speech, DeSantis labelled Florida as “the most desired destination, a promised land of sanity” for a “mass exodus” of Americans elsewhere in the United States.

“Florida is where woke goes to die,” he said.

DeSantis, who has a history of acting against LGBTQ+ rights, did not explicitly target queer communities in his speech but indirect references appear to have been made.

Much of the US had “embraced faddish ideology at the expense of enduring principles”, he claimed.

He insisted education is being harmed by cities and states through “subordinating the interests of students and parents to partisan interest groups”.

It was DeSantis who signed Florida’s hateful ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, which bans LGBTQ+ topics being discussed in classrooms between kindergarten and third grade, into law in March 2022.

At the time, he said those who oppose the bill “support injecting woke gender ideology into second-grade classrooms”, “support sexualising kids in kindergarten”, and “support enabling schools to transition students to a different gender without the knowledge of the parent, much less without the parent’s consent”.

In his Tuesday (3 January) inauguration speech, he went on to say that “bizarre” ideology seen by other states “frowns upon American institutions”.

“We reject this woke ideology. We seek normalcy, not philosophical lunacy. We will not allow reality, facts and truth to become optional. We will never surrender to the woke mob.”

DeSantis also took aim at the Biden administration, claiming it “enacted pandemic restrictions and mandates based more on ideology and politics than on sound science”, which had “eroded freedom and stunted commerce”.

He continued to say people “must” fight for freedom and “insist on the restoration of time-tested constitutional principles”.

Just recently, around Christmas and in the final days of his first term as Governor of Florida, DeSantis’ administration was investigating a drag show after receiving “multiple complaints” alleging it was “sexually explicit” and “marketed to children”.

In November, before the midterm elections, he pushed anti-trans rhetoric by sending out fliers with a stock photo of a non-binary graduate showing them supposedly thanking president Joe Biden and rival Charlie Crist for “making Floridians pay off my student loans”.