


It is rare to see the kind of conservative victory over an entrenched liberal institution like the one Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) just scored against the Walt Disney Company.
Disney and the oversight board appointed by DeSantis to oversee the region of Florida where Disney World is located announced Wednesday that they had settled a lawsuit that was filed by Disney seeking to restore the company’s ability to govern the region.
The lawsuit had sought to enforce a series of eleventh-hour resolutions that were passed by the old Reedy Creek Improvement District board right before it was replaced by the DeSantis-appointed Central Florida Tourism Oversight District. Those resolutions would have effectively stripped the new board of its ability to run the district.
The settlement is a huge win for DeSantis, who took on Disney after the company inserted itself into state politics by vowing to push for the repeal of a law that banned classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity. And while this proved to be a major faux pas as a matter of public relations, DeSantis and Florida Republicans made sure that it hurt the company even more by stripping Disney of its special treatment in the Disney World area.
While the settlement will be better for Disney’s continued business in the Orlando area, the conclusion to this saga is an admission by the company that it lost both the public relations and the policy battles against DeSantis.
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For years, Republican politicians have clammed up and bowed to outside pressure from corporations. In 2017, boycotts and boycott threats from various companies led North Carolina to repeal an entirely reasonable law that said men and women had to use bathrooms that corresponded to their biological sex. And amid pressure from the NCAA, Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) vetoed a bill that would require athletes to compete in sports based on their biological sex before later supporting a different version of the same bill.
DeSantis, unlike previous generations of Republicans, stuck to his guns and forced Disney to blink, and blink it did. Republican leaders would do well to remember that, eventually, all corporate power must bow to the authority of the government. And as Florida just proved, it’s a major political winner.