| In American politics, ideology is often a smoke screen for individual ambition.  Photograph by Paul Hennessy / Sipa / AP In an illuminating reported piece, Benjamin Wallace-Wells attempts to answer a fundamental question surrounding Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has emerged as one of the Republican Party’s most ardent culture warriors. Has DeSantis risen to national prominence because he’s championed hot-button right-wing legislation curtailing the teaching of race and gender in classrooms? Or is he simply leveraging his existing popularity, combined with voter dissatisfaction with Democrats, to pursue a personal ideology that lacks broad support? The answer matters, not just in understanding DeSantis’s personal motivations (he’s been touted as either a foil or heir to Donald Trump) but in making sense of the current political era, in which, Wallace-Wells writes, “the politics of social conservatism are surging, without a discernible cultural movement toward traditionalism.” And it matters in the months to come, as “the same pattern within social conservatism that has shaped fights about educational control—namely, a willingness to push ahead with deliberately confrontational legislation, even if poll numbers oppose it—is likely to reappear in the post-Roe battles over abortion.” —Ian Crouch, newsletter editor Support The New Yorker’s coverage of America’s culture wars. Subscribe today » | 
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