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How DeSantis toppled Mickey Mouse Florida is now the most politicised place on earth

Happy and wistful (Mark Ashman/Disney via Getty Images)

Happy and wistful (Mark Ashman/Disney via Getty Images)


June 22, 2022   6 mins

In 1967, a year after the death of Walt Disney, construction began on the magnate’s signature project — Disney World. Located in the swamps of Central Florida, the resort — “the most magical place on earth” — opened in 1971. It signalled the arrival of the state’s most powerful political figure: Mickey Mouse. 

The Walt Disney Company, founded in 1923 by Walt and brother Roy, was a formidable cultural force throughout its 50-year existence prior to the resort’s inception, but ownership of thousands of acres of Florida land and the unchecked power to shape it granted the corporation unprecedented control and room for continual expansion. The cultural force transformed into an American juggernaut.

To understand the scale and reach of Disney’s power in Florida, one only need look at the Reedy Creek Improvement District, the governing jurisdiction for the land on which Disney World is located. The district, created in 1967 by a special act of the Florida legislature, gave Disney World the power to operate like a county government. There, Disney World functions as its own mini-country in the state of Florida. Disney World has the authority to claim eminent domain and even build a nuclear power plant (pending federal approval); it also operates its own public utilities and has its own fire department.

The state of Florida handed Disney World a once-in-a-generation deal, but it also took much from the accord. In the pre-Disney days, there was no reason to stop in Central Florida, unless one wanted to do battle with a gator. The arrival of Disney World planted the seed for the Florida we know today, one that continually blossoms with the resort’s ever-expanding reach. It’s not an overstatement to say that Disney World opened up Florida to the rest of the country — and the world, for that matter — and that this symbiotic relationship seemed unbreakable.

For so long, you went to Florida to go to Disney, which is to say that Disney was Florida. To think that Disney World would one day become a culture war battleground and the decades-long arrangement destroyed was unthinkable, but the mouse would eventually meet its match in a fellow Central Floridian — Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

In early June, through no fault of my own, I went to Disney World. My girlfriend’s family was making the annual trek to the mouse’s kingdom, so, like a good boyfriend, I donned the Mickey Mouse ears — for the amusement of the young children in our party, I told myself — and stepped into Magic Kingdom on a sweltering Florida morning. As a native Floridian, I’d grown up going to Disney. I understood why children loved Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and Goofy and all the others, but I was confounded by the adults — some of them even seemed well-adjusted — who were obsessed with all things Disney.

These obsessives, pejoratively knowns as “Disney adults,” bankroll the entire operation. They construct their identities around their love of the mouse. How an adult can identify with a mouse or a dog or even a fairy is beyond me, but pathological fandom, especially when rooted in childhood nostalgia, will make even the most sensible person act irrationally.

Entering Magic Kingdom, Disney’s World’s flagship theme park, one immediately sees Cinderella’s castle in the distance. To a child, the castle is Cinderella’s actual home, but for the Disney adult it symbolises that they’ve finally arrived at their spiritual home. To a 30-something man like me, who is neither a Disney lover nor hater, the castle is a testament to the insane visionary genius of Walt Disney.

This one-time illustrator cooked up the idea to prop up a princess castle in Central Florida, and here we all are making a beeline for it. What’s even more impressive is that the castle really is beautiful, not kitsch. Looking at it for the first time in years, I thought of my parents and my sister — a Disney adult herself who identifies with Minnie Mouse — and of all the days we spent at the park. 

Even though I knew I was being worked over by Walt’s nostalgia machine, I felt happy and wistful. Walt Disney figured out that everyone wants to return to a state of childhood innocence, and if he could tie the desire for that innocence to his brand — and even intertwine the two — he’d have an empire on his hands. For millions of people, returning to their childhoods means returning to Florida.

Dreams and nostalgia are tainted by overt politicisation, which is why Disney has always been crafty with their political postures and sloganeering. As I walked through the Magic Kingdom, aware that I was there during Pride Month and that the Walt Disney Company employs large numbers of LGBTQ people, I saw rainbow-coloured mouse ears and rainbow-coloured ice cream bars, but not much else. The stores selling Disney merchandise had a single Pride display with the rainbow ears and other pride-related items, but it didn’t draw attention to itself. This is how Disney likes to operate; the company has “pride” but not in an over-the-top way that alienates more conservative Disney adults. Disney mostly succeeded at keeping its Americana-styled aesthetics intact as its staff has grown increasingly progressive throughout the years.

Yet this delicate balancing act recently ended, when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed the Parental Rights in Education bill — better known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Keeping as apolitical as possible, the Disney Company did not make an initial statement denouncing the bill, to the surprise of its progressive employees. They threatened a walkout, so Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s hand was forced; he attacked the bill, but employees, angered that the denunciation wasn’t forceful enough, walked out anyway.

DeSantis did not appreciate Disney’s condemnation and called out the company for its ties to communist China. A back and forth ensued, DeSantis setting his sights on bringing Disney down a peg. The Walt Disney Company was officially part of the culture war, and it was up against a confident and game Ron DeSantis.

The governor, unknown before the pandemic, was thrown into the national spotlight when the mainstream media positioned him as the antithesis of the pro-lockdown New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. When DeSantis refused to lock down Florida during its summer 2020 Covid surge, the media labeled him genocidal, and he was lambasted by critics as “DeathSantis”, but he didn’t change course.

In the end, as blue states clung to overextended lockdowns, DeSantis was vindicated; Florida’s death rate from Covid is comparable to California’s. DeSantis leaned hard into his newfound position as Republican saviour and has proceeded to shape Florida in his image ever since. With the influx of blue state refugees into the state and DeSantis’ sudden ascendance, Florida has entered a renaissance period. DeSantis has taken to calling the state “the free state of Florida”. It was only a matter of time before the state’s newest juggernaut came up against its original powerhouse.

DeSantis’ tussle with Disney World was a genuinely shocking moment. For one thing, it proved that the governor was not a PR-construct doing an impression of Donald Trump. In April of 2022, DeSantis made his move and signed a bill dissolving the Reedy Creek Improvement District; it goes into effect June 2023. Disney thought itself untouchable — and it had been for decades — but DeSantis slapped the mouse on the head. The message was clear: this is my state now.

This is the new Florida. The mouse is on the defensive, and the situation has only been made worse by the release of videos showing Disney employees discussing the incorporation of trans-inclusive characters and the like into new programming. Disney can no longer defend its apolitical position.

In 1965, Walt Disney called his plan to construct Disney World “The Florida Project”. Disney’s plan to transform the centre of the state, as well as its national brand, into an appendage of the mouse, was a resounding success. Walt Disney World is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, but the company never expected that this would coincide with the possible end of “The Florida Project”. 

Today, Governor Ron DeSantis and his project of rebranding Florida is now the state’s most formidable force. In a recent interview with Dave Rubin, DeSantis couldn’t have made it any clearer where he stands on the mouse: “I did not take an oath to subcontract my leadership to some corporation in Burbank, California.” Disney World, DeSantis is claiming, was always a California outsider, a usurper. The mouse’s occupation is finally over.

Disney World will certainly maintain its status as a cultural force after the Reedy Creek Improvement District is dissolved, but DeSantis’s assault has wounded a previously invincible titan. To some who’d considered themselves Disney adults, the mouse is now a rodent. Progressives, on the other hand, many of whom have made fun of Disney adults throughout the years for being dorks, have now taken up the Disney cause. They’re donning rainbow-coloured mouse ears — and heading to what is now the most politicised place on earth.


Alex Perez is a Cuban-American writer based in Miami, and a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Perez_Writes

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Sharon Overy
Sharon Overy
2 years ago

Two points: The Parental Rights in Education is not better known as the “Don’t say gay bill”, it’s merely misnamed as such by the left. The actual bill prevents instruction on sexuality or gender to small children below about 8 years old. It also insists that after Grade 3, teaching be age-appropriate and parents be informed.

The other point is that the agreement between the state and Disney meant the latter gets the land tax-free. DeSantis said the corporation can have any opinions they like, and express them, but Floridians are not obliged to subsidise them.

Ian Stewart
Ian Stewart
2 years ago
Reply to  Sharon Overy

Yeah the writer displayed his ignorance, or bias, with just that statement, devaluing his credibility.

Roger Inkpen
Roger Inkpen
2 years ago
Reply to  Sharon Overy

Drivel. Lot of laws are better known by different monikers, whether by supporters or opponents. “Don’t ask, don’t tell” being one example for the US. In the UK everybody – except the govt – referred to the ‘Community Charge’ as the ‘poll tax’.

Matt M
Matt M
2 years ago

More evidence for my new theory that it is the Baby Boomers who are responsible for causing this woke trend by indulging employees and students of their own children’s age and that once Gen-Xers take over the top jobs they will put a stop to this idiocy. The CEO of Disney is 61, Ron DeSantis is 43.

Julian Farrows
Julian Farrows
2 years ago
Reply to  Matt M

As a Gen X-er I fully endorse this message.

Bryan Dale
Bryan Dale
2 years ago
Reply to  Matt M

I’m 60 and i support DeSantis and Trump.

Allison Barrows
Allison Barrows
2 years ago
Reply to  Bryan Dale

Ditto.

Matt M
Matt M
2 years ago
Reply to  Bryan Dale

To be clear, I’m not saying all over-60s are guilty of facilitating this woke nonsense. Just the top echelon – the CEOs of blue-chip companies, celebrity journalists, academics at the top universities and the like.
I’m sure you are perfectly sound Bryan & Allison.

Last edited 2 years ago by Matt M
Vlad The Impaler
Vlad The Impaler
2 years ago
Reply to  Matt M

Exactly, as a Gen-Xer I hate all forms of wokeness that the leaders seem to tolerate or promote.

Bryan Dale
Bryan Dale
2 years ago

Big business should stay out of politics. If they take political stands, then they’re fair game for attacks by politicians. For a company that made its name promoting family oriented entertainment, promoting LGBTQ+++ indoctrination of young children was breathtakingly stupid and that’s now reflected in their share price.

Lorna Dobson
Lorna Dobson
2 years ago
Reply to  Bryan Dale

Agreed. Business should be providing goods and/or services, not a lecture on the newest “woke” dogma. Why does anyone need to be subject to indoctrination when shopping or being entertained, whether overtly or surreptitiously?

Samir Iker
Samir Iker
2 years ago
Reply to  Bryan Dale

The central issue is that they truly believe alphabet indoctrination of small children is their sacred duty, and anyone opposing them is evil.

The noteworthy thing is that the parents and politicians opposing them are actually the ones who view gays and heterosexuals as equals – They are both allowed to exist, neither has the right to groom children or parade their sex lives and kinkiness in front of them.

burke schmollinger
burke schmollinger
2 years ago
Reply to  Samir Iker

It says something when a law banning inappropriate sexual speech to 8 year olds and under ends up drawing large protests.

It’s been eye opening to see how much the alphabet people care about making sure kindergartners are indoctrinated in their sexual beliefs.

R Wright
R Wright
2 years ago

The slippery slope is a very real phenomenon.

Tim Pot
Tim Pot
2 years ago
Reply to  R Wright

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26352378
The above is how it started. Our Elites are in the process of enabling the next Child Abuse scandal. Savile was nothing compared to these people & what they now demand. Worse many schools & Government support them
Hopefully things are changing, but it still needed Spiked pointing out this week – Schools are no place for drag queens.
https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/06/22/a-school-is-no-place-for-a-drag-queen/

Last edited 2 years ago by Tim Pot
Philip Crowley
Philip Crowley
2 years ago
Reply to  Samir Iker

I completely agree.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
2 years ago

I can’t imagine a more clearcut case of one side being completely right and the other completely wrong.

AC Harper
AC Harper
2 years ago

We’ve been to Disney World as ‘the last family vacation’ some twenty five years ago. Disney World (and its various Parks), Sea World, and the Orlando Science Centre were great fun.
But I came away feeling creeped out. Much of Disney World manages your perceptions through queuing system entertainment, artful distortion of architecture, and being relentlessly upbeat.

“A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude.”

― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

Perhaps DeSantis is onto something deeper than just a spat with a particular big business.

Last edited 2 years ago by AC Harper
Allison Barrows
Allison Barrows
2 years ago
Reply to  AC Harper

Huxley knew his Tacitus.

Stephanie Surface
Stephanie Surface
2 years ago
Reply to  AC Harper

We did the same with our two children, nearly 30 years ago, who were 3 and 6 at the time. Going on a boat ride through the “it’s a small, small world” display seemed to me like a nightmare at the time with the constantly repeated song, the permanent smiling faces of the puppets and the employees who were working there.

Last edited 2 years ago by Stephanie Surface
Colin MacDonald
Colin MacDonald
2 years ago
Reply to  AC Harper

Mauschwitz.

Ethniciodo Rodenydo
Ethniciodo Rodenydo
2 years ago

Florida is now the most politicised place on earth
What about California, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Washington, New York?

Matt Hindman
Matt Hindman
2 years ago

The moral of this story is “oh yeah, there is not a damn thing you can do about it” is a bad idea when they can do a damn thing about it.

burke schmollinger
burke schmollinger
2 years ago

DeSantis did a spectacular job cornering Disney and the woke brigade into a corner on an issue where the public is overwhelmingly behind him. He staked out a great position that invited his opponents to attack parental rights, a major issue in the US especially since the pandemic, and of course they took the bait.

By actually writing and enforcing legislation on broadly popular issues like parental control of school and ending race communist CRT (this piece doesn’t mention the recently banned racialist MATH textbooks), DeSantis can hopefully challenge Donny in the upcoming showdown. DeSantis will be able to prove his bonafides, along with arguing that while Trump tweets, he signs legislation.

Still who knows. The Dems will probably bring Donny off of Elba to testify to their kangaroo court and end up losing their Waterloo.

Allison Barrows
Allison Barrows
2 years ago

I recognize the author is very young, but I can assure him that people were vacationing in Florida long before Disney World arrived in Orlando. Oh, and as a recent transplant from New England to Lee County, I couldn’t be happier with my regained freedoms, protected by Governor DeSantis. Let’s hope he’ll have the chance to do the same for the rest of the country.

John Lammi
John Lammi
2 years ago

I came out in 1970 at Stanford. I’m a clinical psychologist and a Floridian. I support DeSantis and the referenced bill

Andrew Horsman
Andrew Horsman
2 years ago

I’ve always thought that woke ideology was a bit Mickey Mouse.

Derek Smith
Derek Smith
2 years ago
Reply to  Andrew Horsman

It was born in the Mickey Mouse departments of various universities, for sure.

Dustshoe Richinrut
Dustshoe Richinrut
2 years ago

Interesting piece. It’s well worth watching on the tube the old Whicker’s World episode from 1971, in which Alan Whicker anticipates the final stages of the development of Disney World before its official opening.
A local man, interviewed on his little pleasure boat, who had moved to Windermere (population 314, I think he said) on the edge of the grand lake well before Disney arrived, for “think time”, says, ruefully, that the only thing wrong with progress is that it never stops. He’s interviewed by Whicker in 1971.

Jim R
Jim R
2 years ago

This article feels a bit like left wing narrative. Disney’s wounds are all self-inflicted. Any business that wades into politics will alienate legions of customers. Any manager that puts their personal politics above the company’s best interests deserves the liability that is sure to follow.

Last edited 2 years ago by Jim R
Peter Johnson
Peter Johnson
2 years ago

It may get worse for Disney. Disney has successfully pushed for extending the time copyright holders keep their rights. When the Republicans take power there is already talk of no further extensions. I think Disney may continue to be pummelled as an example for other corporations of what happens when you play politics.

Chris Ward
Chris Ward
2 years ago
Reply to  Peter Johnson

Note how Disney makes money from adapting stories that have entered the public domain, then lobby to ensure their output stays copyrighted forever.

Lance Stewart
Lance Stewart
2 years ago

No, DeSantis did not “topple Mickey Mouse” : he toppled the Woke organisation now cynically hiding behind the Walt Disney label while spreading sick, perverted ideas which are the very antithesis of the wholesome entertainment so dear to Disney’s heart.

Martin Smith
Martin Smith
2 years ago

I would expect so-called left wingers to disapprove of sweetheart tax deals for corporations. Just more evidence of the meaninglessness of left/right labelling these days.

R Wright
R Wright
2 years ago

The Disney company that once stayed avowedly apolitical and focussed on providing children with wonder and joy has foolishly hitched itself to the astro turf corporate pride bandwagon, damaging its reputation among parents forever.

Chauncey Gardiner
Chauncey Gardiner
2 years ago

In the end, as blue states clung to overextended lockdowns, DeSantis was vindicated; Florida’s death rate from Covid is comparable to California’s.”
“Death rate,” whether a CFR or IFR, makes for an almost meaningless metric. Why? Because you want to control for differences in the populations.
One way to do this would be compare cumulative excess mortality (as a proportion of expected mortality) over time. The last I updated my own analysis of excess mortality by state, the states of New York, California and Florida had converged on the United States average. That suggests that differences in COVID measures across states likely made no difference in performance.
The Orpheus Fallacy – Confusing Correlation with Causality in COVID Interventions
Meanwhile, the sweetheart tax deal Disney got in 1967 served its purpose–in 1967. That purpose was to get Disney to invest in central Florida. It did. The deal guaranteed ten years of tax benefits to Disney. Evidently, such a commitment was sufficient to induce Disney to invest.
The deal had then been renewed decade after decade even though it had exhausted its purpose. Finally, the state wised up and got rid of it.

Roger Inkpen
Roger Inkpen
2 years ago

I believe McDonalds have a university for staff where you can get a degree in ‘burgerology’. Does the Disney corporation have a similar institution … offering Mickey Mouse degrees?

Roger Inkpen
Roger Inkpen
2 years ago
Reply to  Roger Inkpen

And I do wish articles for UK/international writers would avoid using terms like ‘red/blue’ state. Red means left-wing everywhere apart from the US – although I can’t imagine the Trumpsters singing “we’ll keep the red flag flying here”!

Jason Highley
Jason Highley
2 years ago

Hope the stock goes to zero. Nobody needs anything Disney is offering.

David Carson
David Carson
2 years ago

I realize the author grew up in Florida, but growing up in California, “Disney World” was always considered a pale imitation of the real thing: Disneyland.

Jerry Carroll
Jerry Carroll
2 years ago

The progressives at the Walt Disney empire once were able to spread their subversion of family and traditional values quietly because no one outside knew what was going on. And then they became confident enough to gleefully boast about how effectively they were promoting gayness from the youngest child coing through the gate to every corner of the corporate executive suite. Once this became generally known, Disney shares have dropped by 50%,and its new Buzz Lightfoot release showing a kiss between lesbians has badly underperformed at the box office and been banned in 14 countries. Despite this, a feature-length cartoon about the homosexual relationship between two boys is in the works. What part of get woke go broke doesn’t Disney understand?

John Murray
John Murray
2 years ago

My expectation is that some time in early 2023 a quiet deal will be done between Disney and the state of Florida (presumably under a re-elected DeSantis) and things will continue as before. Disney will not get into politics again (lesson learned) and both parties will agree to forget about the recent unpleasantness.

Ess Arr
Ess Arr
2 years ago

Funnily, for all you DeSantis cheerleaders, the poor people of Florida will now face much higher taxes, as previously Disney paid for the maintenance of infrastructure in their neck of the woods. I have no doubt DeSantis will let the legislation quietly fade away closer to election season. He is a dour, argumentative, self-righteous, unattractive man, with no sense of humour. Trump will beat him 7 ways to Monday.

Lennon Ó Náraigh
Lennon Ó Náraigh
2 years ago
Reply to  Ess Arr

The very shrewd thing about this move is that Orange County Florida will have to fill the tax hole left by the dissolution of Reedy Creek. Orange County Florida doesn’t vote Republican.

Addie Schogger
Addie Schogger
2 years ago
Reply to  Ess Arr

No sense of humour? His quip about Elon Musk being an ‘African-American’ was really rather funny.

Last edited 2 years ago by Addie Schogger