Vanity Fair columnist and famous literary Nepo-Baby Molly Jong-Fast compared the immensely popular Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to the murder of Mongol warlord Ghengis Khan in a recent article.
The column, which ran Thursday, called DeSantis “just as dangerous to democracy” as former President Donald Trump. It was captioned, “Ron DeSantis Shouldn’t Be Covered Like Another Republican.”
Jong-Fast describes DeSantis as a threat just as strong as Trump, albeit for slightly different reasons.
While DeSantis is “like Shakespeare compared to the former president,” he is “the Genghis Khan of social affairs.”
Molly Jong Fast, daughter of popular writer Erica Jong, became a political pundit during the Trump years and is now sounding the alarm against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis
DeSantis, who has yet to run for president, recently introduced several new education funding policies in Florida that ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory and oppose diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives
According to Jong-Fast and her peers in the expert class, Trump’s campaign and tenure have severely damaged and endangered democracy. But anyone who thought panicked left-wing writing and podcasting would stop just because DeSantis is “a little less gross” and “a fair bit more coherent” than Trump is in for a rude awakening.
No, DeSantis should not be normalized under any circumstances, wrote Jong-Fast.
“To call DeSantis a culture warrior dangerously understates what the man is capable of. He is the Genghis Khan of social affairs and takes every opportunity to attack and demonize groups that have already been attacked and demonized throughout history,” she wrote.
“Marginalizing vulnerable groups is a classic authoritarian trope that DeSantis seems to have a handle on.”
Despite a previous career as the bohemian-chic Upper East Side daughter of successful literary parents, Jong-Fast and her army of 1 million heavy Twitter followers became the little expert who could during the Trump years.
From her often multimillion-dollar Upper East Side condo, Jong-Fast is home to a steady stream of defiant, often targeting conservative Twitter philosophers.
As the presidential primary begins to heat up, with an announcement earlier this week by former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley — the first to officially throw her hat in the ring since Trump — Jong-Fast suggests not-so-subtly that it’s time to give DeSanti the old Trump treatment.
In particular, Jong-Fast points to DeSantis’ authoritative (she writes “authoritarian”) hit on critical race theory being taught in Florida schools as evidence of his dangerous ways.
Last month, DeSantis announced that he would be cutting funding for all CRT and DEI programs at state colleges because the education is “based on actual history” and the “actual philosophy that shaped Western civilization,” he said at that time.
This policy, she writes, amounts to a “right-wing assault on Florida education,” all in the service of the governor’s “brand.”
She’s also deterred by the fact that DeSantis isn’t chasing the approval of the “free press,” which he knows he’ll never get.
Genghis Khan was a notoriously brutal Mongol emperor. He launched a series of successful military campaigns to conquer parts of China and Central Asia. He is said to be responsible for the deaths of around 40 million people. Jong Fast compared Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to him
Constantly harpooned by mainstream journalists in his day, DeSantis has opted not to work with most mainstream channels, which has baffled and angered many members of the media
Jong-Fast is the daughter of famed author Erica Jong, for whom she has always flowed in literary circles in New York City and beyond
In turn, Jong-Fast is stunned that her fellow authors and analysts would do anything but slander his policies and behavior.
“The same free press that normalizes DeSantis? DeSantis seems to have little use for it — and even wants to make it easier to successfully sue the news organizations, potentially chilling the press,” she wrote.
DeSantis has yet to be formally added to the pool of potential GOP nominees for 2024 president. However, that fact hasn’t stopped Jong Fast from promising her readers an equally hysterical round of forthcoming pre-2024 coverage.
At the end of her article, she declared dramatically: “We must be bold in our coverage of the presidential campaign while we are still allowed to cover it.”