Florida Governor Ron DeSantis invoked the Founding Fathers and called upon conservatives to reach deep into their souls to muster the fire needed to battle the Left Friday in a rousing speech at the Moms For Liberty summit in Philadelphia.
Speaking from the city that gave birth to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, the 2024 presidential candidate ripped into woke ideology, which he said makes “students become dumber” and threatens the safety of Americans.
“I will fight the woke in the corporations, I will fight the woke in the schools, I will fight the woke in the halls of Congress,” DeSantis vowed. “We will never, ever surrender to the woke mob. We are going to leave woke ideology in the dustbin of history where it belongs.
Turning to the heroes of American history, DeSantis told the audience it was called upon to preserve what George Washington famously called “the sacred fire of liberty.”
“This is a fire that burned right down the street here in 1776 when 56 men pledged their lives, their fortune, and their sacred honor to establish a new nation conceived in liberty,” DeSantis declared. “It’s a fire that burned at a cemetery not that far from here in this state when the first Republican president pledged this nation to a new birth of freedom. It’s a fire that burned in the hearts and the bosoms of people who stormed the beaches of Normandy, defeated the Nazis, and preserved freedom throughout the world. It’s a fire that burned at the foot of the Berlin Wall when a resolute president said, ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.’”
It is the responsibility of conservatives to carry the torch, DeSantis said.
“We’re required to stand firm for the truth,” he told the crowd. “We’re required to be resolute in defense of our enduring American principles. And above all, we’re required to show courage in the face of enemy fire.”
DeSantis, who has frequently sparred with the liberal media during his time as governor and is now increasingly a target of the Left as he seeks the Republican presidential nomination, said fighting for conservative values means there will be “arrows that we’re going to have to take.” But the stakes were even higher when the Revolutionary War began, and modern-day patriots can take inspiration from what the framers did, he said.
“The people that pledged their lives, their fortune, their sacred honor in 1776 knew that if they didn’t win, their heads would have been chopped off,” DeSantis said. “The people that fought for us in World War II knew if they didn’t win that struggle, the whole world would have descended into tyranny. And they were willing to not only risk their lives, many of them gave their lives.”
“We’re not called upon to make sacrifices that grand; we’re merely called upon to stand strong against the Left and bring this 2024 election to a positive conclusion, but more importantly, be able to actually implement the agenda that we know this country needs.”
“I will get that done.”