What Does DeSantis' Exit Mean for Black People? That the Republican Party is More Screwed Up Than it is Racist

It's not a celebration. No confetti flying, no champagne corks popping. But let's not sugarcoat it either – Ron DeSantis bowing out of the 2024 race feels like a sigh of relief, the kind you take after dodging a rogue shopping cart in the supermarket parking lot.

He styled himself as Trump without the baggage, a Teflon Don without the Twitter meltdowns. More than just empty rhetoric and dog whistles, he was a politician who got things done, whether you agreed with those things or not. And for some, that made him even more dangerous than the orange-headed carnival barker.

See, Trump, for all his self-serving bluster and conspiracy theories, was mostly bad at governing. He was a reality TV star playing dress-up in the Oval Office, more interested in retweets than results. DeSantis, on the other hand, was a cold, calculating ideologue who actually turned his hateful rhetoric into legislation. From silencing Black voices in history to building discriminatory playgrounds for LGBTQ+ kids, he weaponized policy like a loaded gun pointed at the heart of progress.

So, when it came to a choice between a sayer and a doer, Republicans chose the sayer. Which, if you're Black in America, feels like a twisted kind of victory. A relief, sure. But a relief riddled with questions, sharp edges of concern poking through the sigh.

Because here's the thing: Trump's insanity is loud, obnoxious, impossible to ignore. He's a walking, tweeting lawsuit, an insurrection in a three-piece suit. But that noise, that chaos, also keeps the spotlight on his own misdeeds. With DeSantis, the danger was quieter and more subtle. A slow, steady erosion of rights under the guise of "common sense." It's easier to evade a clown car hurtling down the highway than a pothole hidden in the shadows.

So, while we catch our breath, while the Black community savors this unexpected reprieve, we won't forget the questions gnawing at the edges of our relief. Why, after all the lawsuits, the lies, the insurrections, is Trump still the Pied Piper of the GOP? Why do they cling to a man who demonstrably and spectacularly, fails at everything he touches?

The answer is not as simple as racism. It's something deeper, a rot at the core of the Republican Party itself. A desperate scramble for power, a willingness to embrace any demagogue who promises to keep them in control, even if that means setting the whole house on fire.

That's the real battle ahead, the one that transcends any individual candidate. It's about confronting the systemic rot, the deep-seated dysfunction that birthed both Trump and DeSantis. It's about rebuilding a system that doesn't pit us against each other, that doesn't weaponize fear and division for political gain.

So yeah, we'll take this moment of respite, this unexpected dodge of a shopping cart hurtling towards our faces. But we won't celebrate. We'll use this breath to steel ourselves, to remember the long road ahead, the bigger fight beyond the bluster and the ballots.

Because for Black people in America, the real victory won't come from dodging one politician or another. It will come from dismantling the system that keeps churning them out.