Kemi Badenoch, Ron DeSantis and the menace of Mickey Mouse

How “National Conservatism” destroys the right-wing coalition

The first time I saw Kemi Badenoch she introduced herself with the arresting line, “Hi, I’m the most right-wing person you’ve ever met.”  I didn’t believe her because (1) in my experience true extremists think of themselves as reasonable people; and (2) we were at a Spectator summer party, where the contest for the title of “the most right-wing person you’ve ever met” is not so easily settled.

But her success this weekend in persuading Ron DeSantis to commend her efforts to ensure that “woke ideology is not corrupting British society,”  suggest that she was telling the truth. The governor of Florida’s staff  reinforced the impression when they tweeted a picture of the pair meeting in London and declared that Badenoch, “has been branded by British media as the “anti-woke darling of the right” (a badge of honor!). Two great conservative fighters on a mission.”

Their praise raised a pertinent question, however: what do we mean by conservatism?

There are two ways for conservatives to combat progressive authoritarianism.  The first would win applause from everyone from radical feminists and left-wing liberals through to conservative believers in traditional liberties. The right-wing politician (or exceedingly right-wing politician in Badenoch’s case) might offer to protect freedom of speech. She might make it harder for online hate mobs to drive men and women from their work. She might say that not every improper thought needs to be a crime, or clumsy expressed sentiment a sin. She would have nothing to do with Ron DeSantis, and would win votes from a surprisingly diverse group of people.

The second course is to match left-wing authoritarianism with right-wing authoritarianism. If the British government’s law making it a criminal offence or protestors to be noisy on demonstrations did not make it clear which course it has chosen, then Badenoch’s embrace of DeSantis did. More than any US politician he endorses the use of state power to enforce conservative ideology. He has slashed abortion rights in Florida and purged a university https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-conservative-war-on-free-speech/  to put right wingers in charge. And for his coup de’grace, he has declared war on the Disney corporation after it pushed back against Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act, commonly known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law.

DeSantis is the leading representative of “National Conservatism,” a movement with a tin ear for the English language – for who after National Socialism would think the name “National Conservatism” unproblematic? It is building in influence nevertheless. The movement will hold its first UK conference on 15 May, featuring Suella Braverman and Michael Gove. It will emphasise its support for “unique national traditions”. Rather than promoting the old conservative ideas about free markets and free individuals, it wants Christian, independent nations which support traditional families and religion and an end to “sexual licence and experimentation”. For all the speakers’ belief in national independence, the conference, like so much else on the UK right, is backed by American ideas and American money, in this case from the US thinktank the Edmund Burke Foundation

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There are two ways of reading National Conservatism. Writing in today’s Guardian, John Harris sees it as an Orbanist movement that threatens liberal democracy. And he makes a good case.

But the it can also be seen as a symbol of the fragmentation of the conservative ruling class. No one offers better evidence for this argument than the hapless governor of Florida.

When Kemi Badenoch first heard DeSantis was visiting London, arranging a photo op must have seemed the smart move. DeSantis was the coming man of the American right. He led the polls of Republican voters. The Murdochs were right behind him. DeSantis could sell himself as the Republican nominee for president on the reasonable grounds that Donald Trump could not win. He would be the MAGA man without the baggage. Yet to woo the Trump base DeSantis will not criticise Trump or oppose him in any way.  Rather than fight his political opponent he prefers to fight Mickey Mouse.

By making an example of the Disney corporation, DeSantis wants to prove he is a tough guy who can whip woke capitalism into line. Never mind that Disney provides Florida with tens of thousands of jobs and vast tourism revenues, DeSantis reacted to a company statement criticising his restrictions on teachers talking about sexual orientation and gender identity with vengeful fury.

Florida Republicans announced that they would take  control of Reedy Creek , a special tax district that allows a Disney-appointed board to run Disney World. He threatened to build a prison next to the amusement part and heaped scorn on everyone at Disney from its executives to junior staff.

For a while Disney seemed to just sit there and take it. And then the mouse roared. When DeSantis’s representatives tried to take over Reedy Creek, they found that Disney’s lawyers had elegantly changed its statutes to allow the corporation to retain control until “21 years after the death of the last survivor of the descendants of King Charles III, king of England ''.

Now Disney is hitting DeSantis with an enormous lawsuit accusing the state government of launching“a targeted campaign of government retaliation — orchestrated at every step by Gov. DeSantis as punishment for Disney’s protected speech.” DeSantis threatens “Disney’s business operations, jeopardizes its economic future in the region, and violates its constitutional rights.”

In its complaint, Disney wrote, “in America the government cannot punish you for speaking your mind.” As the New York Times said yesterday,  Disney’s position is essentially conservative. Victory for DeSantis would mean the state would be free to use its vast spending and regulatory power to demand “that corporations agree with the government on matters of public policy.”

If you come for the Mouse, you’d better not miss. DeSantis’s poll ratings have tanked. His rival Nikki Haley  is saying she would welcome its business in her state. DeSantis is now the most pitiful of political figures: the failed frontrunner; the wannabe strongman who now looks like a loser. English Tories may pay court to him in London, but Americans are lining up to use him as a punchbag.

He is showing that, by targeting big business, national conservatism destroys the conservative coalition. You may not care greatly for either side, but splits in the ruling class normally presage its downfall.

In the UK’s case, are the Conservatives going to defend the traditional, Christian family by hammering single mothers and passing anti-gay laws as they did in the 1980s? Will they demand the right to check corporate pronoun policies? Boris Johnson has already “fucked” business, are the Conservatives planning to fuck it over again? And if so, what will be the consequences?

 Since 2016 we have become so used to asking what happens to the centre-left when it loses the white working-class, we have forgotten to ask what happens to the centre-right when it loses the middle and business classes.